Which Remaining 3 WRs Will Make The 53-man Roster ?

Originally posted by NCommand:
According to MB on his best guess so far...

Anquan Boldin. The other two locks, according to me, are Kyle Williams and Quinton Patton. No, Patton hasn't gotten to show off his skills because of a broken forefinger (Damn you, Kaepernick fastball!), but as Jim Harbaugh says, the arrow is up for this eager, hard-working youngster. Williams, meanwhile, is smart, savvy and badly wants to be on the field. He's also the only player on the team with any real experience at punt returner. The 49ers want LaMichael James to win that job, but it's smart to have a capable backup.

Ok, that's three players. The 49ers likely will go into the season with five or six receivers on the roster...

Both Marlon Moore and Kassim Osgood have been consistently good on offense and both have true added value as coverage guys on special teams.

After that comes Austin Collie.

A.J. Jenkins. Have you read anything about him lately? His potential is undeniable. He's very quick, very fluid. He gets up to top speed quickly, etc., etc. But he simply hasn't been one of the six best receivers in training camp. If the 49ers keep him, they will say it's because they believe Jenkins has a bright future. But that will be a tough sell to the five or six others who are cut and to the remaining players in the locker room, who will privately conclude that Jenkins' first-round status bought him another year on the roster. One more note about Jenkins: He gives the team almost no value on special teams.

A practice-squad spot could go to Ricardo Lockette.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archives/2013/08/from-11-to-six-where-things-stand-at-wide-receiver.html#storylink=cpy

So to him, thus far:

Anquan Boldin - the man and monster RZ threat
Kyle Williams - most veteran to OUR offense and can play all 3 WR spots
Quinton Patton - top pick with great upside
Marlon Moore - veteran and excellent gunner; top-end speed
Kassim Osgood - veteran and excellent gunner, great size for the RZ
Austin Collie - veteran productive slot WR (injury concerns)

Bubble:
A.J. Jenkins - Do we keep 7 after 6 last year? no ST value at all but 1st round pick
Ricardo Lockette - excellent tangibles and PS eligible

I don't think Lockette is eligible to be on the practice squad. He's been on the practice squad with the 49ers for a seasons and with the Seahawks for 2 seasons I believe. 3 seasons is the max. Additionally he's 27 years old already, don't see him becoming an impact player all of the sudden on the doorstep of being 30.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

I don't think Lockette is eligible to be on the practice squad. He's been on the practice squad with the 49ers for a seasons and with the Seahawks for 2 seasons I believe. 3 seasons is the max. Additionally he's 27 years old already, don't see him becoming an impact player all of the sudden on the doorstep of being 30.

I forgot which one but either maicco or barrows said Hall has no eligibility and Lockette has one year left.

Not sure how much age should matter but a close choice would favor the younger guy. As the article points out--Moore would likely be kept over Osgood due to youth since both are STs standouts. But other than Osgood and Boldin this group is a very young WR corps! Some team or teams will get very good players after cut-down day.

Taking in age and injury history, I would think Moore, Lockette and Hall have two spots between them. When Crabtree and Manningham come back two guys will be displaced. My guess is that they will be eligible for the PS. So Lockette and ?

Osgood 33--doubt it
Boldin 32--lock
Collie 27--probably
Hall 27--don't see it, practice player
Hawkins 27--would have to do something extraordinary
Lockette 27--placed on PS when Manningham returns
Williams 25--probably
Moore 25--placed on PS when Crabtree returns
Jacobs 23--PS until bumped
Patton 23--Lock
Jenkins 23--probably

Injured
Crabtree 25
Manningham 27


They keep seven not counting Crabtree and Manningham.

I don't think a team that essentially never uses 4 WR on the field at one time has any reason to keep 7 on the 53. 6 is the maximum and even then I think 1 of them has to come from Seely's 5 spots Harbaugh told him he gets. Additional WRs means will result in loss of talent at LB, S, or DL and the depth there is better and more needed for the future.

BTW, the 49ers lined up 5 wide against the Broncos ... Boldin, Davis, McDonald, Miller, and James ... 1 WR.

Originally posted by Scoots:
I don't think a team that essentially never uses 4 WR on the field at one time has any reason to keep 7 on the 53. 6 is the maximum and even then I think 1 of them has to come from Seely's 5 spots Harbaugh told him he gets. Additional WRs means will result in loss of talent at LB, S, or DL and the depth there is better and more needed for the future.

BTW, the 49ers lined up 5 wide against the Broncos ... Boldin, Davis, McDonald, Miller, and James ... 1 WR.

Yeah, the whole 6 or 7 keepers is only temporary until Manningham comes back after the first 6 games anyhow. So whoever that 6 ot 7 is, it may not matter anyhow...moot point. And thanks for clarifying the 5-WR set more carefully. The Boldin and VD + McDonald is going to be the primary receiving formation with both Hunter + Gore in the backfield with CK from the Q-formation. We'll see some "deep" packages, some underneath stuff, some decoy-college-offense stuff but the aforementioned will be the primary, no doubt.

Originally posted by Scoots:
I don't think a team that essentially never uses 4 WR on the field at one time has any reason to keep 7 on the 53. 6 is the maximum and even then I think 1 of them has to come from Seely's 5 spots Harbaugh told him he gets. Additional WRs means will result in loss of talent at LB, S, or DL and the depth there is better and more needed for the future.

BTW, the 49ers lined up 5 wide against the Broncos ... Boldin, Davis, McDonald, Miller, and James ... 1 WR.

I think we will see more passing from the 49ers this year. past isnt indicative of the future

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
NC, my man, you are way ahead of me at WR, all 3 positions. What you say makes a lot of sense, but here is where I get screwed up. I keep thinking of Mario and Kyle as back here already, in which case 3 of the guys I listed will be cut or get some mysterious injury. I guess, what needs to be done is assume Kyle and hunter and Mario aren't on the board and make your choices at WR that way . Then as they start to come back(and I think kyle may already be back), you start deleting the guys you had chosen. So you make a WR board for today, and then adjust as our injury guys filter back in. All that said, where exactly does collie fit in? If it weren't for the damn concussions he would be one of my starters...but you can't ignore the obvious....one good hard blow to the helmet and ....well, you know the rest.
Incidentally, I know Hunter isn't a WR, but he is one helluva ball catcher and I kind of think of him as part WR, altho he is our 2nd best RB to FRank.

So I am fine with your moore/lockette at x
kyle /patton at y
boldin/Osgood at z
As mentioned, my picks were not at individual positions but on quality of receiver...which is really close anyway. So this is like deciding how many angels on the head of a pin. I do like your reasoning at the burner position, and Lockette has got to be one of the fastest guys I have seen in camp. Still guys like chad hall(challenged by height, but so is wes welker), are glue fingers guys. For me, Command, every guy we cut is going to be a starter elsewhere, and I probably include AJ in that group. As for your question how many WRs, we could cut down on a 5 wide by using LMJ and/or Vernon. Our problem? too much talent at WR. When in the world would you have thought that anytime in the last two yrs ? For me , never.

So dragging disses out of the bag, Collie who has great hands and 3 yrs experience, is injury prone. I don't see CBs, SS getting smaller and leaner. Nor LBs.
Hall, while catching well, is tiny in a big man's game. At slot would seem his only fit...and playing multiple positions is a big plus...but not for him.

Other than that, man, I have no idea, but I could easily go along with your suggestion for the thoughtful reasons given. When we need 5 wide we can always use Vernon and LMJ. So the question, a coaching question is, how many WRs do we need and at each x,y,z? Personally, based on our horrocious injury bug at WR , I believe Coach will keep more WRs than needed, as insurance that we never dreamt of last two yrs.( and no, I have no idea who)

Worst part, as I have noted above, is I don't want to see any of the above go, in that they will start elsewhere, and I include AJ in that group. What an amazing amount of talent trent and JH have accumulated, so that we don't know who will go and who will stay. Fanfriggingtastic.

For now I like your idea but we are so fluid, anything could happen and in the end someone will be p.o.ed that his guy got let go, and someone else happy his guy was kept.

One thing I read elsewhere ,and that was that Patton couldn't play this yr and has to be on PS? If so what the heck is that about and is there any truth to it.?

Yeah, that's my best guess but one thing we know for sure is that HarBaalke always have a few "What?"- moves when the final, official 53 is released. So that's my best guess...for now. Hopefully things become much more clear in the next several weeks!

PS: Williams is back...as is Hunter. I don't expect Manningham back until after the 6th game d/t PUP rules. He should be plenty healed by then. You can see my comment above about what I think will be our primary formation though.

Oh and no way Patton isn't added to the 53. No way we risk losing him to the PS!

Originally posted by xtm059:
I think we will see more passing from the 49ers this year. past isnt indicative of the future

I think we will too but I think it will be more focused on chain-moving and controlling the clock. We saw what happened when we scored quick and often. It left our defense on the field for 90 plays and caught up to us in the playoffs. Somewhere between the Alex and CK-offense is most ideal IMHO.

As of now, Marlon Moore has a step ahead of Lockettr, Jenkins and Collie

Boldin, Manningham, Williams, Patton, Collie, Jenkins (not necessarily in order)

Boldin, Williams, Patton, Collie, Jenkins, Moore or Lockette (Manningham to PUP) (again, not necessarily in order)

Either way going to be tough cutting all but 1 or 2 of the following as all are capable of a roster spot: Moore, Lockette, Collie, Hall, Osgood
Also, don't count out whoever gets cut because if an injury occurs during the season they could be back. We like to have tryout so say Hall, Osgood, Lockette get cut if they are out there and one of our WR's gets hurt we will likely add 1 of those players or call all 3 in (with maybe 1 or 2 others) to have a tryout to see who makes the team.

And side note: That's the problem a lot of these guys we would love to keep on the PS but I think Lockette, Moore, Hall, Osgood and Collie are all ineligible (some obviously are). Only one that is eligible is Chuck Jacobs who I think makes it and has a shot next year.

Originally posted by cools:
Boldin will be the starting Z/flanker, and move into the slot in 3 reciever formations

Williams will win the job as the X/splitend (I expect Vern will get some time here also)

Jenkins will rotate in as first off the bench

Moore will be the #4, maybe even the #3, active on game days as a ST gunner

Lockette will make the 53, but could lose his spot when Manningham comes back

Patton makes the 53, but is basicly red shirted, In-active on game days unless someone gets dinged up


* Ive been on the Jenkins Jalopy since we drafted him, but may be jumping off soon

I expect Manningham to be ready to go at the start of the season and be the clear number two. Do you have some information that leads you to belive that he won't be ready?

This is what I think.

X-Manningham
Z-Boldin
3rd-Kyle Williams
4th-Quinten Patton
5th-AJ Jenkins
6th-Austin Collie

This has got to be the 6.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
NC, my man, you are way ahead of me at WR, all 3 positions. What you say makes a lot of sense, but here is where I get screwed up. I keep thinking of Mario and Kyle as back here already, in which case 3 of the guys I listed will be cut or get some mysterious injury. I guess, what needs to be done is assume Kyle and hunter and Mario aren't on the board and make your choices at WR that way . Then as they start to come back(and I think kyle may already be back), you start deleting the guys you had chosen. So you make a WR board for today, and then adjust as our injury guys filter back in. All that said, where exactly does collie fit in? If it weren't for the damn concussions he would be one of my starters...but you can't ignore the obvious....one good hard blow to the helmet and ....well, you know the rest.
Incidentally, I know Hunter isn't a WR, but he is one helluva ball catcher and I kind of think of him as part WR, altho he is our 2nd best RB to FRank.

So I am fine with your moore/lockette at x
kyle /patton at y
boldin/Osgood at z
As mentioned, my picks were not at individual positions but on quality of receiver...which is really close anyway. So this is like deciding how many angels on the head of a pin. I do like your reasoning at the burner position, and Lockette has got to be one of the fastest guys I have seen in camp. Still guys like chad hall(challenged by height, but so is wes welker), are glue fingers guys. For me, Command, every guy we cut is going to be a starter elsewhere, and I probably include AJ in that group. As for your question how many WRs, we could cut down on a 5 wide by using LMJ and/or Vernon. Our problem? too much talent at WR. When in the world would you have thought that anytime in the last two yrs ? For me , never.

So dragging disses out of the bag, Collie who has great hands and 3 yrs experience, is injury prone. I don't see CBs, SS getting smaller and leaner. Nor LBs.
Hall, while catching well, is tiny in a big man's game. At slot would seem his only fit...and playing multiple positions is a big plus...but not for him.

Other than that, man, I have no idea, but I could easily go along with your suggestion for the thoughtful reasons given. When we need 5 wide we can always use Vernon and LMJ. So the question, a coaching question is, how many WRs do we need and at each x,y,z? Personally, based on our horrocious injury bug at WR , I believe Coach will keep more WRs than needed, as insurance that we never dreamt of last two yrs.( and no, I have no idea who)

Worst part, as I have noted above, is I don't want to see any of the above go, in that they will start elsewhere, and I include AJ in that group. What an amazing amount of talent trent and JH have accumulated, so that we don't know who will go and who will stay. Fanfriggingtastic.

For now I like your idea but we are so fluid, anything could happen and in the end someone will be p.o.ed that his guy got let go, and someone else happy his guy was kept.

One thing I read elsewhere ,and that was that Patton couldn't play this yr and has to be on PS? If so what the heck is that about and is there any truth to it.?

Yeah, that's my best guess but one thing we know for sure is that HarBaalke always have a few "What?"- moves when the final, official 53 is released. So that's my best guess...for now. Hopefully things become much more clear in the next several weeks!

PS: Williams is back...as is Hunter. I don't expect Manningham back until after the 6th game d/t PUP rules. He should be plenty healed by then. You can see my comment above about what I think will be our primary formation though.

Oh and no way Patton isn't added to the 53. No way we risk losing him to the PS!

First off Ncommand, you seem like you know what your talking about, but pasodoc9er, you are a have some strange ideas.

Hunter at wideout? That's just absurd for a lot of reasons. I'll just leave it at that.

I find it humorous how you talk about camp, like you're there or something. Just say you read about how fast he is. I'm sure I watched the same preseason game you saw, and Lockette didn't blow my socks off.

TOO MUCH TALENT AT WIDEOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy crap, did anyone read this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Wideout is our weakest spot on the team, hence all the mediocre signings. Yes, mediocre.....at BEST!

You (pasodoc9er) sure do type a lot even if 99% of it makes zero sense.

Originally posted by xtm059:
I think we will see more passing from the 49ers this year. past isnt indicative of the future

Yes, more passing. They have added more quick passes to RBs (Gore, Hunter, and James will all get a lot more catches than last year) and McDonald is more of a threat than Walker was in the passing game. They are not suddenly going to be using a bunch of run-and-gun formations.

In addition to that they are primarily a power running team with a still developing line that is the best run blocking line in the NFL, their FB was a pro-bowl alternate already and he's still getting better too. The backup RBs are getting better and have earned more carries, but they want Gore to still get 15-20 touches a game. Our QB doesn't pass every time the RBs don't get a run either.

I don't see anything that says this is a team to keep 7 WRs on the roster.

Originally posted by Scoots:
I don't think a team that essentially never uses 4 WR on the field at one time has any reason to keep 7 on the 53. 6 is the maximum and even then I think 1 of them has to come from Seely's 5 spots Harbaugh told him he gets. Additional WRs means will result in loss of talent at LB, S, or DL and the depth there is better and more needed for the future.

BTW, the 49ers lined up 5 wide against the Broncos ... Boldin, Davis, McDonald, Miller, and James ... 1 WR.

My guess is that due to injury, change in talent pool and need to be creative, the niners keep an extra WR and perhaps a combo FB/TE rather than three TEs and two FBs. But it is a really odd year. Dixon has looked completely remodeled, they have Miller who seems to be a lock, and then Gore, Hunter, James, Harper and Hampton--the latter two fighting for a spot that isn't there.

They have flexible talent at RB/FB and TE and can afford to add a seventh WR in case of injury. They had four healthy WRs at the end of last season...which is why they used TEs and RBs as WRs.

Harbaugh tends not to use rookies in the starting lineup and Jenkins is still a project, so they are left with Boldin and ? If they keep Williams, Collie, Patton and Jenkins with Boldin they are at risk of having two guys not ready to start and two guys with fairly significant recent injuries. So they would have to hope the sixth guy is really going to take up the slack until Manningham and/or Crabtree are ready. Just don't like those odds.

I think the depth chart to this point is a pretty accurate representation of how the coaches see the wrs.

That being said, my guess.....

Q
Williams
Hall
Moore
Jenkins
Patton

I think Collie can make a push because he was signed late but I think Lockette is in real trouble.