49ers have strong candidates to replace leadership of Joe Staley, DeForest Buckner

Former San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Joe Staley, now retired, spoke with former NFL running back Michael Robinson during the latest NFL Total Access: The Locker Room podcast. Of course, the topic of the quarterback situation came up. Last week, the Niners traded up to the No. 3 spot in this year's draft. It is a given that the team is targeting its quarterback of the future. Of course, that signals the eventual departure of a locker-room favorite—Jimmy Garoppolo. If the 49ers are to be believed, the transition won't happen this year, though. The plan is to keep Garoppolo for the upcoming season, allowing the rookie—whoever he may be—to sit and learn for a year. The team freed up enough salary-cap space to afford the luxury of holding onto

Injuries limited San Francisco 49ers running back Raheem Mostert to eight games last season. Of course, injuries devastated the entire roster, resulting in a disappointing six-win campaign. Some better luck on the injury front could result in a quick turnaround for Mostert and his Niners. That's what recently re-signed fullback Kyle Juszczyk expects. In fact, the 49ers' offensive weapon expects big things in 2021 for his running back teammate. Much of that has to do with play-caller Kyle Shanahan and how the head coach takes advantage of each player's strengths. Juszczyk used wide receiver Deebo Samuel as an example. In each game, Shanahan installs two or three plays that can take advantage of the young wideout's physicality. "He knows that he just needs to get

Ben Linsey of Pro Football Focus went through all 32 NFL teams and tried to look one or two years in the future to project areas of need for each. Maybe a certain position group is considered among the team's strengths now, but will that be the case down the road? He then tried to find a good draft prospect—at a good value—to fill that potential need. "The respective prospect pairings for those teams all stand out as good value for where they would be selected," wrote Linsey, "and their selection would serve as a preventative measure to maintain strength at that position for years to come." For the San Francisco 49ers, it was the running

Everyone seems to have an opinion on who the San Francisco 49ers will select with the No. 3 overall pick. Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson are widely expected to go at the No. 1 and 2 spots, leaving head coach Kyle Shanahan with his pick of Justin Fields, Trey Lance, or Mac Jones. The first two are considered the better prospects. Of course, there is a lot of chatter surrounding Jones. At least, there was before what some consider to be a less-than-stellar second pro day. inside the mind of Kyle Shanahan pic.twitter.com/Vq10jeqIcx— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris)