Kawakami: 49ers’ 2026 training camp will be all about who’s next (if anybody) 59%
By Tim Kawakami34%
7/24/2026, 1:00:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Anchoring Bias, and Representativeness Heuristic, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 17.4% saturation with 240 hits. Analysis detected 1,763 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,383 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 55% and a BS Rank of 59% (9,171 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 58.10% of the article peer group.
The biggest names are all still there.
They’re all still quite meaningful.
Most of them probably are destined to pose for a bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
And yes, they’re all one year older than they were when they reported to the 49ers’ last training camp.
With all the inevitable surgical scars and tendon strains along the way.
So, while the 49ers’ 2026 season will be mostly determined by Christian McCaffrey, Fred Warner, Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Nick Bosa, Trent Williams, and other long-time stalwarts, this upcoming camp will mainly be about figuring out who else, if anybody, the 49ers have to carry the load.
Who else can remain healthy enough and raise their level enough to give the 49ers a realistic shot at toppling the defending-champion Seahawks and edging ahead of the Rams?
Who else are plausible candidates, along with Purdy, not only to push the 49ers forward in 2026 but also help keep this going when some of the top guys wear down?
The 49ers will be looking for a bunch of somebody elses to emerge in this camp, and there will be plenty of opportunity for it, I’m quite sure.
Kittle, Bosa, and Warner are coming off of major injuries and will be aimed for top speed in the regular season, not camp; Williams and McCaffrey are two of the best players in the league and only need to make cameo appearances in these sessions; free-agent addition Mike Evans is a proven commodity and I think Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch wouldn’t mind if he saves most of his touchdowns for Week 1 in Melbourne, Australia, and beyond.
Young players will get plenty of reps.
Young players will be given every chance to be some of the stars of this camp.
The 49ers want to see this happen.
Yes, this is going to be a Camp of Opportunity.
But there’s a flip side: It could also be a Camp of Lost Opportunity for several young players.
Some of the layers to this heading into Sunday’s first practice…
The prime-year guys who should really look like it this summer
Purdy is at the top of this list, but that’s built into his position and his career path, now at 26 years old, entering his fourth full season as a starter.
Who else?
Other than Bosa and Warner, the most important player on defense this season might be 27-year-old Osa Odighizuwa, acquired in an offseason trade and presumed to be the 49ers’ most dynamic defensive tackle since Arik Armstead or DeForest Buckner.
I don’t think Odighizuwa necessarily needs to show everything he’s got in camp.
But if the 49ers’ defensive line takes over a handful of practices — most especially those joint sessions with the Titans and Chargers next month — and if Odighizuwa is in the middle of it, you might see a lot of very happy 49ers coaches and executives.
The 49ers must obliterate last year’s league-low total of 20 sacks.
To do that, they’ll need Bosa to stay healthy and new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris coming up with some exotic schemes.
And both of those things could get a multiplying effect if Odighizuwa is blowing up, too.
The only other prime-career 49er I can think of is 26-year-old Deommodore Lenoir, who has been fine at cornerback but not really anywhere near Pro Bowl level.
Folks, this list is too short.
And the 49ers know it.
Spotlight on the second- or third-year guys who clearly are being counted on
I’ll put Ricky Pearsall, Mykel Williams, Upton Stout, Alfred Collins, Jordan James, Renardo Green, Dominck Puni, Jacob Cowing, Jordan Watkins, and Nick Martin on this list.
Of course, Stout, Collins, and Puni all earned pretty major roles last season, and Williams and Pearsall were well on their way to trusted status before injuries limited them.
The 49ers absolutely need these guys this season — any backtracking in this camp would obviously be a major problem and any great leaps would be enormously helpful.
But there need to be more players rising up.
I think the 49ers want James to be McCaffrey’s backup, or at least to do a good job of competing with third-round pick Kaelon Black for that spot.
We know that Green is talented enough to be a starting cornerback, but we also know that Shanahan pulled him for a few series in the divisional-round blowout loss.
Also: Can they stay healthy?
Martin suffered a concussion in camp last year and never got healthy after that.
Cowing, now going into Year 3, had a lost 2025 season, too.
And Pearsall was drafted to be a high-usage starter, has sporadically looked just the part, but has been hurt too often to prove he can do it over any long haul.
I’ll throw in 2024 seventh-round pick Kurtis Rourke, who was hurt last camp but is being eyed for the backup job once Mac Jones is gone in 2027 — if he looks good this summer.
I don’t think this is absolutely a make-or-break camp for all of these guys.
But it would be ideal for the 49ers brass to see Pearsall, Collins, and several others blast through these practices and preseason games and reinforce the idea that the 49ers have a next generation of stalwarts emerging.
The rookie class is mostly TBD
It’s rare enough for 49ers rookies to get through a full camp without looking lost or falling way down the depth chart due to injury that we can count the guys who’ve done it over the past few years on two hands.
Last year: Mykel Williams, Collins, West, and Stout.
2024: Green, Puni, and Malik Mustapha.
2023: Ji’Ayir Brown, Jake Moody, Darrell Luter, and Dee Winters.
That’s not enough to make up for natural NFL attrition, because I’m pretty sure the 49ers won’t be getting any future Pro Bowlers out of that 2023 survivor list.
Or 2024, to be honest.
Can the 49ers get four or five guys from their 2026 draft class into the main rotation right away?
I’m not so sure about that, but there are a few potential candidates.
And a note: Shanahan will not be saving playing time for rookies who get hurt and miss chunks of camp.
If you see any of these rookies miss significant time this summer — and check those injury lists after the joint practices, which are always pretty intense — you probably won’t be seeing them early in the regular season.
Or maybe at all in 2026.
This year, Romello Height has the best shot at immediate playing time because the 49ers are desperate for pass-rushing talent, he’s already 25 so they won’t be slow-playing his career, and he might actually be pretty good, too.
After that, I won’t be the only one curious to see how Black, De’Zhaun Stribling, Jaden Dugger, and Ephesians Prysock hold up day after day.
I think there’s potential playing time for each one of them, and frankly, the 49ers should be disappointed if none of them is ready to play by Week 1.
Will a few of the grizzled veterans surprise us by practicing more than expected and looking incredible when they do?
Evans just seems like a guy in the McCaffrey mode — doesn’t need to practice much but won’t want to rest more than a handful of times through an entire camp.
But I’m focused on Dre Greenlaw, back with the 49ers after an injury-limited season in Denver (and also his Achilles tear suffered with the 49ers, of course).
Greenlaw doesn’t need to practice every day.
The 49ers know what he can do, especially lined up next to Warner.
But that’s also the point, I think — Greenlaw hasn’t done it in a while and will be dying to fly around out there.
If he gets dinged up early and starts missing time, that would not be a great sign for the rest of 2026.
And Greenlaw will want to show everybody that this isn’t going to happen.
Which might prompt Warner to get out there as often as possible, too.
And if they’re healthy and great together in the summer, we all know what that could lead to in the fall and winter.
Speakers
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