Ten 49ers To Watch Against Tennessee, Starting With The Left Guard On The Depth Chart
Tennessee at San Francisco, Thursday, 6 p.m. PT at Levi's Stadium. Kyle Shanahan said Tuesday there will not be many starters playing, which leaves the preseason opener to an eight-man draft class, an open left guard job the club just put a name on, and a punter competition that only a game can settle.
Tennessee plays San Francisco on Thursday at 6 p.m. PT at Levi's Stadium. The club's own broadcast listing has it on KPIX CBS 5 in the Bay Area, on KNBR (680 AM / 104.5 FM) and 107.7 The Bone on radio, streaming free inside the market on 49ers.com and the 49ers app, and on NFL+ outside it.
Most of the players you would tune in for are not going to play. Kyle Shanahan, asked Tuesday after the joint practice with the Titans whether the staff had settled on who dresses: "We have, but we haven't told any of the players yet. There won't be many starters playing. We'll see, with injuries today and stuff, and that doesn't mean none. But we've got to balance that out." The joint session was the starters' work. Thursday is everybody else's.
That is the ordinary preseason bargain, and it is why the roster math is the whole story. San Francisco drafted eight men in April and carries 90 through August 30. Here are ten worth the three hours.
1. Robert Jones, left guard. The club released its first unofficial depth chart of 2026 on Tuesday morning and listed Jones as the starter, per David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone, who notes Jones has taken the vast majority of the first-team reps in camp. The caveat is the club's own: the communications staff compiles that document and the coaching staff does not typically review it. Jones has worked at first-team left guard in every published session since August 5.
2. Carver Willis, left guard. A fourth-round rookie, 127th overall out of Washington, out of the concussion protocol on August 10 and straight into second-team left guard. Grant Cohn had him there again at Tuesday's joint practice for Sports Illustrated.
3. Connor Colby, right guard. Colby opened camp taking all the first-team left guard reps and has been the second-team right guard since the first week. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, on Monday the 10th, called the job "definitely still an open competition" and said both he and Jones will play in the preseason "a lot." A club that means that has one cheap way to show it, and Thursday is the cheapest.
4. De'Zhaun Stribling, receiver. The 33rd pick, first of the second round, out of Ole Miss, and the loudest man on the field Tuesday. Webzone credited him with seven catches in team drills. The club's own recap counts it differently and has Brock Purdy finding Stribling, Demarcus Robinson and Deebo Samuel Sr. five times apiece, which is a Purdy-only count rather than a session total. He is listed behind Robinson and Samuel on the depth chart, and the reason a rookie is that high is subtraction. Ricky Pearsall has been on season-ending injured reserve since August 1, when John Lynch announced that the PCL he carried out of last season needed surgery. The projected recovery is six to twelve months. Christian Kirk signed in March, strained a calf in the first practice of camp and has not worked a session since. Mike Evans, the other veteran the club spent its offseason on, put a uniform on Tuesday and did individual drills only. The room San Francisco rebuilt around two signings and a second-round pick is down to the pick, and Thursday is the first game of any kind Stribling has played as a professional.
5. Romello Height, edge. Third round, 70th overall, Texas Tech. The unofficial chart lists him as Nick Bosa's backup, and Bosa has not practised since August 5, when he first landed on the injury report with what Shanahan called soreness and tendinitis. The reps are there to be taken.
6. Enrique Cruz Jr., offensive line. Fifth round, 179th, Kansas, and he has been taking swing tackle reps with Vederian Lowe out on a high-ankle sprain.
7. Ephesians Prysock, cornerback. Fourth round, 139th, Washington. Corner depth behind the top four is genuinely open and the fifth and sixth spots get decided on tape like this.
8. Gracen Halton, defensive tackle. Fourth round, 107th, Oklahoma, back from a knee bone bruise.
9. Mac Jones, quarterback. With Purdy's night likely to be short or nonexistent, the offense belongs to Jones for most of it. He threw two interceptions on Tuesday.
10. Jack Bouwmeester, punter. An undrafted Australian rookie against incumbent Corliss Waitman, and a punter competition is one of the few jobs on a roster that a preseason game genuinely decides, because there is no other way to see it.
Three more with something to gain. Jaden Dugger, the fourth-round linebacker from Louisiana, has been taking SAM reps. Second-year safety Marques Sigle has been working while Malik Mustapha nurses a hamstring strain. Cornerback Jakob Robinson intercepted a pass at Tuesday's joint practice and is not currently projected to make the 53, which is the situation a preseason game exists to change.
The injuries, as roster facts. Not practising Tuesday, per the club's own Day 11 recap and Bonilla's compilation the same afternoon: Christian McCaffrey (tightness, a second straight absence), Nick Bosa (soreness, tendinitis), Christian Kirk (calf strain), Jordan James (rib fracture), Kaelon Black (adductor), Malik Mustapha (hamstring strain), Keion White (adductor), Vederian Lowe (high-ankle sprain), Kyle Juszczyk (finger fracture), Luke Gifford (hamstring), Jacob Cowing (hip flexor) and Brett Toth (concussion, disclosed August 8). Mike Evans dressed and did individual drills only. Mykel Williams was not suited up.
Shanahan was not alarmed about either of the two that matter most. On Bosa: "Just soreness, tendinitis. It's a pretty normal thing with ACLs." On McCaffrey, asked whether the tightness lingering concerned him: "No. My concern would be him toughing through tightness, like a lot of people do, and then hurting something bad, and then pulling something, which then, it could be a month." The stated month is what the club is avoiding rather than a prognosis.
The other sideline is familiar. Robert Saleh coaches his first game against San Francisco as Tennessee's head coach, hired in January. He was the 49ers' defensive coordinator from 2017 through 2020, ran the Jets from 2021 to 2024, and came back to that same San Francisco job in 2025. He spent last season teaching the defense he will spend Thursday night trying to beat. Tuesday's joint practice produced at least eight fights by Matt Lively's count at CBS Sports Bay Area, three of them inside the first six plays from scrimmage.
On the ledger. The open call on Thursday has Robert Jones, not Connor Colby, taking the first offensive snap at left guard, scored off the game book. A second call, that San Francisco would sign one of Doug Kramer, Joe Michalski or Lecitus Smith to the 90-man roster by August 12, resolved early: the club signed Kramer to a one-year deal on August 10 and released Nick Zakelj in the same announcement.
San Francisco waived punter Jack Bouwmeester at 1:21 p.m., about four hours after this published. The punter competition named in the deck and at number ten on this list is over without a game having been played, and Corliss Waitman is the only punter on the roster for Thursday night.
CP
Sources: 49ers.com (2026 schedule, broadcast listing, Day 11 training camp recap, 2026 draft class breakdown), David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone (depth chart release and joint practice report, both August 11, the latter carrying Matt Lively's fight count from CBS Sports Bay Area; injury updates, August 11), Grant Cohn at Sports Illustrated (August 11), Kyle Posey at Niners Nation (August 10), NBC Sports Bay Area (August 11), The San Francisco Standard (August 11), and the Tennessee Titans' own game preview (August 9). Ricky Pearsall's placement on season-ending injured reserve, John Lynch's August 1 announcement of the PCL surgery and the projected six-to-twelve-month recovery are from NFL.com, August 1, 2026. Nobody from this site was at the practice.
