Is newer always better? These 4 Niners hope not.

The NFL Draft and the ensuing rookie minicamps are times of great renewal for teams. There’s an excitement in the air as players find roles, show their skills, and begin the process of proving their team right or wrong for selecting them.

While a great rookie camp doesn’t guarantee Hall of Fame status, of course, a bad one (see: AJ Jenkins) can start the alarm bells ringing before the rookies even join up with the rest of the squad for late-summer offseason workouts.

However, what it also does is put certain veterans on the roster bubble. And the San Francisco 49ers’ recent draft moves certainly portend to potential doom for some veterans.

Here are some Niners roster-bubble players who probably shouldn’t extend their rental in the Bay Area past August.

RB Isaac Guerendo

I won’t lie, I’m a little sad to write this one. Guerendo is one of the first draft picks I ever covered on Niner Noise, and I actually love his athletic ability and potential.

Unfortunately, two years in, potential is all we have to show for the 2024 fourth-round pick. There were some flashes in his rookie season, including a game-winning run against the Seahawks. But in truth, Guerendo seems to have struggled to grasp his fit in the 49ers’ zone-running style. It’s a pity, as he’s a real home-run hitter as a runner due to his speed, but Guerendo can’t seem to work out how to hit open holes at the point of attack consistently.

Perhaps if he had become a crack special teams ace, that might be covered, but he’s been poor in coverage and a liability as a returner, too.

He would’ve likely been on the roster bubble even if the Niners hadn’t controversially selected Kaelon Black in the third round of the draft; Jordan James seems to have the coach’s ear, while Patrick Taylor also holds an eternal chance of a roster spot because of his special teams work. However, Black’s selection condemns Guerento entirely, with the 49ers likely to keep four running backs, and McCaffrey, James, and Black seem to have the top three sewn up.

It’s a pity, but it looks like his race is run in San Francisco unless he can carve out a fourth spot or somehow muscle out Jordan James for the third one.

CB Darrell Luter Jr.

From one extreme to the other, because my feelings on this one are very different. For me, you can file this one under “god willing.”

I know I write some harsh words on Darrell Luter, and it’s occasionally a bit out of pocket. Luter is an OK-to-mediocre NFL player. He shows up fine on special teams (unless it’s the Super Bowl) and is largely inoffensive in his limited action. He rarely sees the field on defense, after all.

However, there’s a reason for that, and it got brutally exposed in the playoffs versus the Seattle Seahawks, and at any other time he’s had to deputise at cornerback for injured players. He simply isn’t a very good NFL cornerback. He struggles to cover in man, and frequently gets lost in zone. When he comes into the game, he may as well have a bullseye on his jersey, such is the frequency of his targeting by opposing teams.

After three years, you’d expect some improvement. But honestly, Luter is just who he is. There’s a small nucleus of players on the roster who seem to have that tag, and yet they return year after year.

This year, though, that might be changing.

The Niners made some steps in the direction of Luter’s departure by adding Nate Hobbs and Jack Jones — actual, proven, NFL cornerback depth — in free agency. But I suspect the fourth-round choice of Washington corner Ephesians Prysock will be the true death knell for Luter’s time on the 49ers.

The truth is, unless you develop as a mid late-round pick, you’re always in danger of the next one coming along to take your place.

One way or another, Luter’s number looks to be up this year.

WR Jacob Cowing

Back to the seemingly-doomed 2024 draft class now, and another sad one, as I’ve always found Jacob Cowing’s blend of speed and shiftiness intriguing.

However, the brutal truth is, whether it’s because of Kyle Shanahan’s usual young-receiver doghouse or injury, the former Arizona prospect simply hasn’t played enough. He made four catches in 15 games in 2024, and missed the entirety of last year with a hamstring injury that never quite seemed to clear up.

There went his last chance. In a year where the Niners had constant flux and injury, Cowing had a chance to put down something of a marker going into 2026 but couldn’t even get on the field.

Worse yet, Cowing has then seen the team put investment in the position throughout this offseason: signing Mike Evans as a clear starter from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, signing veteran slot receiver Christian Kirk, and then drafting De’Zhaun Stribling with its opening pick in the draft.

That’s three receivers guaranteed to be ahead of Cowing before you even add the likes of 2024 first-rounder Ricky Pearsall to the mix.

Cowing has a shot. His likely spot is to win a battle against Jordan Watkins, Demarcus Robinson, and the assorted other odds-and-ends at the bottom of the wide receiver room to claim one of the five or six spots available. But he’ll have to stay healthy and produce in the preseason for that.

His best bet is likely to be pushing the veteran Robinson off the roster, who had little chemistry with Brock Purdy last season, save for the big play in the epic playoff win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

LB Nick Martin

I’m going to stick my neck out a little bit on this one. On the face of it, it’s unfathomable the 49ers would cut a man whom they drafted 75th overall just a year ago. Unfortunately for Nick Martin, though, the sands have shifted an awful lot since then.

First, the player Martin was ostensibly drafted to replace, Dre Greenlaw, is back. That comes on the heels of Martin not being able to nail down the position last year, either, losing a competition for the starting job to now-traded Dee Winters. In fact, Martin had a pretty horrendous rookie year all around; he looked overawed by the level of competition, and in fact appeared in only seven games, largely on special teams.

There’s also the matter of what ended his season, a lingering concussion which as yet, he doesn’t appear to have been cleared from. While that’s no indictment on his ability or otherwise, it is a concern going into the offseason.

Not just any offseason, either, but one where the linebacker spot is probably going to be one of the hardest contested. Outside of the locked-in two spots of Fred Warner and the aforementioned Greenlaw, there’s a bun-fight ahead with Tatum Bethune, Luke Gifford, Garret Wallow, Jalen Graham, fifth-rounder Jaden Dugger and Martin all fighting it out for three or four spots.

And therein lies the problem with Martin. Can you put him in front of Tatum Bethune (chief MIKE backup and has proven himself on the field) or Luke Gifford (special teams ace), for example? Assuming you can’t, it then becomes a fight between him, Dugger (who may end up playing various spots as a rookie), Graham (who seems to retain the favour of the coaching staff), and Wallow (who might be one of the more underrated ones in the battle, given his late-season form).