The 49ers won’t have one of their best young players to start the season.

Second-year safety Malike Mustapha tore his ACL for the second time during the 49ers’ regular-season finale and most likely won’t be ready to play for the first few weeks of the upcoming season. When he returns, he will be the 49ers’ best safety by a wide margin. But while he’s out, who will start at safety for the 49ers?

One of the starters most likely will be Ji’Ayir Brown, who played well as a rookie in 2023 — he even intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl. In 2024, he was simply awful. He even got benched for Talanoa Hufanga, who signed with the Broncos this offseason. Brown will need to bounce back big time to keep this starting job.

Next to Brown, the 49ers don’t have a clear-cut starter. In free agency, they signed Jason Pinnock and Richie Grant to one-year deals. Grant started 32 games for the Atlanta Falcons in 2022 and 2023 before losing his starting job in 2024, while Pinnock started 32 games the past two seasons for the New York Giants.

Both players aren’t particularly good, but neither is Brown. And it’s possible that defensive coordinator Robert Saleh actually prefers Grant and Pinnock to Brown considering Saleh had a hand in signing those two veterans and was not on the staff when the 49ers drafted Brown in 2023. Steve Wilks was the defensive coordinator that season, and now he’s with the Jets.

Whoever the 49ers decide to start at safety, this is one of the weakest positions on the team until Mustapha returns.