{"id":75178,"date":"2025-08-08T23:53:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T23:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=75178"},"modified":"2025-08-08T23:53:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T23:53:54","slug":"3-49ers-to-watch-in-the-first-preseason-game-against-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=75178","title":{"rendered":"3 49ers to Watch in the First Preseason Game Against Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Football is finally back tomorrow for the San Francisco 49ers. Well, kind of. It\u2019s the 49ers\u2019 first preseason game, so that will do for now.<\/p>\n

This is the first step towards closing in on the regular season. It\u2019s also the first time most people will get a chance to see how the 49ers\u2019 offseason additions will look.<\/p>\n

Keeping a close eye on every player is extremely difficult, which is why these are the three 49ers to watch against the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n

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Jul 23, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Upton Stout (20) runs a play during the first day of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images \/ D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019m not sure if there\u2019s another player on the 49ers who comes close to being \u201cmust watch\u201d against the Broncos as much as rookie Upton Stout. If you\u2019re on social media or follow any beat reporter, like Grant Cohn, who\u2019s at the practices, then you\u2019ve been seeing a ton of hype on Stout.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been killing it in every practice and just had a solid outing in joint practice with Denver. It\u2019s lining up for him to showcase what everyone who hasn\u2019t been in attendance for 49ers training camp has been missing. If he pans out, it\u2019s going to do a lot for the 49ers\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

Moving Deommodore Lenoir to the outside is a bold and risky move because he\u2019s so great inside, especially replacing Lenoir with a rookie. However, it appears Stout is tapping into the ideal nickel cornerback that Robert Saleh loves, which is a scrappy, run-fitting one, much like the former 49er K\u2019Waun Williams.<\/p>\n

Jordan Watkins<\/h2>\n
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Mississippi Rebels wide receiver Jordan Watkins (11) smiles as he scores a touchdown during the fourth quarter of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. Ole Miss defeated Duke 52-20. [Corey Perrine\/Florida Times-Union] \/ Corey Perrine\/Florida Times-Union \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Another rookie who\u2019s been having a solid training camp is wide receiver Jordan Watkins. With Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings, Jacob Cowing, and, at one point, Ricky Pearsall out, it\u2019s allowed Watkins to receive more opportunities. That\u2019s music to a rookie’s ear, especially for the 2025 49ers.<\/p>\n

There is no better year for a rookie to carve out a role than this one. Watkins has a chance to tie together a solid training camp by playing strongly against the Broncos in the first preseason game. It will go a long way for him if he can accomplish that.<\/p>\n

A bad performance won\u2019t kill him, but it would derail him somewhat. Kyle Shanahan is harsh on rookies, even in a year where they\u2019re open to them playing more. Playing below average in the preseason game after looking solid in practice will hurt him.<\/p>\n

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Dec 30, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dee Winters (53) during the game against the Detroit Lions at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images \/ Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The stock of linebacker Dee Winters has been rising over the past 10 days. It shows how much work he\u2019s put in to get to where he\u2019s at, and also it helps to motivate him by dangling the starting job in front of him to be alongside Fred Warner.<\/p>\n

With Winters\u2019 stock rising, it makes for an exciting player to closely watch against the Broncos. He\u2019s placed himself in a prime position to create significant distance between himself and Nick Martin for the starting job. However, similar to Watkins, a subpar performance will hurt him.<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t derail everything, but it will cause Saleh to wonder if the lights are too bright for him. Winters has to have at least an average game that keeps his stock from drastically plummeting. Otherwise, he\u2019s going to have to make up for it in the next practices and preseason games.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Football is finally back tomorrow for the San Francisco 49ers. Well, kind of. It\u2019s the 49ers\u2019 first preseason game, so that will do for now.\u00a0 This is the first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":75179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n3 49ers to Watch in the First Preseason Game Against Denver - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=75178\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 49ers to Watch in the First Preseason Game Against Denver - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Football is finally back tomorrow for the San Francisco 49ers. 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