Considering the San Francisco 49ers went 4-12 a year ago, one should assume no one’s job should truly be safe entering 2019.
There are plenty of exceptions, of course, and one could go through the entire 90-man roster and easily point out a vast majority of would-be starters who are essentially shoo-ins to retain their positions once training camp and the preseason conclude.
Yet there are others, however, who could easily lose out on would-be starting jobs.
There were a few such cases last year. Case in point, veteran linebacker Malcolm Smith — one of the Niners’ big free-agent pickups from 2017 — was relegated to backup duties late in 2018.