The San Francisco 49ers have entered the final phase of their offseason programming, and the team is doing so with a revamped roster that is garnering praise from the league at large. Taking things into account such as talent, roster depth and fewest remaining question marks, NFL.com's Eric Edholm put together a short list of the 10 most complete teams heading into the 2023 season, and the 49ers made the cut. San Francisco is tabbed at No. 3 behind the top-ranked Philadelphia Eagles and the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs.
The notable moves made by the 49ers in free agency and the 2023 NFL Draft were headlined by the signing of defensive lineman Javon Hargrave, who spent the past three seasons in Philadelphia. Hargrave is coming off a career year, registering 60 tackles, a career-high 11.0 sacks, 16 quarterback hits, 10 tackles-for-loss, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble in his 17 regular season starts. His 11.0 sacks ranked fourth amongst all NFL defensive tackles and were the most by an Eagles defensive tackle since Andy Harmon in 1993 (11.5).
In the draft, the 49ers added nine new players starting with safety Ji'Ayir Brown to further bolster the secondary. Brown was a ball hawk at Penn State, racking up 10 interceptions over the course of the last two seasons. Another attention-grabbing pick was kicker Jake Moody, who was taken in the third round, 99th overall. Moody was the consensus best kicker of the 2023 draft class and could round out the 49ers specialist trio with punter Mitch Wishnowsky and long snapper Taybor Pepper.
Let's take a look at where national outlets ranked the 49ers heading into training camp and the 2023 season:
"The 49ers biggest question right now could end up being a relative strength," Edholm wrote. "Quarterback remains a concern of sorts following Brock Purdy's elbow injury, which keeps his timeline to return to action murky. If Purdy can come back and prove that his late-season run was no fluke, the 49ers will be in great shape.
"Trey Lance's trajectory has changed wildly in the past nine months or so, but he'll still have a chance to rewrite his path and start if Purdy can't go Week 1. There's also Sam Darnold, who has 55 career NFL starts to his name, which is pretty good insurance."
Edholm went on to speak about the addition of Hargrave to the interior of San Francisco's defensive line as well as San Francisco's arsenal of offensive weapons.
"Elsewhere, the 49ers are flush with talent on both sides of the ball. They have a deep well of playmakers on offense -- in the backfield, out wide and at tight end -- and on defense. Injuries always seem to sink their teeth into this team, but San Francisco's run/pass versatility with Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Kyle Juszczyk and others make this offense very tough to game plan against."
