TAKING THE LEAD

San Francisco has strong candidates to fill void

- Craig Massei

Every NFL team needs leaders.

That’s particularly true for the teams on top, like the 49ers, whose brilliant turnaround season last year was fueled in no small part by the strong leadership San Francisco had in its locker room, the kind that led by example but also could talk the talk when necessary and back it up with a performance on the field.

That leadership became more prominent and evident as the season progressed, particularly after the NFL’s October trade deadline. That’s when accomplished wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders joined the team, giving the 49ers a 10year veteran with Pro Bowl credentials and a Super Bowl championship ring who provided another strong presence for the entire San Francisco squad to look up to, particularly an impressionable group of young wide receivers who thrived after Sanders arrived.

But Sanders is gone now, and so are Joe Staley and DeForest Buckner — indisputably San Francisco’s top go-to leaders last season on each side of the football.

What that trio provided the 49ers is difficult to replace, especially Staley, who saw the franchise rise and fall several times during his illustrious 13 years as San Francisco’s star left tackle, a six-time Pro Bowler who was an acknowledged team leader long before anybody else on the 2019 roster had even arrived in San Francisco.

“Joe was always a guy who always had open arms right away,” quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said in August. “Joe was always one of the first guys in the locker room. Very up front, very cool from the get-go. We’ll miss him in the locker room. His character, it’s unmatched.”