The 2017 49ers Turned Over Half Their Starts

by Chase Stuart on April 1, 2018

The 2016 49ers were not very good, finishing 2-14 with both wins coming against a bad Rams team. So perhaps it isn’t too surprising that San Francisco — with a new GM (John Lynch) and new HC (Kyle Shanahan) — decided to turn over most of the roster.

Each team has 352 starts to give out each year (22 spots over 16 games). For San Francisco, 176 of them came from players who weren’t on the active roster in 2016, and 176 came from players who were. Take a look:

Player	Pos	AV	Starts	2016 Team
Marquise Goodwin	WR	8	16	BUF
Brandon Fusco	OL	8	16	MIN
Earl Mitchell	DT	7	16	MIA
Laken Tomlinson	OG	7	15	DET
Solomon Thomas	DE	6	12	Rookie
Brock Coyle	LB	5	10	SEA
Reuben Foster	ILB	5	10	Rookie
Kyle Juszczyk	FB	3	10	RAV
Ahkello Witherspoon	CB	3	9	Rookie
Pierre Garcon	WR	4	8	WAS
George Kittle	TE	4	7	Rookie
Louis Murphy	WR	1	7	Not in NFL
Brian Hoyer	QB	2	6	CHI
Adrian Colbert	SS	2	6	Rookie
Jimmy Garoppolo	QB	5	5	NWE
C.J. Beathard	QB	4	5	Rookie
K'Waun Williams	DB	2	5	Not in NFL
Leger Douzable	DT	2	5	BUF
Erik Magnuson	OT	1	2	Rookie
Trent Taylor	WR	3	1	Rookie
Aldrick Robinson	WR	2	1	ATL
Garry Gilliam	T	1	1	SEA
Leon Hall	DB	1	1	NYG
Antone Exum	CB	0	1	Not in NFL
Logan Paulsen	TE	0	1	CHI
Carlos Hyde	RB	8	16	SF
Daniel Kilgore	OL	8	16	SF
DeForest Buckner	DE	7	16	SF
Dontae Johnson	FS	5	16	SF
Joe Staley	T	9	15	SF
Garrett Celek	TE	3	13	SF
Eric Reid	FS	4	12	SF
Eli Harold	OLB	5	11	SF
Trenton Brown	OT	5	10	SF
Jaquiski Tartt	SS	3	8	SF
Rashard Robinson	CB	3	7	SF
Tank Carradine	DE	3	7	SF
Jimmie Ward	SS	2	6	SF
Arik Armstead	DE	2	6	SF
Ray-Ray Armstrong	LB	6	5	SF
Zane Beadles	T	3	5	SF
NaVorro Bowman	LB	2	5	SF
Ronald Blair	DE	1	2	SF

The table below shows, for each team in 2017, the percentage of AV and the number of starts that each team gave to new players:

Team	AV	New AV	Perc	Starts	New Starts	Perc	2017 Win %
San Francisco 49ers	188	106	0.56%	352	176	0.50%	0.125
Indianapolis Colts	167	81	0.49%	352	156	0.44%	0.500
Buffalo Bills	185	79	0.43%	352	153	0.43%	0.438
New York Jets	187	75	0.40%	352	127	0.36%	0.313
Cleveland Browns	156	61	0.39%	352	131	0.37%	0.063
New Orleans Saints	241	88	0.37%	352	124	0.35%	0.438
Los Angeles Rams	249	85	0.34%	352	122	0.35%	0.250
Baltimore Ravens	223	74	0.33%	352	119	0.34%	0.500
Chicago Bears	189	62	0.33%	352	124	0.35%	0.188
Seattle Seahawks	207	66	0.32%	352	114	0.32%	0.656
Detroit Lions	212	67	0.32%	352	97	0.28%	0.563
Houston Texans	178	56	0.31%	352	95	0.27%	0.563
Jacksonville Jaguars	240	75	0.31%	352	101	0.29%	0.188
Miami Dolphins	173	54	0.31%	352	109	0.31%	0.625
Arizona Cardinals	188	55	0.29%	352	79	0.22%	0.469
Philadelphia Eagles	250	69	0.28%	352	91	0.26%	0.438
Washington Redskins	199	53	0.27%	352	82	0.23%	0.531
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	185	49	0.26%	352	102	0.29%	0.563
New York Giants	160	41	0.26%	352	97	0.28%	0.688
Minnesota Vikings	245	62	0.25%	352	84	0.24%	0.500
Oakland Raiders	190	47	0.25%	352	88	0.25%	0.750
Green Bay Packers	190	46	0.24%	352	83	0.24%	0.625
New England Patriots	254	61	0.24%	352	87	0.25%	0.875
Denver Broncos	176	42	0.24%	352	72	0.20%	0.563
Pittsburgh Steelers	233	49	0.21%	352	70	0.20%	0.688
Carolina Panthers	218	45	0.21%	352	61	0.17%	0.375
Kansas City Chiefs	228	47	0.21%	353	50	0.14%	0.750
Tennessee Titans	202	41	0.20%	352	91	0.26%	0.563
Los Angeles Chargers	224	45	0.20%	352	64	0.18%	0.313
Cincinnati Bengals	189	36	0.19%	352	53	0.15%	0.406
Dallas Cowboys	214	34	0.16%	352	55	0.16%	0.813
Atlanta Falcons	222	27	0.12%	352	48	0.14%	0.688

The Falcons, who nearly won the Super Bowl a year ago, had the smallest turnover in the league. That makes sense: they added RG Wes Schweitzer and DT Dontari Poe, but otherwise, didn’t do too much.

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