July 22 was the day where all players will be reporting for San Francisco 49ers training camp, one week after the rookies began their time in Santa Clara a little earlier than the vets.

But with the team in place on site, it means that training camp practices are here, too, and the inevitable process of analyzing player performances during those sessions will commence.

To be fair, this is what the coaching staff is doing as well, but as fans, we miss so much and yet come to so many conclusions about who should start, who should make the team, and who we’d gladly drive to the airport to get them out of town.

One group to keep an eye on throughout training camp will be the safeties, who are undergoing a bit of a metamorphosis at the moment.

As of now, the players in the roster competing for a roster spot at the position are Jason Pinnock, Ji’Ayir Brown, Richie Grant, Jaylen Mahoney, and rookie Marques Sigle.

Two notable absences here at George Odum and Malik Mustapha, who will both be away from the team this season for different reasons. Odum was released on Sunday after initially being place on the non-football injury list, and although he has primarily been a special teams ace, he has shown the ability to play on defense when called upon.

For Mustapha, he tore his ACL during the final game of last year’s regular season, which means he’ll likely miss a good chunk of the year, with the team hoping to get him back before this year’s regular season ends. He was placed on the PUP list this weekend.

This certainly should leave fans of the 49ers a little concerned, as the safety group is not going to instill a ton of confidence to start the season.

The other element here is that it is likely five guys fighting for four slots, or, perhaps more appropriately, three players for two spots.

In the end, the depth chart should look a little something like this:

Starters: Jason Pinnock and Ji’Ayir Brown

Backups/Special Teams: Richie Grant and Marques Sigle

Until Mustapha returns, the starters feel fairly well locked in, mostly because Grant was brought in primarily to improve a bad special teams unit from last year. Sigle is the wild card, who, if Brown continues his struggles from last year, could take advantage.

This is not the most inspiring unit in football, but fortunately, the Niners have stars all over the rest of the defense with Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and Deommodore Lenoir.

This group just has to be competent for the defense to be good.