With preseason openers coming up, every team will be releasing their initial depth charts.
Even if they don’t want to.
It’s safe to include 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh among the guys who’d prefer not to. And even now that he has to, he has injected a little ambiguity into the process.
Before camp, Harbaugh said he has five No. 1 receivers. Per Cam Inman of BayAreaNewsGroup.com, three of them are listed as the starter at one receiver spot: Randy Moss, Mario Manningham, or Ted Ginn.
The other starter is Michael Crabtree, who has missed much of camp with an ankle injury.
Kyle Williams is second behind Crabtree, and first-round rookie A.J. Jenkins comes in third.
Elsewhere on the depth chart, Colin Kaepernick has the early edge over Josh Johnson in the battle to back up quarterback Alex Smith.
Also, veteran running back Brandon Jacobs comes in third at tailback, behind Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter but in front of rookie second-rounder LaMichael James.
On defense, where all starters are returning, Aldon Smith has (to little surprise) supplanted Parys Haralson at outside linebacker.
Getting 14 sacks as a backup during a guy’s rookie year could tend to do that.