In 2012, before the 49ers’ preseason finale, then-undrafted rookie tight end Garrett Celek expected to be cut when the roster was pared to 53 players two days later.

“The way it was playing out,” Celek said, “I thought I was going to be on the practice squad.”

In 2017, after the San Francisco 49ers championship rings signed free-agent tight end Logan Paulsen, who had played for just-hired head coach Kyle Shanahan in Washington, Celek assumed he soon would be released.“I figured he was my replacement,” Celek said. “I thought ‘This is Kyle’s guy. We’re very similar. We’re blocking (tight ends). I might be on the outs here.’”

Instead, Celek stayed in Santa Clara.Celek, 30, now in his eighth season, is the 49ers’ second-longest-tenured player behind left tackle Joe Staley, a first-round pick who has remained because he’s a perennial Pro Bowler who plays a premium position.

Celek? He’s the anti-Staley. He was bypassed in the 2012 draft after a 14-catch career at Michigan State. In the NFL, in which he had eight catches in his first three seasons, it wasn’t just in 2012 and 2017 that he pondered a potential pink slip.

“I would say,” Celek said when asked about his bottom-of-the-roster anxiety, “the first four years were like that.”

So how has Celek survived four head coaches and two general managers? How has he stayed longer than two tight ends drafted during his tenure and, yes, Paulsen? And how has he easily outlasted his more heralded peers from 2012? Every member of the 49ers’ seven-man draft class from that year was off the roster by 2015.