2025 draft class

[CrimsonCrew]

Some good film of Alfred Collins (haven't gotten to the Marques Sigle part yet), particularly going against Georgia this past year. Georgia's interior OL were all drafted in the second and third round this year (Ratledge 25th pick in the 2nd, Fairchild 17th pick in the 3rd, and Wilson 31st in the 3rd), and Collins really dominated all of them in the run game. Nothing so far as pass rush on here, but the run play is elite. And he played quite a lot of three-technique here.

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[CrimsonCrew]

Barrows has an interview with Tariq Ahmad, director of player personnel, that reviews the draft picks. Nothing all that earth-shattering, but a few nuggets that are worth sharing:

Mykel Williams and Nick Martin were great interviews. Hard workers, natural leaders that they hope can help this rookie class contribute the way we'll need them to.

They intend to ask the DTs in particular to attack more, as opposed to doing the two-gapping they did frequently in college. They think doing so will untap more pass-rush upside than they showed in college. We'll see on that one. The team hasn't exactly killed it in terms of developing pass rush over the past couple years. Kinlaw was probably a similar evaluation, and he never developed as a pass rusher. Beal is a DE, but similar deal where they loved his get-off, but that hasn't turned into pass-rush productivity.

For Watkins, like Shanahan, he also spoke primarily about the dude's combine. I just don't get that. Why is the combine the first talking point for this player? Any single game film should be more important than how he ran the gauntlet. We'll see about that pick, but I'm not holding my breath. Feels like Kyle saw something he liked and made the call to draft him (Ahmad commented on how much Shanahan liked him). Shades of Dante Pettis, though at least this pick was two rounds later. Danny Gray, too, for that matter. Though Pearsall showed promise last year.

Mentioned how much QB's coach Mick Lombardi loved Rourke, too.

You get a real impression that the coaches have a tremendous amount of say in who the team drafts. I'm fine with that as a general proposition. You want the people who are going to be using these players to have a vision for them. But it also likely explains why it feels like the team reaches so much, and perhaps why they have a tendency to fixate on certain players and either move up for them or reach absurdly vs. consensus.

[Jikkle]

Barrows has an interview with Tariq Ahmad, director of player personnel, that reviews the draft picks. Nothing all that earth-shattering, but a few nuggets that are worth sharing:

Mykel Williams and Nick Martin were great interviews. Hard workers, natural leaders that they hope can help this rookie class contribute the way we'll need them to.

They intend to ask the DTs in particular to attack more, as opposed to doing the two-gapping they did frequently in college. They think doing so will untap more pass-rush upside than they showed in college. We'll see on that one. The team hasn't exactly killed it in terms of developing pass rush over the past couple years. Kinlaw was probably a similar evaluation, and he never developed as a pass rusher. Beal is a DE, but similar deal where they loved his get-off, but that hasn't turned into pass-rush productivity.

To be fair Kinlaw's main problem was that he was never healthy enough to develop. The biggest sin with taking Kinlaw was knowing full well he was likely going to have chronic knee problems but crossing our fingers and hoping he didn't. At least with Drake Jackson his injury didn't come until later and that's something with him you just chalk up to bad luck but Kinlaw should've been off the board based on his medical.

Beal was at least a 5th rounder so eh at that point you take your shot at a guy whose physically gifted but had productions issues and hope you can develop him into something. Also he'll be entering his 3rd season so he's not at the point where he's beyond hope to develop into something.

I mean we've had busts but we also had guys like DJ Jones and Arden Key that we got pretty good production out of so there are some success as well.

[CrimsonCrew]

Barrows has an interview with Tariq Ahmad, director of player personnel, that reviews the draft picks. Nothing all that earth-shattering, but a few nuggets that are worth sharing:

Mykel Williams and Nick Martin were great interviews. Hard workers, natural leaders that they hope can help this rookie class contribute the way we'll need them to.

They intend to ask the DTs in particular to attack more, as opposed to doing the two-gapping they did frequently in college. They think doing so will untap more pass-rush upside than they showed in college. We'll see on that one. The team hasn't exactly killed it in terms of developing pass rush over the past couple years. Kinlaw was probably a similar evaluation, and he never developed as a pass rusher. Beal is a DE, but similar deal where they loved his get-off, but that hasn't turned into pass-rush productivity.

To be fair Kinlaw's main problem was that he was never healthy enough to develop. The biggest sin with taking Kinlaw was knowing full well he was likely going to have chronic knee problems but crossing our fingers and hoping he didn't. At least with Drake Jackson his injury didn't come until later and that's something with him you just chalk up to bad luck but Kinlaw should've been off the board based on his medical.

Beal was at least a 5th rounder so eh at that point you take your shot at a guy whose physically gifted but had productions issues and hope you can develop him into something. Also he'll be entering his 3rd season so he's not at the point where he's beyond hope to develop into something.

I mean we've had busts but we also had guys like DJ Jones and Arden Key that we got pretty good production out of so there are some success as well.

Just pulled up Kinlaw's PFF numbers for the past year. Apparently he was much more effective in the pass rush than the run game. Huh. That's the opposite of what I thought. So maybe I'm wrong and he has developed as a pass rusher, though he certainly didn't with the Niners. Certainly agree that Beal has outperformed his draft slot as a 5th-rounder who has developed into a great STs player and decent rotational DE. But He hasn't developed as a pass rusher, and I think there's some reason to question Kocurek's ability to develop pass rush at this point.

[clyde21]

CJ West looks like an absolute animal

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[CrimsonCrew]

Watched the Oklahoma-Ohio State game to check out CJ West and, to a lesser extent, Kurtis Rourke. Not a great game for Rourke. The OSU D was all over him and he was awful. But West was awesome.

He almost single-handedly shut down OSU's run game for much of the game. The final score looks bad, but OU allowed a PR TD and also botched their own punt to set OSU up deep in their territory, which accounted for 14 points. West also pressured Howard into a quick throw that was picked deep in OU territory after a Rourke fumble set OSU up inside the OU 20 to keep the game from getting out of hand early. Really impressive play from him on a D without a lot of playmakers.

[Jikkle]

Watched the Oklahoma-Ohio State game to check out CJ West and, to a lesser extent, Kurtis Rourke. Not a great game for Rourke. The OSU D was all over him and he was awful. But West was awesome.

He almost single-handedly shut down OSU's run game for much of the game. The final score looks bad, but OU allowed a PR TD and also botched their own punt to set OSU up deep in their territory, which accounted for 14 points. West also pressured Howard into a quick throw that was picked deep in OU territory after a Rourke fumble set OSU up inside the OU 20 to keep the game from getting out of hand early. Really impressive play from him on a D without a lot of playmakers.

I'm guessing you mean Indiana not Oklahoma.

I'm excited for West because I felt like the D line hasn't been the same since it lost DJ Jones and I think West could be in that mold.

As far as Rourke goes I don't think they are counting on lightning striking twice but probably hoping they can develop Rourke into a capable long-term backup. I think the team could really use a guy like that instead of the constant backup QB rotation we seem to have yearly.

[CrimsonCrew]

Watched the Oklahoma-Ohio State game to check out CJ West and, to a lesser extent, Kurtis Rourke. Not a great game for Rourke. The OSU D was all over him and he was awful. But West was awesome.

He almost single-handedly shut down OSU's run game for much of the game. The final score looks bad, but OU allowed a PR TD and also botched their own punt to set OSU up deep in their territory, which accounted for 14 points. West also pressured Howard into a quick throw that was picked deep in OU territory after a Rourke fumble set OSU up inside the OU 20 to keep the game from getting out of hand early. Really impressive play from him on a D without a lot of playmakers.

I'm guessing you mean Indiana not Oklahoma.

I'm excited for West because I felt like the D line hasn't been the same since it lost DJ Jones and I think West could be in that mold.

As far as Rourke goes I don't think they are counting on lightning striking twice but probably hoping they can develop Rourke into a capable long-term backup. I think the team could really use a guy like that instead of the constant backup QB rotation we seem to have yearly.

Ha! I do. Very similar uniforms.

[Pattersonca65]

Barrows has an interview with Tariq Ahmad, director of player personnel, that reviews the draft picks. Nothing all that earth-shattering, but a few nuggets that are worth sharing:

Mykel Williams and Nick Martin were great interviews. Hard workers, natural leaders that they hope can help this rookie class contribute the way we'll need them to.

They intend to ask the DTs in particular to attack more, as opposed to doing the two-gapping they did frequently in college. They think doing so will untap more pass-rush upside than they showed in college. We'll see on that one. The team hasn't exactly killed it in terms of developing pass rush over the past couple years. Kinlaw was probably a similar evaluation, and he never developed as a pass rusher. Beal is a DE, but similar deal where they loved his get-off, but that hasn't turned into pass-rush productivity.

For Watkins, like Shanahan, he also spoke primarily about the dude's combine. I just don't get that. Why is the combine the first talking point for this player? Any single game film should be more important than how he ran the gauntlet. We'll see about that pick, but I'm not holding my breath. Feels like Kyle saw something he liked and made the call to draft him (Ahmad commented on how much Shanahan liked him). Shades of Dante Pettis, though at least this pick was two rounds later. Danny Gray, too, for that matter. Though Pearsall showed promise last year.

Mentioned how much QB's coach Mick Lombardi loved Rourke, too.

You get a real impression that the coaches have a tremendous amount of say in who the team drafts. I'm fine with that as a general proposition. You want the people who are going to be using these players to have a vision for them. But it also likely explains why it feels like the team reaches so much, and perhaps why they have a tendency to fixate on certain players and either move up for them or reach absurdly vs. consensus.

It was reported that Bobby Turner was behind the Joe Williams pick, Turner really liked him. The only other issue with that is accountability when overall things aren't working out unless you fire everyone.

[CrimsonCrew]

Barrows has an interview with Tariq Ahmad, director of player personnel, that reviews the draft picks. Nothing all that earth-shattering, but a few nuggets that are worth sharing:

Mykel Williams and Nick Martin were great interviews. Hard workers, natural leaders that they hope can help this rookie class contribute the way we'll need them to.

They intend to ask the DTs in particular to attack more, as opposed to doing the two-gapping they did frequently in college. They think doing so will untap more pass-rush upside than they showed in college. We'll see on that one. The team hasn't exactly killed it in terms of developing pass rush over the past couple years. Kinlaw was probably a similar evaluation, and he never developed as a pass rusher. Beal is a DE, but similar deal where they loved his get-off, but that hasn't turned into pass-rush productivity.

For Watkins, like Shanahan, he also spoke primarily about the dude's combine. I just don't get that. Why is the combine the first talking point for this player? Any single game film should be more important than how he ran the gauntlet. We'll see about that pick, but I'm not holding my breath. Feels like Kyle saw something he liked and made the call to draft him (Ahmad commented on how much Shanahan liked him). Shades of Dante Pettis, though at least this pick was two rounds later. Danny Gray, too, for that matter. Though Pearsall showed promise last year.

Mentioned how much QB's coach Mick Lombardi loved Rourke, too.

You get a real impression that the coaches have a tremendous amount of say in who the team drafts. I'm fine with that as a general proposition. You want the people who are going to be using these players to have a vision for them. But it also likely explains why it feels like the team reaches so much, and perhaps why they have a tendency to fixate on certain players and either move up for them or reach absurdly vs. consensus.

It was reported that Bobby Turner was behind the Joe Williams pick, Turner really liked him. The only other issue with that is accountability when overall things aren't working out unless you fire everyone.

As memory serves, Shanahan was the one who really banged the table for Williams. Where they took him, anyway. Not saying Turner wasn't also a big fan, but I distinctly recall stories of Shanahan being unable to sleep at the thought of missing out on him, or something along those lines.

[Pattersonca65]

Barrows has an interview with Tariq Ahmad, director of player personnel, that reviews the draft picks. Nothing all that earth-shattering, but a few nuggets that are worth sharing:

Mykel Williams and Nick Martin were great interviews. Hard workers, natural leaders that they hope can help this rookie class contribute the way we'll need them to.

They intend to ask the DTs in particular to attack more, as opposed to doing the two-gapping they did frequently in college. They think doing so will untap more pass-rush upside than they showed in college. We'll see on that one. The team hasn't exactly killed it in terms of developing pass rush over the past couple years. Kinlaw was probably a similar evaluation, and he never developed as a pass rusher. Beal is a DE, but similar deal where they loved his get-off, but that hasn't turned into pass-rush productivity.

For Watkins, like Shanahan, he also spoke primarily about the dude's combine. I just don't get that. Why is the combine the first talking point for this player? Any single game film should be more important than how he ran the gauntlet. We'll see about that pick, but I'm not holding my breath. Feels like Kyle saw something he liked and made the call to draft him (Ahmad commented on how much Shanahan liked him). Shades of Dante Pettis, though at least this pick was two rounds later. Danny Gray, too, for that matter. Though Pearsall showed promise last year.

Mentioned how much QB's coach Mick Lombardi loved Rourke, too.

You get a real impression that the coaches have a tremendous amount of say in who the team drafts. I'm fine with that as a general proposition. You want the people who are going to be using these players to have a vision for them. But it also likely explains why it feels like the team reaches so much, and perhaps why they have a tendency to fixate on certain players and either move up for them or reach absurdly vs. consensus.

It was reported that Bobby Turner was behind the Joe Williams pick, Turner really liked him. The only other issue with that is accountability when overall things aren't working out unless you fire everyone.

As memory serves, Shanahan was the one who really banged the table for Williams. Where they took him, anyway. Not saying Turner wasn't also a big fan, but I distinctly recall stories of Shanahan being unable to sleep at the thought of missing out on him, or something along those lines.

LOL, Turner was pushing Shanahan to draft Williams

[clyde21]

As memory serves, Shanahan was the one who really banged the table for Williams. Where they took him, anyway. Not saying Turner wasn't also a big fan, but I distinctly recall stories of Shanahan being unable to sleep at the thought of missing out on him, or something along those lines.

i guess coaches fall in love with certain players similar to how fans do