49ers Talk: Why detractors have come around on San Francisco's 2026 NFL Draft
On "49ers Talk," Matt Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan explain why many detractors have changed their opinions on San Francisco's 2026 draft class.
49ers Talk: Why detractors have come around on San Francisco's 2026 NFL Draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
It seems like as more time goes by and people who had a very strong opinion at the beginning of the 49ers draft, it kind of seems like it switched like 180 degrees, and now those same people are going, "Hey, you know what?
This draft might be pretty good after all."
Yeah, there's been a lot of people that are actually in buildings, in football buildings around the league that have come out and said, "No, we were actually looking at those players that the 49ers drafted."
No one was really talking about them.
I think a lot of teams were hoping that they would stay under the radar, like the Niners were hoping that Dejon Stripling would stay under the radar, which he did, enough for them to be able to move back twice and still get him.
So you hear these things coming out, and it's, it's funny the-- We've talked about it so many times, that those 30 visits by players, sometimes they're a smoke screen, sometimes they are really looking at that player for what they might want to get, you know, what-- getting to know them a little bit better.
But I feel like the 49ers really use the Senior Bowl and the combine to really get to know the guys that they want.
Sometimes they don't even have those formal meetings, but I know that the Senior Bowl is where it really starts.
And every time we ask John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan about players, they're like, "Well, we met him at the Senior Bowl.
We met him at the Senior Bowl."
I think that becomes sometimes more important than what they do at the combine, what they do on those, you know, what happens at a 30 visit.
Because when you look at what happens at the Senior Bowl, those guys go through individual drills, they work with NFL coaches, NFL coaches find out whether those guys are coachable, which is a huge, huge element to a guy's draft stock, and then what they do on the field.
And like you said, Kaylon Black didn't really have a lot of receptions in his film for the last two years, but they used him like that at the Senior Bowl, so guys like John Lynch and the entire scouting department can really see what his potential is.
And that, I think, matters way more than what You know, I, I know we love guys like Charles Davis and Daniel Jeremiah, but what the 49ers coaching staff and scouts see at the Senior Bowl I think means way more than what draft prognosticators have to say about what they see at the combine.
