Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Tuesday, May 7th, 2024
Barrows: 49ers mailbag: Which rookie is best poised to make a splash? Odd men out at WR? (paywall)
“Narrative 1 is that they are happy with their top three tackles: Trent Williams, Colton McKivitz and Jaylon Moore.
Narrative 2 is that college tackles are ill-prepared for the NFL game, especially the 49ers’ zone-blocking scheme, which few of them play.
Both are legitimate arguments. But they can’t keep looking down their nose at college tackles like they’ve done the last two seasons. It’s not sustainable. If they’d taken one last year — BYU’s Blake Freeland, for example — the rough assimilation period the 49ers seem to dread largely would have taken place last season and he might be in a position to compete for a role now.”
How did new kickoff rules affect NFL Draft? ‘You can either complain or adapt’
“The rules will essentially create a trench-style battle between the teams. The absence of a running head start will prioritize hand techniques to block and shed blocks, and speed might not be as important…Therefore, teams might employ an extra tight end, linebacker and offensive and defensive linemen. Additionally, the belief is kick returners will be more about power than speed to break through arm tackles in those trench battles — something that’s generally not a strength of the burner receiver.
Surely, that top-end speed would be an asset if the returner could get through the line and pull away, but the special teams coach didn’t envision that becoming a common occurrence. The coach studied this return model in the XFL and said explosive returns were not the norm. The NFL stated the XFL’s average field position on returns was the 29.1-yard line.
“The new kickoff rules lesson the value for the player who is mainly going to be a special teams contributor,” an executive said. “I think it also hurts the smaller skill positions whose role might not translate to the new kickoff, hence lessening their value.”
Jeremy Fowler names 49ers pick as biggest head-scratcher of the draft
“The Pearsall pick, other than the Penix pick, might have been the oddest one to me. He’s a solid receiver. We didn’t have to game-plan for him. His routes at times were just OK. He would do a lot of dancing and get off target. Some of the throws that [Florida QB Graham] Mertz missed … were on lack of route detail by Pearsall. That one shocked me.”
Why Frelund was impressed by 49ers’ unapologetic draft approach
“Before the draft, we heard maybe there’s a certain receiver or one of their potential receivers on the list of people who can be traded,” Frelund said. “But you know what they did? They just went and got another receiver in Ricky Pearsall in the first round.
“I also think it’s really interesting how they fortified their entire draft with things that support what Kyle Shanahan wants to do. Sometimes I call Kyle Shanahan a “lying liar who lies,” meaning he doesn’t tell us what he really wants. Remember, he’ll give us little smokescreens: ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be here on Sunday,’ blah blah blah.”
Frelund is confident the 49ers successfully addressed their glaring needs while staying put at or around their original draft positions after entertaining trade offers for star wide receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel.
“But ultimately they wanted to fix their O-line, they wanted to be able to pass the ball, they wanted to give Brock Purdy a ton of options … and they did all of that,” Frelund added. “I love that John Lynch went out there and was like ‘We’re picking really late, I don’t care. Try and trade with me. You’re not going to give me what I want? Fine, I’m just going to take Ricky Pearsall. We’re good here.’”
About the Author: Insidethe49
