49ers — 2026 Draft Recap

Welcome back to Muffed. The 49ers walked into the 2026 draft without a first-round pick — that chip was already spent — so John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan opened for business at pick 33 and didn't stop moving. Eight players, five trades, and a 2027 sixth-rounder shaken loose in the shuffle. The headliner: Ole Miss wide receiver De'Zhaun Stribling at the top of round two. The flavor: defense-heavy, trait-obsessed, with six of the eight picks testing in the 90th percentile or better at their position. This was a board that hunted athletes.

A 49ers passing game that posted plus 95.69 expected points added through the air in 2025 is still navigating the Brandon Aiyuk question — and pick 33 was the answer. Stribling went 55 catches, 811 yards, 6 touchdowns at Ole Miss, with a predicted points added per play of plus 0.61 and plus 42.98 on the season. That's top-shelf separation-and-production math against the best conference in college football. Then the testing: a Relative Athletic Score of 9.57 — the 0-to-10 grade comparing combine and pro-day numbers to every player at the position since 1987 — putting him in the top 5 percent of receivers ever measured. Big body, SEC tape, elite athletic profile on day two. Sturdy bet.

The Niners' 2025 ground game finished at minus 2.03 expected points added on 462 carries — league-average inefficiency — and Shanahan's been through too many four-back seasons not to reinvest. Enter Indiana running back Kaelon Black at pick 90: 187 carries, 1,039 yards (6th in the Big Ten), 10 touchdowns, plus 17.41 predicted points added, and a 9.14 Relative Athletic Score. Shanahan's pitch was a true starter's traits — hitting the right hole, breaking tackles, getting five when it's blocked for three — with pro-day speed stapled on top.

The offensive line surrendered only 27 sacks in 2025, so day three was about developmental darts, not panic. Washington's Carver Willis at 127 brings an 8.09 Relative Athletic Score at guard — roughly 80th-percentile testing — and Shanahan said flat out they'll start him inside and let him fight for left guard. Then at 179, Kansas tackle Enrique Cruz Jr. — and this is where the profile gets loud. A 9.84 score at offensive tackle, top 2 percent ever measured. Lynch said Cruz posted the fastest 20-yard time and highest vertical of any offensive lineman in the class. Thin production, monster traits.

Here's where the class tilts. The 2025 pass defense generated only 20 sacks and surrendered plus 67.62 expected points added through the air with just 14 takeaways — nowhere near where this scheme wants to live. The Niners spent three picks rebuilding it. At 70, Texas Tech edge Romello Height: 37 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks (4th in the Big 12, 15th nationally), and an 8.83 Relative Athletic Score. At 139, Washington corner Ephesians Prysock: 48 tackles, 7 pass breakups, and a 9.74 score — top 3 percent of corners ever tested, exactly the length-and-ball-skills profile the boundary needed. At 154, Louisiana linebacker Jaden Dugger: 124 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, a 9.60 score, and an 84-and-a-half-inch wingspan Lynch couldn't stop talking about — versatile enough for MIKE, WILL, or SAM. Three defenders, three athletic scores north of 8.8. Not an accident.

The run defense allowed plus 4.15 expected points added on the ground in 2025 — break-even — but the Niners want defenders who live in the opposing backfield. Oklahoma defensive tackle Gracen Halton at pick 107 fits the brief: 33 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, an 8.46 Relative Athletic Score, and a 36-inch vertical. Lynch said they were surprised he lasted. Halton started his Oklahoma career on the edge before kicking inside, and the get-off shows up on tape.

Pick of the draft is Stribling, and the argument is scarcity. You can make a case for Height as a pure pass rusher or Prysock's length on the boundary, but pick 33 is a late-first investment in a receiver room with real uncertainty at the top of the depth chart. SEC-level efficiency plus a 9.57 athletic score is the kind of swing that becomes the foundation if Aiyuk moves on. The other premium picks fill depth on units that already had answers. Stribling fills a question.

The question that defines this class heading into 2026: does the pass defense actually transform? Three of eight picks went to that side of the ball, stacking length and athleticism at every level — Height off the edge, Prysock on the boundary, Dugger bending the geometry of the second level. A defense that managed 20 sacks and 14 takeaways across 17 games needs that infusion to mean something on Sundays. Lynch and Shanahan went trait-hunting in every round and the athletic scores back it up. Now the staff has to turn eight high-testing prospects into football players.