Assessing exactly how the San Francisco 49ers will utilize their first-round pick in the 2025 draft is tough given some of the sweeping changes we may see to their roster in the offseason.
The trenches jump out as a priority no matter how the offseason goes given some of their struggles on both the offensive and defensive lines. A mock draft from the 33rd Team makes a safe assumption that the 49ers will look to retool a defensive front that was once the backbone of a great San Francisco defense.
At the No. 14 overall pick in that mock the 49ers walk out with Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant.
Grant is a ludicrous athlete at 6-3, 339 pounds, and over his three seasons at Michigan he’s racked up 41 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and 10 (!) pass breakups. The pass breakups are a Michigan record for defensive linemen per the Athletic’s Bruce Feldman.
Feldman included Grant at No. 3 on his annual ‘Freaks List’ thanks to Grant’s rare combination of size and athleticism.
Here’s what Feldman wrote about Grant in the Athletic:
As a sophomore, he helped anchor the nation’s No. 1 defense for the national champion Wolverines, making 29 tackles, 5.0 for loss, with 3.5 sacks; six quarterback hurries, five pass breakups, one interception and one fumble recovery. When Grant arrived in Ann Arbor as a three-star recruit from Indiana, Jim Harbaugh raved about the then-360-pounder running a sub-5.0 40. Anyone doubting Grant’s speed (a max of 18.75 mph on the GPS) only needed to see him run down Penn State running back Kaytron Allen in the open field last year. His ability to fly up Michigan’s reactive plyo stairs test, a series of seven 26-inch-high stairs that players attempt to jump up as fast as possible, is truly freakish.
San Francisco’s defense needs disruptive players up front, and Grant has all the tools to be a force on the interior of an NFL defensive line. If he falls to wherever the 49ers wind up picking in next year’s draft it wouldn’t be a surprise if they viewed Grant as a future centerpiece of a reconstructed defensive line.
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