The San Francisco 49ers plan to sign eight undrafted free agents this week, including the SEC’s 2023 rushing champion, a fire-hydrant-shaped defensive tackle and the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer.
I made phone calls to NFL evaluators, consulted with The Athletic’s draft guru, Dane Brugler, and spoke to the agents of most of the prospects below before compiling this ranking in order of their chances to make the season-opening roster or practice squad.
Advertisement
It’s based on the player’s ability, the competition he’ll face and how aggressively the 49ers — and other teams — pursued the prospect before and after the draft.
Cody Schrader, RB, Missouri
Never underestimate Bobby Turner’s ability to unearth undrafted gems.
The 49ers running back coach’s recent finds include Matt Breida, Jeff Wilson Jr., JaMycal Hasty, Salvon Ahmed and Jordan Mason, all of whom were on NFL rosters last season.
Turner didn’t have to dig quite as deeply to find the hard-running Schrader, who led the SEC last season with 1,627 yards and who was a Heisman Trophy finalist.
How did he fall out of the draft? At 5 foot 8, 202 pounds, he’s not an impressive physical specimen and his 4.61-second 40 didn’t turn heads, either. He’ll also be 25 during his rookie season.
Still, Schrader’s been overlooked before and always has managed to come out on top. He was under-recruited out of high school and initially played for Division II Truman State. Even Missouri didn’t initially offer him a scholarship. He walked onto the Missouri team after transferring there.
He likely was attractive to the 49ers — and vice versa — because the Tigers run a zone-blocking scheme that’s similar to San Francisco’s and which highlighted Schrader’s decisive running style.
Brugler rated him as a fifth-sixth round back and Schrader was his 14th highest-rated runner, two spots behind 49ers’ fourth-round draft pick Isaac Guerendo.
That ought to be an alarm bell for Guerendo and the 49ers’ other backup tailbacks. Breida vastly outperformed Joe Williams, a fourth-round pick, in 2017. Elijah Mitchell (sixth round) was better than Trey Sermon (third round) in 2021. And Mason outperformed Tyrion Davis-Price (third round) in 2022.
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) November 19, 2023
Evan Anderson, DT, Florida Atlantic
The 49ers gave Anderson, a run stuffer from Florida Atlantic, a whopping $280,000 in guaranteed money.
Big guarantees don’t always translate on the practice field. Last year, for example, they gave undrafted offensive lineman Joey Fisher $130,000 and he was cut at the end of August. Center Dohnovan West, who got a $100,00 guarantee, suffered the same fate two years ago
Advertisement
Still, $280,000 dwarfs those totals and underscores how badly the 49ers wanted a plugger like Anderson. They didn’t draft any defensive linemen for only the second time in the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch era, and their run defense was porous last season. On top of that, they said goodbye to their top run-stopping defensive lineman, Arik Armstead, last month.
Anderson looks nothing like the tall, long-limbed Armstead. He’s 6-1, 320 pounds and his 5.32-second 40 time was one of the slowest of any defensive player in the draft.
Still, he’s hard to move off the ball and is the type of player who can take on double teams.
Florida Atlantic IDL Evan Anderson (@FAUFootball)
Was 356 pounds a year or so ago. Now down to 319 at @ShrineBowl and causing problems. Very hard to move. pic.twitter.com/QB1CYheMP4
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) January 30, 2024
Tanner Mordecai, QB, Wisconsin
Nine teams — including the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons — were interested in Mordecai during the pre-draft process and some teams considered drafting him with a late pick. The 49ers’ quarterbacks coach, Brian Griese, was perhaps the most persistent of Mordecai’s suitors, which is why he landed in San Francisco.
There are some similarities to another former Griese quarterback target, Brock Purdy. They’re both good runners who get up to speed quickly. Mordecai’s 4.46-second 40 at his pro day was better than any quarterback who ran at the Combine and his 4.23-second short shuttle is cornerback-like and shows quickness in tight spaces. Mordecai also has been described as “twitchy” by evaluators and usually gets the ball out quickly.
Like a lot of incoming 49ers’ rookies, Mordecai has had a lot of stops in his collegiate career. He started at Oklahoma, transferred to SMU (he was Danny Gray’s quarterback in 2021) and ended up last year at Wisconsin where he helped implement an Air Raid attack that was drastically different from the ground-and-pound offenses the Badgers used before. He completed 65 percent of his passes with nine touchdowns and four interceptions.
Mordecai will join the 49ers as their fourth quarterback and practice snaps will be limited. But Purdy showed two seasons ago that it’s possible for a young — and Griese-backed — quarterback to leapfrog a veteran.
Drake Nugent, C, Michigan
Nugent not only played on one of the best offensive lines in college football, he stood out in an area that’s important to the 49ers when it comes to interior offensive linemen: the short shuttle.
Shanahan talked about it Friday after drafting Kansas’ Dominick Puni, who will start out at guard. Puni’s short shuttle time: 4.4 seconds, which is in the 99th percentile.
Advertisement
“That’s one of the main things (I looked at) when I first got into coaching, and I thought that was one of the most important things in quickness for a slot receiver and things like that,” Shanahan said. “And then you start to watch it with kind of everybody and I think when you talk to guards and running the ball and coming off the ball fast like we ask them to do and reach three techniques and things like that — quickness is probably the most important thing.”
Nugent’s short shuttle time — 4.5 seconds — wasn’t quite as impressive as Puni’s, but it’s still very good. Duke’s Graham Barton was considered the best center prospect in the draft, for example, and his short shuttle time was 4.55 seconds.
Nugent likely was bypassed in the draft because at 6-1, 298 pounds he doesn’t have the desired length at the position. He’ll compete with Nick Zakelj, Corey Luciano and others for a backup role behind starter Jake Brendel.
Mason Pline, TE, Furman
The 49ers are intrigued by Pline’s upside given that he initially was a basketball player at Ferris State before switching over to football and then transferring to Furman last year.
Scouts like his size — 6-6, 251 pounds — and that he got better as Furman’s season went on. His best game came in the FCS playoffs at Montana when he had nine catches for 78 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown catch over a defender in the back of the end zone to send the game into overtime.
Pline continued that ascent at the Hula and Shrine bowls where scouts watched him against defensive players from bigger schools. More than 10 teams were vying to sign him after the draft. The 49ers were the most attractive option because they didn’t draft a tight end and because Pline wants to become a better inline blocker and figures he’ll benefit from George Kittle’s tutelage.
Pline ran an unimpressive 4.79-second 40 at his pro day. It’s notable, however, that it rained throughout the day and the players were running on a soggy field.
Advertisement
Briason Mays, C, Southern Mississippi
Mays isn’t as high profile as Nugent, but he’s the better physical specimen. He’s 6-4, 298 pounds with nearly 34-inch arms. His 82 5/8-inch wingspan was second highest among the draft-able centers (Highest: LSU’s Charles Turner III, 83 1/2).
Mays’ short shuttle time—- 4.46 seconds, another excellent time.
Though he started off as a center at West Virginia (where he was teammates with 49ers tackle Colton McKivitz), Southern Mississippi saw his length and moved him to left tackle. He’ll go back to center, his most natural position, with the 49ers.
There were four teams vying to sign Mays after the draft. He went with the 49ers because they showed him the most attention. They interviewed him after his pro day and had several video interviews with him before the draft.
Terique Owens, WR, Missouri State
It turns out that Lynch was sending hints when he was asked about bloodlines three days before the draft. The draft included the sons of several former 49ers, including Jerry Rice’s son, Brenden, and Ed McCaffrey’s son, Luke.
Lynch, however, chose to talk about Terrell Owens and his son, Terique.
“TO was out here at the local pro day and his son Terique performed really well and that was pretty cool,” Lynch said. “I saw him running at me, and I played against TO a lot and there was something in that stride that was very familiar. It was something about the gait. And it’s crazy how those things translate. Is that just gene pool? Is that modeling the way they watch their dad run? It’s interesting to me.”
The 49ers also got a good look at Owens at his pro day, which was held at the University of Missouri. First, the Missouri players (including Schrader) worked out. Then players from smaller schools nearby got their chance. A 49ers scout ran those drills, which included Owens and Southwest Missouri State’s Ryan Flournoy, whom the Dallas Cowboys drafted in the sixth round.
Advertisement
Owens is attractive to the 49ers because they see so much untapped potential. He hardly played football in high school (he saw himself as a basketball player then), then bounced from Contra Costa College to Florida Atlantic to Missouri State.
He doesn’t have quite his father’s frame. Still, he’s 6-2, 200 pounds and ran his 40 in 4.51 seconds. And he did that without training at EXOS or XPE or one of the ultra-intense pre-draft training facilities. He did it while training on his own in San Ramon and delivering Instacart meals to earn money.
The 49ers edged out the Kansas City Chiefs to land Owens.
Jaylen Mahoney, S, Vanderbilt
Mahoney, who’s 5-10, 194 pounds, started out at nickel cornerback at Vanderbilt, played some outside cornerback and ended up spending his last two seasons at free safety. The 49ers are eying him as a safety who also could be worked in at nickel cornerback.
Though the 49ers have taken safeties in each of the last three drafts, they’re not particularly deep at that position. Their top safety, Talanoa Hufanga, is coming off an ACL injury suffered on Nov. 19. To make the practice squad, Mahoney might have to edge out either Tayler Hawkins or Erik Harris.
Mahoney also spent his entire college career at Vanderbilt, which is rare among draftees.
Sign of the times: The #49ers have 16 incoming rookies. Three of them played for just one school in college …
* Renardo Green
* Evan Anderson
* Jaylen Mahoney— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) April 29, 2024
(Top photo of Cody Shrader: Nick Tre. Smith / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
