Kirby Smart Influenced the 49ers to Draft Robert Beal Jr.

The Georgia football program is coming off of yet another successful weekend at the NFL draft after ten players were selected and three were taken in the first round. The Bulldogs have now had eight first-round picks and 25 total players drafted within the last two years. Head coach Kirby Smart has seemingly built an NFL draft pool pipeline in Athens and NFL organizations are quickly taking notice of it.

One of the players that was drafted this year was linebacker Robert Beal Jr. The San Fransisco 49ers selected Beal in the fifth round. The former Georgia linebacker had a solid showing at the NFL combine as he clocked in a 4.48 40-yard time while also measuring in at 6-foot-4 and 247 pounds. The 49ers took notice of that and was a major reason why they used a fifth-round pick on Beal.

Though Beal's raw traits weren't the only thing that influenced the 49ers into drafting him. An article written by NBC Sports, Jennifer Lee Chan, detailed how coach Smart also played a role in helping lean the 49ers into drafting the former Bulldog after his discussion with general manager John Lynch.

“Beal’s a really, really gifted athlete,” Lynch said. “You rely a lot on relationships in this thing, and Kirby Smart’s been good to us. He’s got a lot of players. Kirby said someone’s going to get a really gifted and talented player if they just let this guy go hunt QBs and set edges, and when he said that, that’s exactly what we do.”

Lynch even went on to say that Beal was at the top of their top from a measurable standpoint. More specifically, the 49ers' defensive line coach Kris Kocurek coined the phrase "GTFO" as a way to measure what the coach is looking for in players. “GTFO is something Kris Kocurek is always screaming,” Lynch explained. “Do you guys know what it is? Yeah, so [Beal] had the highest GTFO grade in the draft. So, we’re really fired up about that."

The 49ers plan on utilizing Beal's speed on special teams and his ability to get after the quarterback and create disruption on the line scrimmage in the upcoming season. During his five years at Georgia, Beal racked up 72 total tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, and 10 sacks.

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