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49ers Pick Ole Miss Defensive Tackle Walter Nolen in New Mock Draft

The 49ers are overhauling their defense.
Grant Cohn|
Nov 23, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Mississippi Rebels defensive tackle Walter Nolen (2) and defensive end Princely Umanmielen (1) celebrate a sack against the Florida Gators during the second half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images
Nov 23, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Mississippi Rebels defensive tackle Walter Nolen (2) and defensive end Princely Umanmielen (1) celebrate a sack against the Florida Gators during the second half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers are overhauling their defense.

The brain trust of Nick Sorensen and Brandon Staley are out and have been replaced by Robert Saleh and Gus Bradley. Now, the 49ers need to remake their starting lineup, particularly on the defensive line.

That's why CBS NFL Draft analyst Tom Fornelli projects the 49ers to pick Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen with the 11th pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.

"Based on what I've seen to this point, Nolen is the most slept-on prospect in the draft," writes Fornelli. "He is a large, disruptive force in the middle of your defensive line and strikes me as the kind of player Robert Saleh loves at that spot. There are plenty of really good edge guys in this class, but I don't think the interior has that same depth. I bet Nolen's stock rises as we approach the draft."

I would agree with everything Fornelli wrote except the part about Nolen being slept on. I think that's old news. He was outstanding at the Senior Bowl last week. NFL Network Draft Analyst Daniel Jeremiah even compared him to Quinnen Williams on the broadcast. Williams of course played for Robert Saleh on the Jets. It stands to reason that Saleh would want a younger version of Williams on the 49ers.

But Williams was the third pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. If Nolen does well at the Combine in a couple weeks, I expect he'll be a top-10 or potentially a top-5 pick as well.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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