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NFL.com Ranks 49ers Linebacker Nick Martin 2nd-Best Pick of Round 3

I completely agree.
Grant Cohn|
Nick Martin (4) is pictured during the Oklahoma State football media day in Stillwater, Okla., on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024.
Nick Martin (4) is pictured during the Oklahoma State football media day in Stillwater, Okla., on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. | NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

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San Francisco 49ers

Some draft analysts thought the 49ers reached for linebacker Nick Martin when they took him in Round 3 with the 75th pick.

CBS.com projected Martin to be a sixth-round pick. NFL.com projected him to be a fourth-round pick. And yet, NFL.com's Chad Reuter just named Martin the second-best pick of Round 3.

"I projected Martin to be a fourth-round pick for the 49ers in my final three mock drafts, but I can't blame San Francisco for taking him a round earlier," writes Reuter. "He's a perfect replacement for Dre Greenlaw as a short (5-11 1/2) but explosive linebacker who works through blocks as a blitzer and tracks down ball-carriers in the open field. Martin can line up anywhere, anytime and should benefit from working with perennial All-Pro Fred Warner."

Well put. I completely agree.

Martin actually might be better than Greenlaw when he's done developing. That's because Martin is much faster and more explosive than Greenlaw was when he was coming out of college. Greenlaw ran a 4.73 and had a 33-inch vert. Martin runs a 4.53 and has a 38-inch vert. Plus he has 31 3/4-inch arms while Greenlaw's arms are 32 1/4 inches long. Their length helps them finish tackles and knock down passes.

Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh knew the exact skillset the 49ers needed to replace Greenlaw at weakside linebacker and he found it. The only real knock on Martin is that he's 5'11" 1/2, but so is Greenlaw, and being short never held him back.

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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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