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Report: Walter Nolen is Scheduled to Visit with the 49ers

The NFL Draft is almost two weeks away and we're starting to learn which Round 1 prospects are on the 49ers' radar.
Grant Cohn|
Feb 26, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Mississippi defensive lineman Walter Nolen (DL23) during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 26, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Mississippi defensive lineman Walter Nolen (DL23) during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The NFL Draft is almost two weeks away and we're starting to learn which Round 1 prospects are on the 49ers' radar.

According to Matt Barrows of The Athletic, the 49ers are scheduled to meet with Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen before the draft. Nolen is considered one of the top defensive tackle prospects this year after recording 6.5 sacks at Ole Miss in 2024 and performing well at the Senior Bowl in January.

The last time the 49ers drafted a defensive tackle in Round 1, they took Javon Kinlaw with the 14th pick after a strong Senior Bowl performance. So they clearly value that event. Unfortunately for the 49ers, Kinlaw was injured most of the time he was on the team.

Nolen is much smaller than Kinlaw. Kinlaw was 6'5", 324 lbs. when he was drafted, while Nolen is 6'4", 296 lbs. Which means he might not have the mass to defend the run well in the 49ers' Wide 9 defensive front. That being said, Javon Hargrave was a smaller defensive tackle who struggled against the run and the 49ers gave him a ton of money for two years. So maybe they see Nolen as a fit, too.

Still, Nolen isn't considered a top-15 prospect in the upcoming draft. If the 49ers were to take him, they probably would trade down first. So maybe the 49ers are considering moving back and picking up more draft picks.

Whatever they do, the 49ers should be extremely careful about making major investments into players who don't fit their scheme.

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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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