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Sports Illustrated Projects Nick Martin to be the 49ers' Best Rookie

Martin is no lock to start at weakside linebacker right away.
Grant Cohn|
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers third-round draft pick Nick Martin (45) works out with his teammates during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers third-round draft pick Nick Martin (45) works out with his teammates during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers could start up to six rookies on defense alone next season, so it's hard to project which one will make the biggest impact.

The 49ers lost six starters on defense this offseason and attempted to replace all of them with draft picks and bargain-bin free agents. One of the best starters they lost was linebacker Dre Greenlaw who signed a three-year deal with the Broncos. To replace him, the 49ers drafted Nick Martin in Round 3.

And that's who Sports Illustrated thinks will be the 49ers' best rookie -- Martin.

"San Francisco lost starting linebacker Dre Greenlaw to the Broncos but added his replacement in Martin, a third-round pick from Oklahoma State," writes Sports Illustrated's Daniel Flick. "Opportunity exists for Martin, who has terrific range and blitz skills, to be an ultra-productive rookie. The 49ers will heavily depend on their 2025 draft class to reinvent their defense, and Martin figures to be a key piece in the middle of it all, literally and figuratively."

Flick makes good points, but Martin is no lock to start at weakside linebacker right away. He'll have to compete with third-year linebacker Dee Wiinters who has just as much range as Martin.

Meanwhile, first-round pick Mykel Williams is a virtual lock to start at defensive end and play at least 75 percent of the defensive snaps barring injury. He may not record lots of sacks in 2025, but he will be extremely important against the run.

I'd project Williams to be the 49ers' best rookie by a wide margin.

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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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