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The 49ers Select DE Shemar Stewart with 11th Pick in New Mock Draft

Stewart is right up the 49ers' alley.
Grant Cohn|
Feb 26, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Texas A&M defensive lineman Shemar Stewart (DL68) during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 26, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Texas A&M defensive lineman Shemar Stewart (DL68) 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 49ers have tons of needs, and one of them is defensive end.

They just released Leonard Floyd, which means their current starter opposite Nick Bosa is Yetur Gross-Matos who played just 368 snaps last season.

That's why the 49ers tried to sign Joey Bosa this week, and it's why CBS projects the 49ers to draft Texas A&M defensive end Shemar Stewart.

"Most expected Joey Bosa would sign in San Francisco with his brother, but he chose the Bills instead," writes CBS Sports analyst Josh Edwards. "After releasing Leonard Floyd, pass rusher is one of several needs that have materialized for this franchise."

Calling Stewart a pass rusher is a stretch considering he had just 4.5 sacks in his entire college career.

Stewart is a big, athletic defensive end who's built like Myles Garrett but doesn't play like him. And in college, Stewart often rushed from the interior, which makes you wonder if he's a tweener without a true position.

In 2017, the 49ers spent the third pick in the draft on Solomon Thomas because they thought he was built like Aaron Donald. Turns out he was just a non-pass-rushing tweener without a position. Which means he was a bust.

That's why drafting defensive linemen purely on traits is dangerous. The tape shows Stewart creates pressure but doesn't finish plays. And as a run defender, he doesn't set a firm edge yet. He's a project.

But the 49ers like drafting project D-linemen in Round 1. See: Thomas and Javon Kinlaw.

Stewart is right up their alley.

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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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