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The 49ers Draft Defensive Tackle CJ West in Round 4

This is an incredible draft.
Grant Cohn|
Indiana's CJ West (8) dances after his tackle during the Indiana versus Michigan football game at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Nov. 9, 2024.
Indiana's CJ West (8) dances after his tackle during the Indiana versus Michigan football game at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Nov. 9, 2024. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

SANTA CLARA -- This is an incredible draft.

The 49ers just picked Indiana defensive tackle CJ West in Round 4 with pick No. 113. The 49ers now have spent their first five picks on defensive players, the first time they've done such a thing since 1981 when they won their first Super Bowl.

West is a run-stuffing specialist -- think DJ Jones, whom the 49ers drafted in 2017. He's now a starting defensive tackle for the Denver Broncos who have one of the best defenses in the league. West is built just like him. And he was one of the best interior run defenders in college football last season.

West will have an opportunity to start right away next to fellow rookie Alfred Collins, whom the 49ers drafted in Round 2. Collins is another run stuffer. Together, Collins and West weigh roughly 650 pounds. Good luck running the ball at those two.

With five draft picks, the 49ers have now completely overhauled their defense, particularly the front seven. The starting defensive linemen most likely are Mykel Williams, Collins, West and Nick Bosa, while the starting linebackers probably are Fred Warner and Nick Martin and the starting nickelback most likely is rookie Upton Stout. Quite the makeover.

You have to love Jed York, John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan allowed Robert Saleh to remake the entire defense in his image this offseason. He has built elite defenses in New York and San Francisco and he knows what he needs.

Grade: A.

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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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