The 49ers' rookie who has improved most in the first half of the season

This rookie has been a pleasant surprise.

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The San Francisco 49ers' 2025 draft class has had a rocky road to date. However, as some players have hit a rookie wall, one player who has done nothing but ascend is Alfred Collins. Collins made a game-changing play in Week 5, and his most recent four games have been night and day compared to the first four to start his career. 

The San Francisco 49ers are seeing Alfred Collins' progression 

First, Collins could not even get on the field to start his career. Collins had 87 snaps in the first four games of the season, just 34% of the snaps. However, he has become the leading interior defender with 61% of the snaps in the past four weeks. 

While Pro Football Focus grade is not everything, it is worth noting that his grade was 44.6 overall on his first 87 snaps, but now it is 63.1 on the 161 snaps recently. 

Collins had just two pressures and a 4.9 pass rush win rate to start his career, but that is up to five pressures and a 7.2% win rate in the past four weeks. 

Lastly, Collins had just one run stop in the first four games, but that is up to three in the most recent four games that he has played. He is more productive in every metric, and this comes on a per-snap basis as well, not just due to playing more.

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The San Francisco 49ers are starting to see Collins become a hit, and the timing is much-needed. The team has been starting Kalia Davis and Jordan Elliott, but Davis has been playing with a club on his hand, and Elliott just left the 49ers' loss in Houston with an injury. 

Even with Elliott healthy, he has been a disappointment this year, and the team should have been looking to see Collins step in over him anyway. Kevin Givens is slowly returning from injury, and the other rookie, CJ West, has slowly been phased out of the rotation. 

The group would have next to nothing to get excited about if Collins were not taking this step. 

It will be interesting to see if Collins will continue to progress, hit a rookie wall, or ride the wave like some of the other rookies have, which has featured a few ups, but just as many downs. For Collins, it started with a down, but he is trending up in a notable way right now.