Defensive Tackle C.J. West was the 49ers' Biggest Steal of the Draft

West has an opportunity to start right away.

Indiana defensive lineman C.J. West speaks to the media during the 2025 NFL draft. | Clark Wade/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The 49ers don't seem to care how the rest of the NFL ranks draft prospects.

Instead, the 49ers stick to their draft board and pick players who fit their scheme. As a result, they tend to reach for players and take them much earlier than other teams would. They do this every year.

This year, the 49ers reached for Alfred Collins in Round 2 and Nick Martin and Upton Stout in Round 3. Keep in mind, these players all have talent and fit the 49ers' defensive scheme, so they could become terrific players. But the 49ers probably could have gotten Martin and Stout in particular with later picks.

That's why Pro Football Focus' Trevor Sikkema says fourth-round pick C.J. West, the defensive tackle from Indiana, was the 49ers' best value in the draft.

"I was not the biggest fan of the 49ers’ draft, as a whole," Sikkema writes, "but I think they got very good value with West in the fourth round. He will aid a team that needed to get much stronger up front in the trenches against the run, as he posted an 88.1 PFF run-defense grade in 2024."

West was projected to get drafted at the end of Round 3 or the beginning of Round 4, so he actually fell a few spots to the 49ers. They did not reach for him. And he has an opportunity to start right away next to second-round pick Alfred Collins.

Both Collins and West were elite run defenders in college. And Collins got drafted two rounds before West because Collins is bigger than him. But West actually posted better pass rush statistics last season than Collins did.

Even if West is nothing more than a two-down nose tackle who's staunch against the run, he'll be worth the fourth-round pick the 49ers used to draft him.