Grading the 49ers' rookies after 10 games

Early returns haven't been great.

Sep 28, 2025; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers cornerback Upton Stout (20) after the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

They say you can't really judge rookies for the first three years of their career. And there is some truth to that.

So, consider this a progress report, not a final report card. The 49ers have played just 10 games this season, so their rookies still are extremely green. None of them are final products. And yet, we have an idea of what they can become.

With that in mind, here are the 49ers' rookies grades through 10 games. To be clear, I'm grading the picks, not the players, which means their grades take into account where they were drafted.

Round 1 | Mykel Williams: C

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Williams is the kind of player teams would love to draft in Round 2. He's a legitimate starter and a clear-cut asset to any defense on first and second down because he's so good at stopping the run.

But on third down, Williams doesn't offer much value. The 49ers move him to defensive tackle to give him advantageous one-on-one matchups against guards, but still, he rarely wins because he doesn't have pass-rush moves. It will be interesting to see how he develops when he returns from a torn ACL he suffered in Week 9. The 49ers have a bad track record when it comes to teaching pass-rush moves to defensive linemen who don't have them.

Keep in mind, Williams was the 11th pick in the draft. The 49ers took him instead of Tyler Warren, Jalon Walker, Walter Nolen, Grey Zabel, Emeka Egbuka, Derrick Harmon, Omarion Hampton and Jaxson Dart -- all of whom look like future Pro Bowlers.

Meanwhile, Williams had just 1 sack and 3 quarterback hits in 9 games. He might never become a Pro Bowl player.

Round 2 | Alfred Collins: B

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While Mykel Williams essentially is a small defensive tackle, Alfred Collins is an enormous one. And even though he offers nothing as a pass rusher, neither does Williams, and Collins wasn't a first-round pick. Which means Collins seems like a better selection than Williams, given when the 49ers took them.

Collins has made steady improvements since training camp, when he was one of the worst players on the practice field. Now, he's arguably the best defensive tackle on the team when healthy (he missed Sunday's game against the Rams with a hip injury). Still, he never should play on third down.

Round 3 | Nick Martin: F

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The 49ers took Martin with the 75th pick even though every draft outlet projected him to get taken in Round 5 at the earliest. I don't know what the 49ers thought they saw in Martin, but they don't see it anymore, considering we're entering Week 11 and he still hasn't played a snap at linebacker despite Fred Warner going down for the season with an ankle injury.

Martin is firmly at the bottom of the depth chart, and the 49ers seem like they would play a safety at linebacker before they would play Martin. Given how poorly his rookie season has gone, there's a chance he'll get cut next year.

Instead of taking Martin, the 49ers could have had running back Cam Skattebo, who looked like a future Pro Bowler before going down for the season with an ankle injury. Skattebo would have been a perfect fit and an instant contributor.

Round 3 | Upton Stout: B

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The coaches clearly love him. He has started at nickel since Week 1 despite missing the preseason due to an injury. And he plays with zero fear. He's 5'8" and he throws around his body like he's a linebacker.

But he simply isn't good in coverage yet. In nine games, he has been targeted 44 times and has given up 36 catches (81.8 percent). He's lost. To be fair, nickelback is an incredibly difficult position to play. Still, he might not be cut out to play it in the NFL.

The 49ers might want to give Stout a look at free safety considering how good of a tackler he is.

Round 4 | CJ West: D

Oct 19, 2025; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle CJ West (99) after the game against the Atlanta Falcons at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

West was the star of the one-on-one pass-rush drills in training camp. But through the first half of his rookie season, he has zero sacks, zero quarterback hits and zero tackles for loss. He also has been a healthy scratch multiple times and has played just 117 snaps on defense.

That's because he has extremely short arms, and he can't disengage from blocks, so he gets pushed around. He's not the run-stuffer the 49ers hoped he would be. He's a fringe NFL player.

Round 4 | Jordan Watkins: C

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Watkins didn't play in the first seven games of the season, but he did play the past three, and in those games, he caught just 2 passes for 26 yards. It seems like he's still learning the offense and doesn't always know where to line up or which route to run. Meaning the quarterbacks and Kyle Shanahan can't trust him yet.

To be fair, Ricky Pearsall had a five-game stretch last season during which he caught just two passes, and he was a first-round pick. He looks terrific when healthy. So you can't write off a rookie wide receiver on the 49ers if he doesn't produce right away, because Kyle Shanahan generally doesn't like playing rookies.

Still, Watkins hasn't shown much to make you think he's a future starter.

Round 5 | Jordan James: F

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He missed most of training camp, the entire preseason and has been inactive for all 10 games so far this season. Barring injury, he won't suit up at all during his rookie season. Which means he might be the next running back the 49ers instantly regretted drafting along with Trey Sermon, Ty Davis-Price and Joe Williams.

Keep in mind, the 49ers essentially traded Deebo Samuel for James. And Samuel isn't what he once was, but at least he plays.

Round 5 | Marques Sigle: C

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Sigle started the first seven games of the season in place of Malik Mustapha who was recovering from an ACL injury. And at times, Sigle seemed like a legitimate starter, which is impressive for a late fifth-round pick.

Sigle's best quality is his run defense. He's fast, he swarms to the ball quickly and he's a good tackler. But he's so bad in coverage, the 49ers can't play him anymore. He gave up a passer rating of 155.7. That's because he can't line up at strong safety and cover tight ends, nor can he line up at free safety without getting beaten over the top.

It's unclear if he has a position he can play, but he does have intriguing potential for a late-round pick.

Round 7 | Kurtis Rourke: Inc.

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Rourke had ACL surgery before the 49ers drafted him and will not play at all this season. We'll get a sense of what he can do as a quarterback during OTAs in a few months.

Round 7 | Connor Colby: C

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Colby started six games this season while veterans Ben Bartch and Spencer Burford were injured, and Colby was awful. To be fair, he was playing through a groin injury, and the 49ers didn't draft him with the expectation that he'd become a starter -- he's practically an undrafted free agent. If he can fill in for a few games here and there in the future, he'll be a good pick.

But Colby will have to improve dramatically to ever be more than a liability on the field.

Final grade: C-Minus

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Alfred Collins and Upton Stout seem like solid picks given where they were taken. Mykel Williams looks like a good player but a huge reach. And the rest of the rookie class is unproven at best and underwhelming at worst.

The 49ers need to draft lots of impact players the next few years to build a contending team while Brock Purdy is getting paid $53 million per season. And as of now, it doesn't appear the 49ers drafted any true difference makers this year. Meanwhile, they passed on a bunch of them in the first and third rounds.

Maybe some of the 49ers' will improve during the next couple months. Stay tuned.