All 49ers

NFL Mock Draft: 49ers Pick Texas Safety Andrew Mukuba in Round 3

Safety is one of the 49ers' most overlooked needs this offseason.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 10, 2025; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns defensive back Andrew Mukuba (4) in action during the game between the Texas Longhorns and the Ohio State Buckeyes at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Jan 10, 2025; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Longhorns defensive back Andrew Mukuba (4) in action during the game between the Texas Longhorns and the Ohio State Buckeyes at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

Safety is one of the 49ers' most overlooked needs this offseason.

They have Malik Mustapha who played well at times last season as a rookie. But he is not a proven player. He's promising.

They also have Ji'Ayir Brown who played well at times as a rookie in 2023. He was promising, too. Then, he regressed dramatically in 2024 and got benched for Talanoa Hufanga, who recently signed a multi-year deal with the Denver Broncos.

The 49ers also have Jason Pinnock, a veteran they recently signed to a cheap one-year deal.

Right now, the projected starters are Mustapha and Pinnock. Which means the 49ers probably will spend one of their top picks in the upcoming draft on a safety. That's why I project them to take Texas safety Andrew Mukuba with their compensatory pick in Round 3 (No. 100 overall).

Mukuba is a 5'11" free safety who ran a 4.45 40-yard dash at the Combine in February. He's similar to young Jimmie Ward, who was the 49ers' first-round pick in 2014.

Like Ward, Mukuba is built like a cornerback, he can cover slot receiver and tight ends and play the deep middle of the field as well. He's not quite as good of a tackler as Ward, but he's not a bad tackler, either. If he were better, he wouldn't be available at the end of Round 3.

Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh wants to infuse more speed in the 49ers' defensive backfield. Mukuba will do just that.

Read more

Published
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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News