Two 49ers rookies' stocks have cratered at midway point of season

These two seemed so promising just a few weeks ago.

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The San Francisco 49ers' rookie class has been a roller coaster with ups and downs as the team has relied on its rookies more than most teams do. The team had been getting contributions from two late-round picks, which looks impressive on paper, but Sunday showed just how willing the team was to take Connor Colby and Marques Sigle out of their plans. 

San Francisco 49ers bench Marques Sigle and Connor Colby

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Sigle was a fifth-round pick from Kansas State and started the first five games of the season. After a promising preseason, fans thought he could develop into a future starter. However, through five games, he had the most yards allowed by any safety in coverage. 

In Week 6, Malik Mustapha came back. The 49ers used Sigle in a platoon with Mustapha for two games, but once Mustapha took his role back over, there were no more snaps for Sigle. The 49ers move Ji’Ayir Brown into the starting lineup and slide Jason Pinnock into the nickel, making Sigle the fourth safety.

With all of the playing time on defense, Sigle never gained much special teams experience, and without a real role in that area, the team made him a healthy inactive in Week. 9. That is a steep fall from his expectations in August.

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The 49ers' seventh-round pick, Connor Colby, was only starting because Ben Bartch was injured, but his six-game stint as a starter was arguably worse than Sigle's. Colby showed a lot of promise as a run blocker, but he was unplayable in pass protection. The 49ers gave him four starts, and in his fifth start, they tried to pull him for Nick Zakelj. Last week, Zakelj finished the game for Colby, and this week Spencer Burford came off the IR to start for him. 

It says a lot that Burford spent the entire summer as the backup left tackle, not even competing at guard, then he spent the last month injured and still immediately returned to replace Colby and showed to be an upgrade.

A fifth-round pick and a seventh-round pick, totalling 11 starts in their rookie season, is something that does not happen much, and typically, teams doing that have much worse records. 

So, for the 49ers to sit at 6-3 and have gotten them a lot of needed experience, it is not a bad thing. However, now you have to wonder if this is the last we have seen of Colby and Sigle. Sigle could still see a rotational role at some point, but there is a chance the team will not trust him to start again.