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Zero 49ers Rank in PFF's Top 25 Players Under 25 for 2025

The best young player the 49ers have probably is second-year guard Dominick Puni. He was one of the best rookie offensive linemen in the NFL last season. But he's 25.

Grant Cohn

Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The 49ers' roster is top-heavy.

They have eight players to whom they've given major contract extensions -- Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Trent Williams, Brandon Aiyuk, Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Deommodore Lenoir.

Lenoir and Purdy are 25. Aiyuk and Bosa are 27. McCaffrey and Warner are 28. Kittle is 31. And Williams is 36. Some younger, some older.

But, the 49ers don't currently have an elite player who's on a rookie deal and younger than 25. Pro Football Focus just ranked the NFL's top 25 players under 25 and zero 49ers made the list.

The best young player the 49ers have probably is second-year guard Dominick Puni. He was one of the best rookie offensive linemen in the NFL last season. But he's 25.

The best player on the 49ers who's younger than 25 probably is Ricky Pearsall, but he'll turn 25 in September. The 49ers also have Isaac Guerendo who will turn 25 in June.

So it's no wonder the 49ers drafted 20-year-old Mykel Williams with their first-round pick this year. They desperately need young talent on their roster. The Rams have Puka Nacua who's only 23. And the Eagles have Jalen Carter who just turned 24. Plus they have Cooper DeJean who's only 22.

The best player in the NFL younger than 25 according to Pro Football Focus is Penei Sewell, who still is just 24 despite being drafted in 2021. He was taken four picks after the 49ers took Trey Lance. That was one of many terrible draft picks the 49ers have made in the past few years.

No wonder their roster is so top-heavy.

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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.

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