49ers' Tariq Ahmad goes deep on Nick Martin, CJ West and the entire draft class

New York Times

22-05-2025

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — How do the San Francisco 49ers' 11 draft picks fit into their roster puzzle?
I sat down Wednesday with Tariq Ahmad, the team's director of player personnel and college scouting guru, to discuss a class that was heavy on numbers, heavy on defense and just plain heavy.
'We definitely got bigger, stronger on the D-line,' he said.
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Heading into the draft, Ahmad said the 49ers knew they'd stock up on defensive linemen and that they'd come away with at least one good running back considering the draft was teeming with talent at those positions.
And it was deep overall.
'We were excited to have three picks in the seventh round,' he said. 'We wish we had a few more. There were some other guys that we liked.'
Here's what he had to say about the team's selections:
A year ago, the 49ers' scouting combine interview with safety Malik Mustapha was one of their most memorable of the draft process.
'Mature, extremely bright, confident,' Ahmad said last year of Mustapha, who'd go on to start 12 games. 'He left a very positive impression.'
He said two interviews stood out in this year's cycle. The first was Williams'.
'It matched up with everything the school told us — the intensity, passion,' Ahmad said. 'He made a great initial impression.'
Williams played virtually all of his final season at Georgia with a Grade 2 high ankle sprain, and John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan said on draft night that they were impressed by the 20-year-old's grit. It turns out Williams did more than play through the injury on Saturdays.
When national scout Steve Rubio went to Georgia for a practice, he noted that Williams not only took every practice repetition on the bad ankle but practiced for another 20 minutes after the formal session ended.
'That was a story that stood out to us,' Ahmad said.
The 49ers were sold on Williams early on and did their best to hide their affection for him. Because he was still recovering from the ankle injury during the offseason, Williams worked out for scouts late in the process — a week before the draft.
'I really wanted to go back for Mykel's workout,' Ahmad said with a smile. 'I was itching to go back, but John thought it was a better idea to just watch the tape.'
Texas was a frequent stop for 49ers' evaluators in recent years and because of that they ended up with a number of reports on Collins — 19 to be exact.
All of them noted how fast someone his size — 6-6, 332 pounds — reached ball carriers.
'Alfred can get off blocks and cover a short area very quickly,' Ahmad said.
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The 49ers also had some inside information. Ahmad spent seven seasons at Rutgers University with assistant coach Kyle Flood, who's now Texas' offensive line coach.
'One of the things he kept telling me about Alfred was that Alfred destroys practice,' Ahmad said. 'He's the hardest guy that they had to block on the interior of the defensive line — getting off blocks, creating knockbacks.'
Texas often asked Collins to handle two gaps on their defensive line. The 49ers want their linemen attacking and playing aggressively. When he picks up their style, the 49ers think his modest college pass-rush numbers — just one sack last season — will increase.
'He doesn't attack like we attack,' Ahmad said. 'But because of his length and his power we feel we can get that out of him.'
The other player who dazzled in his combine interview was Martin.
Ahmad noted that both linebackers coach Johnny Holland and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, a former linebackers coach, fell in love with Martin during the draft process.
'He definitely was one of our consensus guys,' he said. 'We had him at that combine interview and everyone was extremely excited about him. He was a guy we were targeting.'
Ahmad said the 49ers wanted someone with the communication skills to call defensive plays should Fred Warner ever have to come out of a game. Martin did that at Oklahoma State.
And they were looking for a defender who could lead a group of rookie defenders the team might have to lean on — heavily — this season. Martin was a two-time team captain in college.
'It's important when we're considering how the rookies are going to mesh together,' Ahmad said. 'Who's going to be the leader of that group? Who's going to push guys to watch extra tape, to be on the field extra?'
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The 49ers hope Martin can fill the weakside role Dre Greenlaw played so well in recent seasons.
'Body structure-wise, they're a little different,' Ahmad said. 'But the aggressiveness, physicality, play speed, the passion? There's a lot of ways to compare those two guys. Everyone's different, but we're hoping.'
The 49ers hosted Stout on an official visit and noted that his personality mirrors the way he plays.
'The thing that stands out most when you watch Upton's tape is his demeanor and his aggressiveness,' Ahmad said. 'He plays like he loves football. He plays in run support like he loves — loves — getting to the ball. It's exactly the passion, the mentality we're looking for.'
Ahmad said something similar about second-round cornerback Renardo Green a year ago — that tackling and run support were his favorite parts of the game.
'That's who we want to be on defense,' he said Wednesday. 'We want guys who play fast and process quickly and then have the mentality of being aggressive. We want people who strain to get to the ball. Similar to Malik, who constantly is straining to get to the ball.'
At 5-8 1/2 inches, Stout was one of the shortest defenders in the draft. But Ahmad said he doesn't think of him as small. He noted that Stout's 74 1/2-inch wingspan is average for a nickel cornerback and that he's thickly built, moreso than former 49ers nickel back K'Waun Williams, to whom Stout's been compared.
Stout also has an outsized personality, which the 49ers experienced during his visit.
'We absolutely loved his passion,' Ahmad said. 'Every time he walked into the room, he lit the room up. It's similar to the way he plays.'
When the 49ers hired defensive line coach Kris Kocurek in 2019, Ahmad was the scout who cross-checked the draft's defensive linemen. Which meant the two worked together a lot, and they became close as a result.
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It also means Ahmad knows that Kocurek pines for quick, powerful defensive linemen. That's West, whose 1.73-second 10-yard split at the combine — at 316 pounds — was one of the fastest at his position.
Ahmad noted that West didn't use the get-off technique the 49ers prefer but that the raw ability is obvious.
'He's someone we think still has a lot of untapped upside,' he said. 'He's someone we're going to have to teach how to get off the ball the way we get off the ball. He is a powerful, heavy guy. He's got twitch, he's got short area movement, he's got instincts.'
West also was one of the best defensive players at the East-West Shrine Bowl all-star game.
'We really felt his size and his quickness while he was there,' Ahmad said. 'And he was a great interview.'
Ahmad said he thought Watkins looked as good as any receiver at the combine, especially in the gauntlet drill. That's the one in which the player is asked to run in a straight line from one sideline to the next while quarterbacks fire them passes from both directions.
The 49ers look for receivers who do it smoothly, who don't stray from their line and who can complete it quickly.
'We think it's one of the best measures of natural hands,' Ahmad said. 'Can they stay in a straight line and naturally pluck the ball and react and do it again?'
Watkins reached 19.78 mph during the drill, the second fastest speed among the receivers. And his Pro Football Focus numbers support the good-hands assessment. He had six drops over his college career, according to the site. For comparison, the first receiver taken in the draft, Tetairoa McMillan, had seven drops last season.
Perfect Gauntlet #FTTB #49ers WR Jordan Watkins after running a 4.37 💨 pic.twitter.com/XPjrOxGsTN
— WayneBreezie (@thewaynebreezie) April 29, 2025
Ahmad said the scouting staff left the combine impressed with Watkins and that the more the coaching staff became involved, the higher he climbed on the team's draft board. Watkins also has many of the traits — loose in his lower body, strong change-of-direction skills, fluidity — Shanahan, who is hard to impress when it comes to receivers, covets.
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'Kyle was a big fan,' Ahmad said. 'He was a very big fan of his.'
The 49ers had a big contingent — including Lynch and Ahmad — at Oregon's pro day where James stood out.
'We were standing right behind him and we thought he had an excellent workout,' Ahmad said.
Whereas the tailback they drafted last year, Isaac Guerendo, was prominent for his speed, James' top traits are his strength and acceleration. More than half of his 2,215 rushing yards in college came after contact.
Ahmad said the 49ers drafted James thinking he'd be a nice complement to Guerendo.
'We spent a lot of time on running backs this year,' he said. 'It was a very deep group and there was definitely an opportunity for us to get someone anywhere, from the first round through the seventh round. And I think we walked away with two (including undrafted Corey Kiner) that can help us.'
Ahmad said the 49ers had a draftable grade on Kiner (but would not reveal what that grade was).
Sigle, who ran his 40 in 4.37 seconds, is the fastest safety the 49ers have drafted since they took Tarvarius Moore (4.32 seconds) in the third round in 2018.
Whereas Moore had trouble with tackling angles as a safety, that hasn't been a problem for Sigle.
'I love the way he closes and is able to erase mistakes because of that speed,' Ahmad said. 'And I loved the physicality with which he played. He got to the ball consistently at a very high rate.'
Sigle started out as a cornerback at North Dakota State and played a lot in the slot after transferring to Kansas State. Ahmad noted that some of Sigle's deep safety skills might have to be 'developed' by the 49ers but that the raw ability is in place.
Moore was a dime defender at times for the 49ers and Sigle could play there, too.
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'That would be natural for him,' Ahmad said. 'But I'm not sure we've gotten to that yet.'
Rourke attempted 1,283 passes at Ohio and Indiana, which was almost as many as Brock Purdy (1,467) had in college and, of course, far more than Trey Lance (318) had when entering the NFL.
'It's something we value,' Ahmad said. 'We value meaningful reps, game reps at all positions and especially at that position. And (Rourke) not only had the reps, he played the position at a high level.'
Ahmad said Rourke stood out in processing speed, decision-making (29-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio last season at Indiana) and accuracy. He also was a favorite of new quarterbacks coach Mick Lombardi.
'He just attacks the tape,' Ahmad said of Lombardi. 'He had his list done a month before we were gonna review quarterbacks. So we were talking about all these guys for a month and Kurtis was someone that he really, really liked — toward the top of his stack.'
Offensive line coach Chris Foerster might be even harder to please when it comes to his position group than Shanahan is with receivers.
'Chris is an extremely realistic grader,' Ahmad said. 'He's excellent at the evaluation of not only the talent and the product they put on the film but also the mentality. And (Colby) was one of the guys he believes in.'
Colby largely played right guard at Iowa, which made for an easier elevation than most linemen because the Hawkeyes' and 49ers' run games are so similar.
Ahmad noted that because Iowa players run such a comparable system, the 49ers have to guard against over-rating them.
'It's a little tricky,' he said. 'They're also doing what we want them to do, so there could be a tendency for us to like them more.'
That said, the team thinks Colby will be a good fit.
'I thought he was really strong in the run game,' Ahmad said. 'I really like his lower body — his bend, his lower-body power.'
The 49ers couldn't say no to Bergen when it came to their final pick. Or rather, they couldn't say no to their special teams coaches.
The son of coordinator Brant Boyer is the kicker at Montana while Boyer's top assistant, Colt Anderson, played safety for the Grizzlies from 2004 to 2008.
That is, the duo had inside connections and did a lot of research on Bergen, who scored eight punt-return touchdowns in college and averaged nearly 17 yards per return.
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'When he was there with our last pick and the special teams coaches are standing on the table emphatically for him, it makes it easier to draft him,' Ahmad said.
Bergen's return skills are more impressive than his receiving skills, and if he makes the 2025 roster it will likely be as the primary punt returner.
'It's a combination of instincts and fearlessness,' Ahmad said. 'I think these great punt returners can see it and react to it and run through it all full speed. They have the vision to set things up and then they can get downhill.'
(Top photo of Nick Martin: D. Ross Cameron / Imagn Images)