Latest news with #MarquesSigle
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
The San Francisco 49ers may need rookie safety Marques Sigle to take a significant role in his first season.
The San Francisco 49ers may need rookie safety Marques Sigle to take a significant role in his first season. originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The San Francisco 49ers made a whopping 11 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, and six of them were on defense. With that being said, the team still has a hole on that side of the ball. Advertisement The Niners lost standout safety Talanoa Hufanga to the Denver Broncos in free agency earlier this offseason, so the team's depth at the position does not inspire a lot of confidence. It also does not help that sophomore defensive back Malik Mustapaha will be out with an ACL tear until at least the middle of the season. As a result, the team will need someone to step up and be a guy they can count on to help them over the top. And they might have selected that guy with the 160th overall pick in the fifth round of this year's draft. Kansas State's Marques Sigle will likely be out with an injury until the 49ers' training camp, he could be just the player that the team needs to help them in this time of need at the safety position. He finished his final season with the Wildcats with 60 total tackles, seven of them being for a loss. He was also able to show his ball-hawk skills with a few defended passes and three interceptions. Advertisement It does not sound like the 2025 fifth-round draft pick will be ready quite yet … but when he is, the team may need to call on him to provide some depth in their secondary - or maybe more than just depth. Related: Niners' Blockbuster Trade Piece Named Biggest Loss Related: Nick Bosa Excited About Niners' Rookie Williams For One Reason This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
49ers rookie Marques Sigle eager for a new audience to get to know his name
He didn't have a lot of followers back then, but Marques Sigle took to what was then known as Twitter on Jan. 7, 2023, to let everyone out there know. And … maybe the former reserve cornerback for North Dakota State was telling himself something, with a nudge, as well. If you didn't know my name, you will soon!!! — Marques Sigle (@MarMar1k30) January 7, 2023 Sigle had entered the transfer portal a month and a half earlier, just as North Dakota State's regular season ended. He sat out of the FCS playoffs as the Bison tried to make a run at a second straight national championship — they lost in the title game to South Dakota State — and transferred to Kansas State in December. After not starting a game in three seasons at North Dakota State, he made an immediate impact at Manhattan, Kan., moving to safety and leading the team in tackles one year and interceptions the next. Advertisement Now, his old tweet meets a new audience after Sigle was drafted in the fifth round by the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago. 'Now they know my name,' an excited Sigle said Monday in a phone interview ahead of the team's rookie minicamp that begins Friday. 'I just kept working, and people still didn't know my name before the scouting combine. People thought I was going to run a 4.5 or a 4.6 … And some people still didn't know my name before the draft, but now they do.' The post still rings true, and always will. 'I am always going to try and prove myself, even when I start getting credit,' Sigle said. Sigle ran a 4.37 40-yard dash after receiving a late invite to the NFL Scouting Combine. It was the fastest time among safeties. A strong tackler in the run game, the 5-foot-11, 199-pound Sigle impressed scouts with his coverage skills at the East-West Shrine Bowl — yes, after another last-minute invitation. 'He's awesome,' said 49ers general manager John Lynch, a Hall of Fame safety. 'He's played nickel. He's a guy who can really run. I never knew watching him on the field (but) that is a blazing time, and he's got a lot of versatility to his game. 'He's a good tackler. He takes the fight to the ball carrier to the receiver. I think he's going to be a really good fit for us.' While we thought the 49ers drafted five possible defensive starters, the number might even be six with Sigle when you consider that safety Malik Mustapha is expected to miss the start of the season. Mustapha started 12 games as a rookie in 2024, but didn't finish the season finale after he damaged the graft that was used to repair an ACL tear he sustained in 2022. (We had some fun with player comps in Wednesday's story, and new and former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh may be seeing a little Jimmie Ward in Sigle. They are the same size, fast and can play different spots.) Advertisement It's a great opportunity for Sigle, who tends to make the most out of those. 'Marques is tremendous,' Kansas State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman said in a phone interview. 'I think he is going to play for a lot of years. He is versatile and can play a lot of different positions and is a hard worker, and I think he is going to be a good leader. I think the world of him.' The chip on Sigle's shoulder is permanently attached. 'He has had that since high school, and that's why he is going to be successful,' Klanderman said. 'He is going to outwork a lot of people on the 49ers, and he is not afraid to do the dirty work. He looks forward to special teams.' Sigle had first started thinking the NFL was a possibility during the 2022 draft when Bison teammate Christian Watson was selected in the second round by the Green Bay Packers. Sigle felt he had held his own against Watson in practice and wanted to prove himself on a bigger stage. Sigle had gone to North Dakota State because 'not too many people are recruited' out of Omaha, Neb. 'I have been overlooked my whole life, so it was nothing new, really,' Sigle said. His first fall season was cancelled due to COVID-19 — aside from one game against Central Arkansas that was essentially a Trey Lance showcase — and he redshirted after playing only in the opener of the rescheduled spring season. Then a back injury buried him on the depth chart in his second season. He thought he made his opportunities count, but, for whatever reason, never cracked the lineup until he changed schools. Klanderman thought moving Sigle to safety made too much sense. 'He is a natural leader and a good communicator, so we wanted to take advantage of that, and he was big enough and physical enough,' he said. 'It was a natural change for him.' The coach was watching the combine at home, and like Sigle's teammates, he had been a little skeptical when Sigle told him his practice times in the 40. Advertisement 'We were dancing around the living room, going crazy when he did that,' Klanderman said. Sigle said he was 'actually disappointed' that he didn't set a new safety record at 4.34. Marques Sigle had the fastest 40-yard dash among safeties (4.37s) @KStateFB According to @NextGenStats, Sigle's speed within the first yards of his run (15.13 mph) is the third-fastest mark by any prospect over the last three years, regardless of position. 📺: #NFLCombine on… — NFL+ (@NFLPlus) February 28, 2025 'The 4.37 definitely turned a lot of heads around the league,' The Athletic's draft expert Dane Brugler said. 'And he's a guy that you feel good about his floor. Because at the very least, he is going to come in and he has all the tools to be a very good special-teams player. 'You always bet on that speed.' The Shrine Bowl did after overlooking him at first, and Sigle said he 'treated every game like a practice. I wanted to prove I deserved to be there from the second I walked on the field.' After watching him all week, Shrine Bowl director of player personnel Eric Galko thought Sigle should have been drafted before the fifth round. 'He was one of the most athletic DBs in the entire draft class, and Kansas State moved him around quite a bit,' Galko said in a phone interview. 'He can play both safety spots and nickel and even outside corner in a pinch. It's hard to find guys who can hold their own at all those spots. 'He can go against all different kinds of receivers, and he trusts his athletic ability.' #49ers got an extremely twitchy and bursty defensive back in Marques Sigle. He showcased his ability as a coverage and run-defending nickel and safety at Kansas State and during @ShrineBowl week (including this hit and forced fumble in the game). Great, versatile value for the… — Eric Galko (@EricGalko) April 26, 2025 A key part of being versatile, Sigle said, is 'being able to learn a playbook in a short amount of time.' And that's something he plans to show 49ers coaches when he hits rookie camp this week. Sigle's heard the Ward comp and said, 'I know I can fit in well in this system. They have a vision for me, and now it's time to turn that vision into reality.'
New York Times
27-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
49ers' Malik Mustapha to miss start of season with knee injury: Source
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — San Francisco 49ers fifth-round draft pick Marques Sigle might have a better-than-expected shot at a prominent role this season after it was revealed that one of last year's top safeties is recovering from a serious knee injury. ESPN reported Saturday that Malik Mustapha, who started 12 games as a rookie in 2024, damaged the graft that was used to repair an ACL tear he sustained while at Wake Forest in 2022. Mustapha is believed to have suffered the injury in the 49ers' season finale against the Arizona Cardinals on Jan. 5. He left that contest in the second quarter and didn't return. Advertisement While the injury isn't considered as severe as a complete rupture, which can affect the meniscus in the knee, he's still expected to be out until roughly the midpoint of the season, a league source confirmed. Meanwhile, another 2024 starter at safety, Talanoa Hufanga, signed a three-year deal with the Denver Broncos last month. That likely leaves the 49ers with Ji'Ayir Brown as the front-runner for one of the safety spots with an offseason competition for the other. Among the contenders are George Odum, who started two games for the 49ers last year, and free-agent additions Jason Pinnock and Richie Grant, who have 39 and 33 career starts, respectively. Sigle is another option. He was one of the fastest defensive backs at the combine, running his 40-yard dash in 4.37 seconds. He played cornerback at North Dakota State before transferring to Kansas State, where he was used as a hybrid safety/nickel cornerback. Sigle said his versatility was one of his best attributes. 'I can play multiple positions,' he said Saturday. 'I can play free safety, strong safety, nickel and dime.' General manager John Lynch agreed. 'First of all, he's a bow-legged safety and like I told him, you can't go wrong with the bow-legged safety,' Lynch said. 'He's a good tackler. A term we use is 'taking the grass' and this is a guy who takes the grass. He takes the fight to the ball carrier to the receiver. I think he's going to be a really good fit for us.'
