The San Francisco 49ers may be giving us some insight into what their first-round plans are in the 2025 NFL draft.
A slew of reported pre-draft visits for the 49ers have centered around defensive tackles. That's not a surprise. The defensive line is perhaps their biggest position of need. However, a lot of their visits have been with DL who aren't projected to go in the first round.
The most recent example is a formal combine visit for the 49ers with University of Georgia defensive lineman Warren Brinson, which was reported by the Draft Network's Justin Melo. He's 6-5, 315 pounds and a good athlete who could conceivably play all four spots on San Francisco's defensive front. His production in college wasn't great though, leaving him as a projected Day 3 pick in this year's draft. Brinson joins players like Tennessee's Omarr Norman-Lott, Ohio State's Tyleik Williams, Georgia's Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins and Penn State's Coziah Izzard as DT prospects expected to go outside of Round 1 to have meetings or visits with the 49ers.
This could simply signal the 49ers are looking into the depth in this year's class because they want to select more than one with their scheduled 11 picks. It may also signal that San Francisco is getting a feel for the depth in this year's class because they don't plan on picking a DL in the first round.
They've met with a handful of first-round prospects as well, but the amount of time they're spending with players later in the DL class. At the same time, they've yet to have a reported visit with any of the projected first-round offensive linemen. The last time they picked an OL in the first round was Mike McGlinchey in the 2018 draft. San Francisco did not express any interest in the offensive tackle from Notre Dame leading up to the draft.
With prospects like Texas' Kelvin Banks, Missouri's Armand Membou, LSU's Will Campbell and Oregon's Josh Conerly all potentially available for the 49ers in the first round, they may be looking to go that route again and deploying a strategy similar to the one they used when they drafted McGlinchey.
That would help explain their interest in the depth of this year's defensive line class, and it would also help explain why they've done zero meetings with offensive linemen despite it being an area of their roster that needs improvement for the short and long-term.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 2025 NFL draft: Are 49ers tipping plans for 1st-round pick?
