Dane Brugler’s latest two-round mock draft is out and he has correctly concentrated on the San Francisco 49ers’ biggest problem as the team looks ahead to 2025 and beyond: the trenches.
This is a team, after all, with a 36-year-old left tackle, Trent Williams, who hasn’t played a full season since 2013 and a defensive line that couldn’t stop the run or sack the quarterback late in the 2024 season.
With the No. 11 pick in the first round, Brugler has the 49ers taking a right tackle, Armand Membou from Missouri.
I’m on the 8th tape for #Missouri RT Armand Membou and I can count the number of pressures allowed on one hand (zero sacks). Love this dude. 📈📈
Looks like a 1st round player. Explosive + controlled in pass pro. Finisher in the run game. Still just 20 years old. pic.twitter.com/HorFXIQSEn
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) December 12, 2024
Membou’s athleticism jumps off the screen. You see him getting out in space, getting ahead of defensive linemen and walling them off, and you think he’d be an excellent fit in a 49ers’ zone-blocking scheme that emphasizes quickness and footwork.
The question is his size. As Brugler suggests in his summary, Membou is one of the many guard-tackle ’tweeners in this year’s draft class. Missouri lists him at 6 -foot-3 and 325 pounds, which makes him seem more like a guard. More important than his height is how long his arms will be when they’re measured later this month at the Senior Bowl.
The 49ers prefer their guards to have at least 33-inch arms and their tackles to have at least 34-inch arms. Here’s offensive line coach Chris Foerster discussing the importance of long levers in 2023.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “You say, ‘OK, this guy he’s a tackle and he has (arms that are) 33 5/8 at the combine, and the other guy’s got 34 1/8. And the difference between a guy that has 33 and whatever I just said, and 34-plus, it could be four or five rounds, and one guy makes it, one guy doesn’t. It’s unbelievable how it shows up. Now, there’s so many more factors that come into it, but you look at it and say, ‘Gosh, it’s funny how come all these tackles are successful, have just over 34(-inch arms).’”
The 49ers make exceptions, of course.
The arms of starting right tackle Colton McKivitz, for example, measure 33 3/4 inches while the team’s longtime backup at the position, Jaylon Moore, has 33 3/8-inch arms. But it’s also important to note that both were fifth-round picks the 49ers initially considered moving to guard.
It’s also worth mentioning that the 49ers turned Dominick Puni, who played tackle at Kansas in 2023, into a guard. His arm length: 33 3/8 inches.
Watching him on tape, it appears Membou’s arms might meet the 34-inch threshold for tackles, but he hasn’t had an official measurement yet. If they fall beneath 34 inches, you have to wonder a) Would the 49ers make an exception early in the first round? And b) Would they take someone they might make into a guard early in the first round?
In the second round, Brugler moves to the other side of the line of scrimmage, sending Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen to the 49ers at pick No. 43.
Nolen is an incredible athlete, just the type of player defensive line coach Kris Kocurek is looking for in his aggressive scheme. If Kocurek wants someone who can fire off the line of scrimmage, get an angle on an offensive lineman and power into the backfield, he’d find that in Nolen. In 2024, he had 6 1/2 sacks, 14 tackles for loss and his 35 quarterback pressures tied for seventh most for an interior defensive lineman, according to Pro Football Focus.
Walter Nolen is the perfect type of player for Kris Kocurek’s aggressive 49ers defense. (Petre Thomas / Imagn Images)
And he may be even better against the run, an area that lapsed — dramatically — for the 49ers in 2024. Nolen seems to pounce on ball carriers as much as tackle them. He can go from being engaged with a blocker to snaring a running back around the legs in the blink of an eye. His run grade from PFF was second only to Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham, a likely top-10 pick.
It’s hard to imagine 49ers fans being upset if Membou and Nolen were the team’s first two picks. Those appear to be the top two needs and the fan base has been pining for a top offensive tackle for years.
But what if the order were reversed? In his initial mock draft, Brugler had the 49ers taking Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon in the first round. Nolen’s 35 quarterback pressures in 2024 are outstanding. Harmon, however, had 55, the most in the nation among interior defensive linemen.
GO DEEPER
49ers mock draft reaction: Derrick Harmon’s a great fit, but is there a tackle to pursue?
If the 49ers went in that direction — either defensive tackle or defensive end — with their first pick, they could still take a guard-tackle ’tweener, Purdue’s Marcus Mbow, in the second. Or maybe they address the center position and take North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel.
Another scenario: Trade back in the first round. Maybe the running back-needy Denver Broncos, at pick No. 20, want to get ahead of the running back-needy Dallas Cowboys at pick No. 12 to draft Boise State tailback Ashton Jeanty and put a call into general manager John Lynch.
Making that trade might allow the 49ers to pick up a more classic tackle, for example Oregon’s Josh Conerly Jr. at the No. 20 spot, draft a defensive lineman like Nolen in the second round and pick up an extra third-round pick in the process.
Hypotheticals solve all problems.
(Top photo: Michael Wade / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
