San Francisco 49ers: Grading the 2018 NFL Draft class halfway through the season
By Peter Panacy
With the 2018 season halfway finished, Niner Noise looks at the San Francisco 49ers’ rookie NFL Draft class and dishes out grades so far through the year.
Week 9 is in the books, and the 2018 season is officially halfway through with the San Francisco 49ers riding a 2-7 and fresh off their most dominant win of the year — a 34-3 Thursday Night Football beatdown of the visiting Oakland Raiders.
This is a bright spot in an otherwise forgettable year for head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad, a season in which two of his best offensive weapons, running back Jerick McKinnon and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, were both lost to ACL injuries. And there have been other notable injuries too.
All this has emphasized the realization that 2018 is still about the rebuild and not legitimately competing for a playoff berth.
With any rebuild, the focus is on the rookies. San Francisco’s rookie class looked quite different than the one general manager John Lynch ushered in during he and Shanahan’s inaugural year a season ago. The 49ers kicked off their 2018 NFL Draft class by taking former Notre Dame right tackle Mike McGlinchey, which is looking more and more like a great pickup.
With half of the year finished, it’s time to go back and look at the Niners’ draft class to see just how Lynch’s pickups have fared this season.
We’ll start off with the initial crop of undrafted rookies, many of which are no longer with the team. Since there are very low expectations from this group, Niner Noise will assign the entirety a cumulative grade before jumping into the actual draft picks themselves.
The Undrafted Free Agents
Players have come and gone, but let’s stick to the initial haul after the 2018 NFL Draft.
- RB Jeffery Wilson, North Texas
- WR Steven Dunbar, Houston
- TE Ross Dwelley, San Diego
- OT Jamar McGloster, Syracuse
- C Alan Knott, South Carolina
- C Coleman Shelton, Washington
- DE Patrick Choudja, Nevada
- DT Niles Scott, Florida
- CB Tarvarus McFadden, Florida State
- CB Emmanuel Moseley, Tennessee
- DB Corey Griffin, Georgia Tech
- S Terrell Williams, Houston
The 49ers didn’t exactly wind up with another version of running back Matt Breida in this year’s haul of UDFAs. And out of that group, only Steven Dunbar, Jeffery Wilson and Ross Dwelley remain with the team.
Emmanuel Moseley saw one game with the team before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.
Tarvarus McFadden was a high-profile UDFA. But a lackluster training camp and preseason forced the Niners to part ways with him.
There aren’t any standouts out of this group, but the expectation level wasn’t high to begin with.
Grade: C