The San Francisco 49ers have been forced to lean heavily on their rookie class through eight games of the 2024 season. Injuries have been the main instigator there, as head coach Kyle Shanahan is often not terribly keen on throwing his young players into the fire.
But ailments suffered by incumbent starters, such as offensive guard Jon Feliciano, safety Talanoa Hufanga, and linebacker Dre Greenlaw have elevated some of the first-year guys to key spots, as well as poor performances from free-agent veterans like cornerback Isaac Yiadom.
And so that has led to each of the Niners' 2024 draft picks (save for one, offensive lineman Jarrett Kingston, who was cut before the season starter and is now with the Carolina Panthers) playing a key role in the outcome of the year so far.
With that in mind, let's give each drafted rookie a midterm grade based on his performance through eight games.
Not every player has featured in his current role since the start of the season, so that will be taken into account. But, given the Niners' bye in Week 9, it is a good time to stop and consider how effective each member of the 2024 draft class has been so far.
WR Ricky Pearsall, 1st round, 31st overall
The 49ers' first-rounder will no doubt be grade on a curve for his first-half contributions.
Ricky Pearsall, a wide receiver out of Florida whom the Niners selected with their first-round pick, started off slowly, as a series of injuries derailed his offseason program and ability to be a major part of OTAs and training camp.
But, the incident on Aug. 31 that led to Pearsall being shot in the chest, delayed the beginning of his rookie season even further. Miraculously, the wideout made his debut in Week 7 against the Kansas City Chiefs, just 50 days after surviving the shooting.
That alone overshadows his lack of production on the field, although he has shown flashes of why the 49ers made him their first-round pick since being thrust into action.
The injury to fellow receiver Brandon Aiyuk, and wideout Deebo Samuel's illness, led to Pearsall playing 76 percent of the 49ers' offensive snaps against Kansas City, although that number went down to 59 percent in the Week 8 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Through two games, Pearsall has seven receptions on nine targets for 59 yards and two first downs, along with a very impressive jet-sweep carry to net him 39 yards against Dallas.
If this grade was simply based on how incredible it is that he's back playing football so soon, or even at all, then it's an easy A-mark. But there's little doubt that Pearsall will need to continue to improve and contribute if the 49ers want to have more success in the second half.
Grade (on a curve): B
DB Renardo Green, 2nd round, 64th overall
There was some chatter coming out of training camp that Renardo Green, the second-round pick out of Florida State, was going to be the starting nickel back.
That didn't materialize right away, as free agent Isaac Yiadom was the guy the 49ers leaned on for the first few weeks of the season, as Deommodore Lenoir moved inside and Yiadom covered the outside in nickel situations.
But the rookie cornerback slowly began to see more time on defense after making his debut in Week 1 purely as a special teams player, as he played four defensive snaps in Week 2, five in Week 3, and saw a big jump to 23 in Week 4 against the New England Patriots.
And since a down game against the Arizona Cardinals (just one defensive snap), he's seen massive increases in his defensive usage. He played nearly the entire game on defense against the Seattle Seahawks (likely due to the Charvarius Ward injury) and has been at 63 percent and 73 percent of snaps the final two weeks of the first half.
Green's first career interception against the Seahawks came on a fantastic instinctive play, helping the 49ers seal their win over the division rivals. He's shown good skill as a coverage guy, allowing a paltry 43.8 completion percentage on 17 targets, according to Pro Football Reference's data (although the yards per completion and two touchdowns allowed are numbers you'd like to see improve).
If the Niners have a starter in Green, particuarly with Lenoir likely playing his way toward a massive contract the 49ers won't be able to afford, then they got a second round steal.
Green is certainly heading into the right direction.
Grade: B
OL Dominick Puni, 3rd round, 86th overall
The steal of the entire draft, at least from a 49ers' perspective, happened in Round 3.
When the Niners selected Dominick Puni out of Kansas, the expectation, as it has been for basically every offensive lineman they've drafted in the John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan era, was the rookie would be a depth piece for year one, with an eye of taking over as a starter in Year 2. Call it the "Aaron Banks Model."
But then, versatile lineman Jon Feliciano got hurt (and remains so), and Spencer Burford was injured during training camp, opening the door for Puni to step into the starting right guard slot.
The rookie kicked it open and slammed the door shut, and he appears to have the makings of a long-term starter, possibly even at another position for San Francisco.
Puni has played every snap on offense and even 20 percent of special teams snaps while allowing zero sacks and just 14 pressures with one penalty called against him, according to Pro Football Focus. He grades out as the site's 12th best guard through eight games.
To add to that, Nick Wagoner of ESPN NFL adds this:
#49ers RG Dominick Puni has played 549 snaps this year, the most among all rookies regardless of position.
— Nick Wagoner (@nwagoner) October 28, 2024
Puni ranks ranks 12th among guards in pass block win rate (94.1%) and his run block win rate of 74.5% is 14th among players who have played at least 100 snaps at guard.
There's no doubt this was a home-run selection, even if he was forced into action as a rookie.
Grade: A+
DB Malik Mustapha, 4th round, 124th overall
The safety position was in a bit of flux heading into the 2024 season, with only second-year man Ji'Ayir Brown coming in as a starter.
Former All-Pro Talanoa Hufanga was recovering from his ACL injury suffered last season, and George Odum was considered a viable replacement-level player who was best as a special teams ace as opposed to a starter.
Odum did start the year next to Brown, with Hufanga making his 2024 debut in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams. But Hufanga missed the New England game before playing against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 5 and ended up doing ligament damage in his wrist, forcing him to injured reserve.
To replace him, Malik Mustapha stepped in and immediately made his presence known.
His snap counts have been all over the place on defense (as low as nine percent against the Los Angeles Rams to 100 percent against New England and the last two weeks). But, as he has grown more comfortable at the back with Brown as a his running mate, the two have proved to be a strong pairing.
Mustapha's run fits are often tremendous, and for a relatively small guy (5-foot-10, 206 pounds), he packs a punch, applying big hits when called upon that leave ball carriers on the ground.
He's been solid as a pass defender as well, with one interception against Seattle to his name, along with four pass breakups, but that's clearly where he needs to grow as a player.
If Mustapha can continue his upward trajectory, the former Wake Forest standout will make a name for himself in the NFL.
Grade: B+
RB Isaac Guerendo, 4th round, 129th overall
Just a few picks after the Niners grabbed Mustapha, they added yet another mid-round running back, this time in the form of Louisville's Isaac Guerendo.
The pick came with some scrutiny, because despite his impressive NFL Combine numbers (especially his 4.33 40-yard dash time), Guerendo didn't put up massive numbers in college.
He was a part-time player for five years at Wisconsin, where he amassed just 582 yards on 99 carries and six touchdowns in four seasons, along with 20 receptions for 124 yards and a touchdown as a pass catcher.
His relative breakout came during his only season at Louisville, where Guerendo ran the ball 132 times for 810 yards and 11 touchdowns and caught 22 passes for 234 yards.
Still, the output didn't exactly scream productivity as a player.
And it took him a while to get going as a NFL player, too. He featured on just 28 offensive snaps through the first five weeks of the season, carrying the ball just 12 times for 41 yards during that span, including two games where he had one carry for zero yards in each.
Some of this was due to the breakout of third-year tailback Jordan Mason at the beginning of the season and Shanahan's preference to ride the hot hand at running back. So, when Mason went down against the Seahawks in Week 6, Guerendo took advantage of the opportunity.
He ran the ball 10 times for 99 yards, most of which came on his game-sealing 76-yard scamper late in the fourth quarter but showed off his speed in the process.
Guerendo again got a chance to shine due to a Mason injury in Week 8 against the Cowboys, as he finished with 14 carries for 85 yards and his first NFL touchdown along with three catches for 17 yards, showing good hands and elusiveness in the process.
If nothing else, this spell shows that Guernedo is growing in confidence and that he can be trusted alongside Mason, even if All-Pro Christian McCaffrey returns to the fray in the second half.
The output hasn't been consistent, but Gerendo has shown enough to merit a passing grade.
Grade: C+
WR Jacob Cowing, 4th round, 135th overall
The third of the 49ers' fourth-round picks netted them former Arizona wide receiver Jacob Cowing, a guy whom many thought was someone who could unlock the deep ball in a way other Niners wideouts couldn't, due to his 4.38 speed.
But Cowing also had a slow start to his rookie season, with some offseason nicks and bumps not allowing him to be a full participant in all of the offseason programs and training camp.
If Guerendo was a pick based purely on potential, then Cowing was his opposite number, because the former Wildcat and UTEP Miner was a production machine in college.
Between both schools in five seasons, Cowing caught 316 passes for 4,477 yards (a whopping 14.2 yards per reception) and 33 touchdowns, while adding 12 carries for 102 yards and another touchdown as a rusher. In 2021 at UTEP, he averaged 19.6 yards per catch.
His NFL experience has been slow going so far, although he has shown himself to be a steady, if unspectacular, hand as a punt returner, something he'd done sparingly in college.
Through seven games as a pro, he's caught just two passes for 50 yards, both coming in the loss to Kansas City in Week 7, but he's fielded 11 punts for 76 yards in those games and has been fairly surehanded, save for a Week 2 fumble that was recovered by one of his teammates.
Cowing has shown flashes of what he could be, and the Aiyuk injury could mean more opportunities for him as the year goes on. But for now, the grade reflects the production.
Grade: C-
LB Tatum Bethune, 7th round, 251st overall
To be fair, linebacker Tatum Bethune making this team out of training camp as a seventh-round draft pick is probably worth at least a letter grade in and of itself, even if you account for the absence of Dre Greenlaw as a factor in that decision.
The 49ers liked Bethune enough to keep him around over Jalen Graham, a seventh-rounder from the 2023 draft who was scooped up by the Washington Commanders before eventually returning to San Francisco in early October.
Bethune has done what the Niners have asked of him, which has mostly been to serve as a key special teamer, where he's played 50-plus percent of snaps in every game he's been active. He's seen the field for just eight defensive snaps so far this season.
The linebacker situation, save for All-Pro Fred Warner, will be very much in flux after this year, with Greenlaw set for free agency and guys like De'Vondre Campbell and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles on one-year deals in 2024. So there might be a spot for Bethune to shine alongside standout second-year linebacker Dee Winters in 2025 in beyond.
But, for his rookie campaign, Bethune has been a useful special teams player and little else, so the grade has to reflect that, even if he does provide good value based on his draft position.
Grade: C-
Overall, this draft class has been the most successful in the Lynch/Shanahan era simply because of how each player has at least been solid in what he's been asked to do, while some of the guys look to be long-term staters at their respective positions.
They've had massive mid- to late-round hits in the past, with guys like Warner and tight end George Kittle, but this is the first time where it looks like all of the draft picks, save for Kingston, stand to be contributors, both as rookies and into the future.
The timing couldn't be better, since most of the rookies have been called upon because of need, but it's fair to ask the question where the 4-4 Niners would be without the young guys stepping up.
It's true this season more than ever for San Francisco: The kids are alright.