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NFL.com Expects Rookie C.J. West to Start for the 49ers

The 49ers could start up to five rookies on defense next season.

Grant Cohn

Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana defensive lineman CJ West (DL39) looks on during the 2025 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana defensive lineman CJ West (DL39) looks on during the 2025 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The 49ers could start up to five rookies on defense next season.

First-round Mykel Williams most likely will start at defensive end. Second-round pick Alfred Collins most likely will start at defensive tackle. Third-round pick Nick Martin is the favorite to start at weakside linebacker. And third-round compensatory pick Upton Stout was drafted to play nickelback.

Then with their first pick on Day 3, the 49ers took defensive tackle C.J. West -- another defensive player who is projected to start according to NFL.com's Chad Reuter.

"The 49ers spent two picks in the first two rounds (Mykel Williams in the first and Alfred Collins the second) to bolster their thin D-line, and they continued the trend with West in Round 4," writes Reuter. "While Collins is a tall people-mover, West is a 6-foot-1, low center-of-gravity nose tackle with quick enough feet and hands to defeat blocks, making him a top-notch run defender."

West will compete with veteran defensive tackle Jordan Elliott who was awful last season and second-year defensive tackle Evan Anderson who was an undrafted free agent last year. West should be the favorite to win that competition.

The 49ers clearly want to transform their run defense from a weakness into a strength, and West is a key part of that transformation. Then on third down, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh will have to find a way to scheme up pressure considering the 49ers didn't draft any true pass rushers this year.

Still, expect West to start and play on first and second down when healthy.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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