John Lynch<\/a> said Saturday on NFL Network that the 49ers didn\u2019t wait to take\u00a0Stribling because they sensed a \u201cgroundswell\u201d of interest late in the pre-draft process.<\/p>\nLynch\u2019s comment raises an interesting subject. There aren\u2019t often late-rising surprises in the NFL scouting community given the exhaustive work that\u2019s done on prospects well in advance of the first round. That is, teams aren\u2019t often uncovering information in April on a top-100 target such as Stribling that wasn\u2019t available after the combine in late February.<\/p>\n
Still, there are signs that Stribling was an aberration. Three teams requested to host him on a visit about a week before the draft, which is unusual timing, and Stribling couldn\u2019t accommodate them, said his agent, Steve\u00a0Caric. Stribling visited eight teams between March 26 and April 15: the Rams, Eagles, Buccaneers, Vikings, Bears, Patriots, Texans and Saints.<\/p>\n
NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a plugged-in former NFL scout, said nine days before the first round that Stribling and Georgia State\u2019s Ted Hurst (third round) were the wideouts gaining the most late momentum, based on his talks with league evaluators. Jeremiah later said on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show\u201d that he\u2019d viewed Stribling as a third-rounder but \u201cnow I\u2019m beginning to think he doesn\u2019t get out of the second round.\u201d<\/p>\n
A reason Stribling had skeptics: He wasn\u2019t Ole Miss\u2019 most productive wide receiver in 2025, when he had 55 catches for 811 yards and six touchdowns. His teammate Wallace Harrison, who went undrafted last week before he signed with the Cardinals, had 57 catches for 894 yards and four scores.<\/p>\n
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Stribling ranked 116th among FBS players in receiving yards per game (54.1) and 154th in catches (3.67). However, the 49ers believed Stribling\u2019s modest production was misleading. After he transferred to Mississippi from Oklahoma State for his final season, they thought he was underutilized early in the season.<\/p>\n
In his first five games, Stribling had 15 catches for 146 yards and one score. In his final 10 games, he had 44 catches for 665 yards and five touchdowns. His closing stretch featured 10 catches for 218 yards and a touchdown in two games against 12-2 Georgia that included a win in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was kind of a unique guy that when he transferred in, I\u2019m not certain if Ole Miss knew the quality and the caliber of person and player that they had early on,\u201d said 49ers vice president of player personnel\u00a0Tariq Ahmad. \u201cOur scouts loved him right away. Our coach loved him right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caric said Stribling was projected to be selected between late in the second round to early in the fourth round in January. But he moved up boards by answering questions about his speed and route-running ability while wowing teams with his intangibles during his pre-draft visits, the first of which came 28 days before the first round. Jeremiah said Stribling\u2019s meetings went \u201cexceptionally well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 49ers made Stribling one of 16 prospects who received a \u201cgold-helmet\u201d designation, which reflects qualities such as leadership, unselfishness, toughness and work ethic. The 49ers saw those traits displayed in his ferocious run blocking\u00a0\u2014 they viewed him as the draft\u2019s best run-blocking wideout\u00a0\u2014 and that his body language gave no sign that he was pouting last season when he averaged 29.2 receiving yards in his first five games.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAll the factors that make you a gold helmet, they have to show up on tape,\u201d said director of scouting Josh Williams. \u201cAnd they do for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stribling, at 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds, ran a 4.36-second 40-yard dash at the combine that was the eighth fastest among\u00a0wideouts. The average weight of the seven who ran faster than Stribling: 186.7 pounds. Of the five wideouts selected in the first round, three were lighter than Stribling and ran slower 40s, while two others didn\u2019t run a 40 before the draft.<\/p>\n
Caric said NFL teams had questions about Stribling\u2019s route-running after many of his catches in 2025 came on screens, short hitches and slants. Caric pointed to Stribling\u2019s more expansive route tree at Oklahoma State in 2024, when he had 52 catches for 822 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games.<\/p>\n
But he said Stribling didn\u2019t officially allay concerns until he ran a full route tree at Mississippi\u2019s pro day on March 18, about five weeks before the draft. Stribling\u2019s performance made an NFL assistant GM a believer, according to Caric.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said to me, \u2018Bro, I\u2019ve seen enough,\u2019\u201d Caric said. \u201c\u2018This guy\u2019s a baller. I\u2019m going to get an early flight.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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If such buzz got back to the 49ers, it helps explain why they rebuffed a host of trade offers for the No. 33 pick before they selected Stribling late Friday afternoon. If some view it as a mini-reach, well, the 49ers have zero initial regrets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of calls for 33 because it is a coveted pick,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cBut, at the end of the day, our entire building had conviction. And there\u2019s a lot to love about the kid. \u2026 We love the total package.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mississippi wide receiver\u00a0De\u2019Zhaun Stribling\u00a0celebrates after scoring against Tulane in the second half of a College Football Playoff first-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[29731,239800,399,398,396,397,560,99],"class_list":["post-614668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-49ers","tag-dezhaun-stribling","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}