Mykel Williams showed flashes of being the No. 1 overall pick on a national title team as a freshman. The 49ers are hoping that’s the player they’re getting.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan did not think Mykel Williams would make it to them at pick No. 11. It’s why John Lynch attempted to trade into the top 10 to select Williams.
Shanahan didn’t reveal the team he thought would select Williams, but my hunch is the New Orleans Saints, who coincidentally enough, took a player many draft analysts believe Williams had a field day against when they faced each other in 2024.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer believes the NFL will regret letting the 49ers get their hands on Williams:
I think there’s a chance the NFL will rue letting Mykel Williams get to 11. This was an important draft for the San Francisco 49ers. They’re resetting their roster in a lot of areas. And in one spot in particular, they knew they’d have a lot of work to do—which is why they got a pretty nice jump in the fall on studying the defensive linemen that would be in the draft.
So it was that, when GM John Lynch and directors of player personnel Tariq Ahmad and RJ Gillen started diving in on the college guys in the fall, they came across Georgia’s athletic freak of a 20-year-old edge rusher. In Williams, whom they had high on their list from his sophomore tape, they saw a long, strong, heavy-handed athlete capable of toggling inside and outside, like guys they’ve had play their “big end” position (Arik Armstead, Arden Key, Charles Omenihu) have in the past.
Williams played 402 snaps on Georgia’s defense last season, with 174 coming inside. He was used similarly to Armstead once Arik moved to defensive tackle. I reference him over Key and Omennihu because Armstead was equally dominant on early downs against the run, if not more. That’s how Williams currently projects.
Breer highlighted how the 49ers initially didn’t know about Williams’s high-ankle sprain in Georgia’s season opener. That injury has Breer thinking Williams has a higher upside than most people realize.
Williams told Shanahan and Lynch that he prefers to line up inside on third downs, which will only further ignite comparisons to Armstead:
Once they got into the draft process, and involved their coaches, things only ramped up on San Francisco’s affection for Williams. Defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, after watching him, called Williams the best edge-setter in college football. When Lynch and Kyle Shanahan sat him down on his 30 visit and asked him, third down in the Super Bowl, where do you want us to line you up, his answer was, “over the guard”—illustrating his versatility, and the tough-guy nature to his game apparent in how he played through the injury.
Some will get hung up on the fact that Williams is 260 pounds. We’re talking about the role he’ll play, not how much he weighs. When you watch Mykel, your last takeaway is, “Oh, he’s only 260 pounds.”
Williams was labeled as a future No. 1 overall pick when he flashed as a true freshman on a national title team. Breer confirmed that the 49ers attempted to jump New Orleans to land Williams. Thankfully, no trade was necessary, and Williams fell into San Francisco’s laps.
The addition of Alfred Collins and CJ West instantly transforms the 49ers defense. It might take some time, but the run defense will be far from a sieve. Breer said the 49ers live scouted CJ West at Ohio State in the fall. West had three pressures and four tackles in that game, including two run stops.
Ultimately, this change was a necessity:
With those two, at a baseline, the Niners are confident they’re getting stout run-stuffers with a lot of pass-rush potential that still hasn’t been fully mined. Combine that with the addition of a bookend for Nick Bosa in Williams, and there’ll be a lot of new faces up front for Kocurek and new/old DC Robert Saleh.
And I do get the sense they feel like this change will, with a little patience, be for the best.
Now, we find out how these prospects will develop and whether their ceilings will be reached under Saleh and Kocurek.