The 49ers have a chance to draft the sons of several former NFL players and former 49ers this year.
The San Francisco 49ers are just days away from the 2024 NFL Draft, where they’ll look to bolster their current roster in hopes of competing for a championship this season, while also obtaining quality players for the following seasons.
In doing so, San Francisco has a chance to target certain players in the draft with a strong connection to the franchise, as the sons of Jerry Rice (USC wideout Brenden Rice), Ed McCaffrey (Rice wideout Luke McCaffrey), and Frank Gore (Southern Miss running back Frank Gore Jr.) are all looking to hear their names called this weekend.
On top of those three, there are nearly a dozen more players whose fathers played in the NFL that are entering the 2024 NFL Draft.
Could the 49ers target some of those players with NFL bloodlines, especially those with connections to the organization?
“I believe in bloodlines. I really do,” general manager John Lynch acknowledged during his pre-draft presser on Monday. “I think there’s evidence that you should.”
However, the bloodlines don’t make the player itself, so the 49ers still go through their entire process as they evaluate prospects in order to get a fair grade on those guys.
“Now, you got to step away from [the bloodlines] and you got to evaluate it,” Lynch acknowledged. “And that is sometimes difficult to do. And that’s why a lot of different eyes, a lot of different perspectives [go into the process]. And that’s what we try to do when we have our R and D look at it, we have our coaches look at it, we have our scouting look at it.”
“You know, we try to hit it from a variety of measuring points and inflection points as to how you grade these guys because you don’t want to do it just off that. That wouldn’t be smart.”
Still, the gene pool when it comes to some of those elite former NFL players stands out, which Lynch can see when watching those specific players.
“There’s some inherent pressure on who their dad is, but there’s also some good genes and, you know, and I think that matters.” And so it’s exciting that you have all these great, I mean, we’re talking Hall of Fame players and great players and, you know, brothers of players and it’s really fun.”
One extra example of that was seen at San Francisco’s recent local Pro Day, where the son of Terrell Owens, Tariq Owens, was able to compete, with many in attendance reporting him as a standout during the day.
“TO [Terrell Owens] was out here at the local pro day and his son Tariq, you know, performed really well and that was pretty cool,” Lynch said. “I saw him running at me and I played against to a lot and there was something in that stride that was very familiar.
“You know, it was, it was something about the gate and it’s crazy how those things translate. You know, is that just gene pool, is that modeling that they watch their dad run? You know, it’s just, it’s interesting to me. But that’s a fun element to this year’s draft that I think it’s going to be interesting to watch to see how it unfolds.”
The 49ers could have a chance to add to the bloodlines, as they have several connections to former NFL players in this year’s draft, with many serving as skill position players.
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