The San Francisco 49ers held a pre-draft visit with BYU linebacker Fred Warner on April 16. 11 days later, the 49ers selected Warner in the third round of the draft. While the rookie left his meeting with the team impressed with the coaching staff, he was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to meet any of the players, especially knowing what he knows now.
"Now that I'm here and I've met the players, I'm sure there is no team out there that's like this locker room because this is probably the most 'brotherhood' locker room," Warner recently told Matt Maiocco of NBC Bay Area for the 49ers Insider Podcast. "And I don't think it's like that in most NFL locker rooms just because of the situation with how it's a job now. It's not just you go out there, you play, you go to school. This place is for sure special. There's an energy about this place, and it's been a great ride so far."
Warner, who last week signed his four-year rookie contract, felt welcomed as soon as he met his new 49ers teammates. He started earning their respect as soon as he hit the practice field and has been a standout player during offseason practices.
Warner was a versatile player at BYU who was utilized in numerous ways within head coach Kalani Sitake's defense.
"It was more like a hybrid nickel/safety/linebacker type," Sitake recently told 49ers team reporter Joe Fann. "And the reason is, he's a big kid, but he can run. He can run like a safety, so we asked him to play on the outside, outside the box, and to cover a lot of slot receivers, and to run with them. And he handled them just fine. We played some great teams with a lot of speed, and he didn't have any problems covering those guys."
Another of Warner's traits that impressed his former head coach is his intelligence. Sitake would often go up to Warner after the defense came off the field and the young linebacker would tell him where the deficiencies were in the last series.
Said Sitake: "He would know where there was a breakdown, and that's really impressive for me as a coach to have a guy that can access what the issues were right away rather than going to the box all the time. He can do it in real time on the field."
Warner's new head coach, Kyle Shanahan, is equally impressed with his rookie's football IQ.
"He's very smart," Shanahan said last week. "He doesn't make the same mistake twice, and he's a guy I'm excited to see once we get these pads on."
In four seasons with the Cougars, Warner registered 262 combined tackles, 32.5 for a loss, 6.5 sacks, seven interceptions, two touchdowns, 13 passes defensed, three forced fumbles, and five fumble recoveries, according to Sports Reference.
"When a team drafts you, you're supposed to be able to help them to achieve their goal, which is the Super Bowl," Warner told Maiocco. "If you can play, you can play. If you're a veteran, you want a guy who can help you win a Super Bowl because that's going to make everybody's job easier and get everybody paid at the end of the day.
"You've got to earn your stripes as a rookie. It doesn't matter if I was drafted (in the) third round, first round, it doesn't matter."
As for the podcast interview with Warner, you can listen to it in its entirety below.