49ers select Alfred Collins-DT-Texas with the 43rd pick in the 2025 NFL Draft

Sometimes I think some fans just live for the opportunity to call a dradft pick a bust. He's way behind some other players but that doesn't mean he can't become a good player. I'm pretty sure the Niners realized that he was raw and might need more time to develop. Not every pick is going to be ready to play like a starter. Maybe he never becomes a good player bit at least wait more than 2 pre season games before sayimg he was a wasted pick.

Originally posted by irief:
If you're going to hold out like a top 5 pick, you better show up and play like one.

Collins is not the blame for the holdout. The NFL HEAVILY pushes rookies to not get involved in their contract negotiations and leave it to the agents. This was collusion among the agents. I don't blame the players.

Any holdout after a rookie year the player is fair game.

That said, him missing time injured or for contract issues certainly didn't help his development. It won't be an excuse in a couple months either. If he's still getting beaten like a rented mule then, then that is on the player and the coaches.

His defenders are missing the point. No one's saying he should Aaron Donald from day one, but he's missing high school level fundamentals. No excuse for that and lack of motor/quitting at this point in his career. OTA's aren't for teach you how to tie your shoe laces.

Originally posted by irief:
His defenders are missing the point. No one's saying he should Aaron Donald from day one, but he's missing high school level fundamentals. No excuse for that and lack of motor/quitting at this point in his career. OTA's aren't for teach you how to tie your shoe laces.

I think that's a little unfair. The motor I can't excuse, but he's trying to learn an entirely new system and clearly lost. We've seen this before in players who turned it around so there is no way to draw a final conclusion yet. We knew he was going to struggle coming in, I think he's just been made to look worse because West looked so good out of the gate.

I'm going to at LEAST give the draft class half the season before I give up on any of them.

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
Sometimes I think some fans just live for the opportunity to call a dradft pick a bust. He's way behind some other players but that doesn't mean he can't become a good player. I'm pretty sure the Niners realized that he was raw and might need more time to develop. Not every pick is going to be ready to play like a starter. Maybe he never becomes a good player bit at least wait more than 2 pre season games before sayimg he was a wasted pick.

I don't see many people in here calling him a straight bust. You act like no one can talk about a player or critique them?

Originally posted by NYniner85:
I don't see many people in here calling him a straight bust. You act like no one can talk about a player or critique them?

I think the point is it's a crapshoot. Thank about all the people here who were raging we didn't pick sumatria (chiefs pick last year). Turns out he's unplayable.

It's fun to discuss, but I certainly would defer to actual NFL coaches/scouts vs. internet guys who watched some YouTube vids and read a pff draft big board

I don't know if he's as bad as the claims here. But he's not great either. His job is to be a huge space eater and gap plugger. So if you are waiting for him to make splash plays you will wait his whole career and be disappointed. That's not his role. If he can occupy blockers and allow Warner, Martin, Winters and Sigle to fly around and make tackles he's worth it. You just won't see it show up much. That's not what he does. Show up that is.

Originally posted by Scoots:

Originally posted by irief:
His defenders are missing the point. No one's saying he should Aaron Donald from day one, but he's missing high school level fundamentals. No excuse for that and lack of motor/quitting at this point in his career. OTA's aren't for teach you how to tie your shoe laces.

I think that's a little unfair. The motor I can't excuse, but he's trying to learn an entirely new system and clearly lost. We've seen this before in players who turned it around so there is no way to draw a final conclusion yet. We knew he was going to struggle coming in, I think he's just been made to look worse because West looked so good out of the gate.

I'm going to at LEAST give the draft class half the season before I give up on any of them.

What's does getting blown up and quitting on plays have to do with learning the system?

Will be interesting to see how many snaps he gets when week 1 comes around.

Inconsistent from play to play and will probably continue to be so for the majority of the year.

Originally posted by irief:

Originally posted by Scoots:

Originally posted by irief:
His defenders are missing the point. No one's saying he should Aaron Donald from day one, but he's missing high school level fundamentals. No excuse for that and lack of motor/quitting at this point in his career. OTA's aren't for teach you how to tie your shoe laces.

I think that's a little unfair. The motor I can't excuse, but he's trying to learn an entirely new system and clearly lost. We've seen this before in players who turned it around so there is no way to draw a final conclusion yet. We knew he was going to struggle coming in, I think he's just been made to look worse because West looked so good out of the gate.

I'm going to at LEAST give the draft class half the season before I give up on any of them.

What's does getting blown up and quitting on plays have to do with learning the system?

I said "the motor I can't excuse" ... but the getting blown up happens from being behind mentally.

Originally posted by JaggedJ:
Will be interesting to see how many snaps he gets when week 1 comes around.

Inconsistent from play to play and will probably continue to be so for the majority of the year.

Saleh likes a deep rotation, so we'll certainly get some data quick. I think he should get significantly better through the year if he can stay healthy.

Originally posted by frenchmov:

Originally posted by NYniner85:
I don't see many people in here calling him a straight bust. You act like no one can talk about a player or critique them?

I think the point is it's a crapshoot. Thank about all the people here who were raging we didn't pick sumatria (chiefs pick last year). Turns out he's unplayable.

It's fun to discuss, but I certainly would defer to actual NFL coaches/scouts vs. internet guys who watched some YouTube vids and read a pff draft big board

The thing with Collins is that he's very much a physical traits projection pick. They like his foot-speed and very much like his arm length. His wingspan was 97th percentile and arm length 90th percentile, while also being large and quick feet. Those translate to the characteristics they like in a 3T. Think DeFo. Quick feet, long arms, big wingspan.

Scheme-wise, at Texas he was very much a 2-gap DT in a 3-4 scheme where he was asked to hold the point, control the engagement and read the RB. Here, he's being asked to attack a gap with new footwork. When you miss time due to not just holding out, but because of a foot injury, he's going to be behind on that stuff and you can see it on tape.

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
Sometimes I think some fans just live for the opportunity to call a dradft pick a bust. He's way behind some other players but that doesn't mean he can't become a good player. I'm pretty sure the Niners realized that he was raw and might need more time to develop. Not every pick is going to be ready to play like a starter. Maybe he never becomes a good player bit at least wait more than 2 pre season games before sayimg he was a wasted pick.

Personally I'm one of those people who's negative on him (I consider his performance so far the worst news of our preseason) but a part of that is because virtually all of our other rookies have at least shown something. He's shown nothing and he's a 2nd-round pick.

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
Sometimes I think some fans just live for the opportunity to call a dradft pick a bust. He's way behind some other players but that doesn't mean he can't become a good player. I'm pretty sure the Niners realized that he was raw and might need more time to develop. Not every pick is going to be ready to play like a starter. Maybe he never becomes a good player bit at least wait more than 2 pre season games before sayimg he was a wasted pick.

Personally I'm one of those people who's negative on him (I consider his performance so far the worst news of our preseason) but a part of that is because virtually all of our other rookies have at least shown something. He's shown nothing and he's a 2nd-round pick.

Rourke has been literally invisible. Bergen's been pretty invisible too.

Collins has had some positive comments from coaches, but we knew he had a long way to go. The way he played at UT is about as different as could be from what they are doing now, the injury, the contract ... all add on to him probably being in less than optimal fitness ... he's just behind.

Give him time. Stout seems to be the most ready to go of all the rookies, but even he's going to have some misses I'm sure.

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by genus49:
That's a valid point but their thought process could be seeing a guy who could develop into a dominant overall DT. The plan for him as a rookie may not be what they envision for him year 2+.

But I'm sure we can all agree given where he was drafted and the expectations…he's the most disappointing guy in the draft class right now.

All I can say is hopefully we don't feel that way 5 years from now.

Not that I hope Collins is the DT equivalent to this but let's not forget Aaron Banks didn't even start as a rookie(wasn't even active for a few games iirc) and he ended up being a pretty good starter for us.

Shouldn't be using a top 43 pick on a guy like that then.

they already had a starter at LG Banks rookie yr, we weren't dependent on him having to come in day 1. We don't have a legit starting DT (especially one that can rush the passer) currently.

imo this team has one of the worst day 1 IDL group in football. Yes we spent draft capital BUT it's all projection. Kevin Givens was our most productive DT and he's hurt (and shouldn't be a starter anyway). We will see but man we're acting a lot of rookie DTs and don't have s**t for real vets

NY love your passion but screaming about the draft spot won't change anything. I imagine they were hoping for more than they're getting so far or maybe they figured he could practice earlier and progress.

Obviously they took him there cuz they liked him a lot. Doesn't mean they didn't have tampered expectations from him as a rookie.

Maybe their vision was simple - use Givens/David and Mykel inside at DT on pass downs and Collins/Anderson/West on run downs. Stuff them early and bring in the rushers.

Then again maybe they simply panicked and saw a run on DTs and reached for Collins.

Either way he's here now so the draft slot is over with. He's behind the development cuz of his injury but he's far from a finished product. All we can do is see how he grows and hope it's a quicker process than it has been once the real games start.