The San Francisco 49ers head into the 2026 offseason with a clear to-do list on the defensive line - and a lot of it starts with getting healthy. Season-ending injuries to Nick Bosa and rookie Mykel Williams left the Niners scrambling up front, and it showed. San Francisco finished the 2025 regular season with just 20 sacks - the lowest total in the league - a stat that says just as much about the lack of depth as it does about the absence of star power.
With Bosa and Williams expected to return, the top-end talent should be back in place. But the depth behind them?
That’s where the questions start to pile up. And one player who looks unlikely to be part of the solution is Robert Beal Jr.
Beal, a fifth-round pick in 2023 out of Georgia, came into the league with the kind of raw tools that get coaches excited - long, athletic, and coming from a national championship program. The hope was that under defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, Beal could develop into a rotational pass rusher, maybe even follow a similar path to former 49er Ronald Blair, who carved out a solid role in a deep defensive front.
But that development never quite materialized. Over his first two seasons, Beal appeared in just 14 games and recorded one sack - a far cry from the impact player the Niners were hoping to groom. And if there was ever a year for him to take a leap, 2025 was it.
Instead, the 49ers doubled down on their D-line in the draft, using three of their first five picks on the position - including a first-rounder on Mykel Williams. That influx of young talent pushed Beal further down the depth chart, and by the end of training camp, he had been overtaken by players like Sam Okuayinonu. After Week 1, the team waived Beal, later bringing him back on the practice squad.
From there, it was a season of shuffling - up to the active roster, back to the practice squad, and repeat. Even as injuries mounted and the team looked for answers, the additions of veterans like Keion White and Clelin Ferrell made it clear that Beal was not part of the long-term vision.
Now, Beal enters the 2026 offseason as a restricted free agent, and all signs point to the 49ers moving on. There’s little incentive to bring him back, especially with the team likely to continue investing in both proven veterans and young, ascending talent on the edge.
This isn’t about Beal being a bust - fifth-rounders are always a bit of a lottery ticket. But given the early optimism around his potential and the opportunity that was there for the taking, it’s hard not to feel a bit of disappointment that it never clicked in San Francisco.
The 49ers have bigger priorities this offseason - getting Bosa and Williams back to full strength, retooling their defensive rotation, and finding a way to reignite a pass rush that lost its bite. And as they look ahead, it’s clear that Robert Beal Jr. won’t be part of that next chapter.