The 49ers may have another useful draft find on their hands, and this one is starting to pop after an early setback.
Gracen Halton, San Francisco’s fourth-round rookie defensive tackle out of Oklahoma University, was slowed in training camp before the pads even came on. A bone bruise in his knee cost him time early, enough to raise a fair question about how much ground he could make up as a first-year player.
Instead, Halton is already back in the mix and turning heads. He returned during the third week of training camp practices, and both ESPN’s Nick Wagoner and the Sacramento Bee’s Chris Biderman singled him out for what he showed on Thursday.
Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said the rookie has already flashed.
“He did, man," Morris said after Thursday's practice. "I see a young man that's really feisty.
Obviously, was off the field for a couple days and coming back really into it. Kind of fired up, sometimes a little too fired up.
You get those kind of guys. Sometimes you got to tell them to kind of slow down a little bit to get with the tempo.
The guy's been going at a really high rate. Really going fast, really getting after it.
He got out there today and really wanted to be a part of it the last couple of days, so it's been fun to watch him get back.”
Halton spent all four of his college seasons at Oklahoma and finished with 8.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss in 47 career games. Those numbers helped explain why he lasted until Day 3, but Morris said the rookie is showing more than the traits that landed him in San Francisco with the No. 107 overall pick.
“Gracen, when he played in college, we noticed the initial quickness, the movement," Morris said. "You notice his get-off.
You notice a lot of things that we covet. He was able to do those things.
A lot of the things that we’re going to ask him to do is the things that we saw on tape, the things that we require. He brought some other things to us that I've seen, like some real sudden power, a couple of things he's seen in the run game today, things of those natures.
He'll always be asked to do the things he does great. Then the things that are required based on situational football, he can do for us.
That's a lot of fun to watch when you see a young player have that kind of ability.”
For a team that has been trying to get more out of its draft picks, especially up front on defense, Halton’s early showing gives San Francisco reason to think it may have found real value in Round 4 of the 2026 draft.
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