The San Francisco 49ers have plenty of roster questions on the offensive side, but if there’s going to be a true surprise addition, the defense is where it’s most likely to happen. That makes sense for a unit that brought in a new defensive coordinator and is trying to bounce back from a season that featured one of the league’s worst pass rushes and coverage groups.
Two undrafted free agents stand out as possible long-shot wins: Larry Worth III and Mikail Kamara.
Worth III is listed as a linebacker and wears a number in the 40s, but his value comes from how many different jobs he can handle. In a game against Notre Dame last season, he lined up in a bunch of different places: as an off-ball linebacker walked down head-up over a tight end, mugged up in the A-gap as a blitzer, lined up over a slot receiver, and played as a deep safety.
He also brings real athletic juice. Worth III is 6’2”, 226 pounds, ran a 4.66 40-yard dash, posted a 37.5” vertical, and put up an 11-foot-2-inch broad jump. That broad jump would’ve tied Sonny Styles for the longest at the NFL Combine at his position.
The appeal here is obvious: he looks like a positionless defender who can do a little bit of everything. At minimum, he could help on special teams and give the staff a useful body on the scout team.
With more time, he could grow into a sub-package piece for a defense that wants to play fast. He also played on a rough college defense, which likely kept his skill set from getting the attention it deserved.
The 49ers would be smart to keep finding ways to use him rather than let that kind of athlete slip away.
Kamara is the other name to watch, though his path is even steeper. With Nick Bosa, Mykel Williams, Keion White, Sam Okuayinonu, and Romello Height in the mix, he’s fighting for air.
He’s undersized by NFL edge standards at 6’0 5/8” and 250 pounds, and the usual boxes for the position - size, length, strength, bend - don’t all work in his favor. Still, he found ways to produce for the national champions. He’s a 6th-year senior with a high motor and a pass-rush toolbox that stands out.
Kamara finished with the 13th-best pressure rate in the class, and his best chance to make noise may come as a finisher rather than a pure creator. He looks more like a “clean-up” sack player than a dominant one-on-one wrecking ball, but that can still matter.
In preseason games, he’ll get chances against third- and fourth-stringers who are trying just as hard to survive the cut. That’s a good setup for a player like him to rack up numbers and force the conversation.
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