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When you look at the positions this 49ers’ brass has shown they’re willing to target high in the draft and where there could be a need, tackle is very clearly in the upper echelon of that list. That assumes, however, that Trent Williams leaves. By all accounts, that is unlikely and requires the 49ers to either lowball Williams or be blown out of the water by a team like the Indianapolis Colts.
The other scenario assumes that the team is willing to draft a tackle (probably not in the first) to replace Mike McGlinchey for a cost-cutting maneuver (his fifth-year option will cost more than $10 million in 2022) in which they would draft McGlinchey’s replacement, stick him at guard or backup swing tackle for a year, then trade McGlinchey the following year or during the season.
Even if the 49ers don’t target a tackle in either of the first two rounds of the draft, Dillon Radunz, the North Dakota State left tackle whose job was protecting one of the top quarterback prospects, Trey Lance, is worth examining. He is one of the elite tackle athletes in the draft, and when you identify what sort of archetype San Francisco likes to bet on for tackles, he fits firmly into that mold.
40-yard: 5.11s, 81st percentile
Bench: 24 reps, 52nd percentile
Broad: 112 inches, 91st percentile
Vertical: 33 inches, 93rd percentile
Shuttle: 4.53, 87th percentile
3-cone: 7.27s, 97th+ percentile
Official numbers for North Dakota State OL Dillon Radunz:
40-yd: 5.11
Bench: 24 reps
BJ: 9-4
VJ: 32.0
SS: 4.53 shuttle
3-cone: 7.27 cone 👀Combine & pro-days aren’t always 🍎 to 🍎 but only OL from 2020 Combine with better #’s was Ezra Cleveland (4.46 SS and 7.26 3-cone).
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_Sooners) March 12, 2021
Radunz has this sort of judo-esque approach to his pass sets. He seems to be driven by an approach of using opponents’ weight against them, and more often than not, you’ll see him throw a long arm when rushers are hitting their peak speed. That arm sends them reeling far behind the pocket, leaving Radunz to sometimes turn completely backwards to the line of scrimmage and use his athleticism to cover off any second moves, if they play even took that long (with the speed at which North Dakota State played, that wasn’t often).
The questions with Radunz are really the same questions you get for any player at his level. Why was he in FCS? Does his skillset translate to the pros? Is that pass protection approach too reliant on one move, and will he get exploited at the next level if he banks on that working?
One factor that will up Radunz’s value, and NFL teams’ comfortability with drafting a small-school, FCS player is the fact that he, along with other tackle prospects like Northern Iowa’s Spencer Brown, Texas’ Samuel Cosmi and Texas A&M’s Jared Hocker, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic.
Radunz spoke glowingly of Staley on Friday, North Dakota State’s pro day, classifying him as a “fun uncle” who would also ride his players when needed. The greatest benefit of that training, Radunz said, was the mental aspect, saying it “was huge” to be able to pick Staley’s brain.
“He’s a great guy, great personality,” Radunz said. “Joe Staley the coach is awesome, super fun-loving and we kind of call him the ‘fun uncle.’ But at the same time, he loves the game of football, obviously wish he could have kept playing… so he’s competitive. If we’re screwing up over and over again, yeah, he’s fun-loving, but he’ll get after us. He yelled at us a few times. But overall, he was a fun uncle. He took care of us. It was fun to hang out with him. He’s a great guy. I’m glad I was able to learn from him.”
While Radunz said Staley “didn’t give us the keys to the kingdom” of the 49ers’ playbook, he said that’s the playbook he and the three other players were repping, and that he’s “pretty familiar” with that system.
