The San Francisco 49ers spent much of this offseason cleaning house and resetting the deck financially after a great team, which fell just shy of winning a Super Bowl on multiple occasions, became too expensive and laden with veterans to justify.
San Francisco's changes may not be through, as wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk remains a potential trade candidate. It is unlikely that the 49ers are planning to move on from quarterback Brock Purdy in the final year of his rookie contract or tight end George Kittle, as he enters the last season of his $75 million deal.
However, the futures of both players in the Bay Area are potentially in question following the 2025 campaign, and how the franchise approaches the top of its draft next week could be telling as to its plans.
The 49ers lost a good deal in the secondary this offseason, which lends to the notion that the team might look for a defensive back with the No. 11 overall pick. ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. projects cornerback Will Johnson of Michigan to be there for San Francisco just outside of the top 10, and Johnson is who Kiper predicts the 49ers will select in his latest mock draft.
However, Kiper is assuming that the Chicago Bears will have access to and select Penn State tight end Tyler Warren one spot ahead of San Francisco at No. 10. Brent Sobleski of Bleacher Report, however, authored a mock draft in which Warren slips past Chicago and changes the board.
In Sobleski's prediction, the 49ers jump on Kittle's potential successor by drafting Warren and then set up what could prove to be the league's best 12 personnel (two tight-end offensive sets) in 2025.
"In the short term, the two will be a blast to watch playing alongside one another with a creative mind like Kyle Shanahan figuring out how to use Warren all over the formation, as the Penn State Nittany Lions coaching staff did," Sobleski wrote on Tuesday, April 15. "In the long term, the Niners will have a dynamic playmaker at tight end for a long time coming."
Warren tallied 104 catches for 1,233 yards and 8 touchdowns last season. Kittle, meanwhile, will turn 32 years old in October and hasn't played a full regular season slate of games since 2018.
That said, Kittle has played in at least 14 contests in all but one of his eight NFL campaigns and has earned Pro Bowl honors in each of the past four years, as well as six times total over the course of his career.
