Fred Warner is a future Hall of Fame middle linebacker.
But when he came out of BYU, he fell to Round 3 because most NFL talent evaluators believed he was too soft to play in the box. Wasn't cut out for the physicality of the league. After all, he essentially played nickelback in college.
Only Robert Saleh had the vision of what Warner would become. And that's why the 49ers drafted Warner.
Now Saleh is back on the 49ers as their defensive coordinator. On Wednesday, Warner appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and discussed how he feels about Saleh's return.
"I love Saleh, love everything about him," Warner said. "The draft process is horrible unless you're the first overall pick or something, I don't know how it is for those guys in the first round. They might get talked up, but for a guy like me who was trying to prove himself, I was a third-round draft pick and I had a bunch of teams telling me, 'You can't do this, you're not that.' Finally, I took my 30 visit with the Niners and I'm in there with Coach Saleh in his office, and he was like, 'Man, I really like your game, this is how I see you playing in our system.' This was the first time I was hearing these things. So I was thinking this guy Coach Saleh, he's the best. Then they drafted me and had all the belief in the world to stay with me even through a rocky rookie season as a starter and see it through. I love him. Happy to be back with him.
What I find most interesting about this story is how involved Saleh is with drafting defensive players. It sounds like the 49ers took Warner specifically because Saleh liked him.
This bodes well for the 49ers' draft this year.
