INDIANAPOLIS — With NFL teams sending fewer and fewer representatives, and the number of players participating in the drills also dwindling, the NFL Scouting Combine is just not like it used to be.
Even the hallowed ground of the Prime 47 steakhouse has taken a hit. For decades, general managers, coaches, agents and reporters would celebrate the one time of the year when everyone is not stressed out and talk ball over bourbon until the wee hours of the morning … but this year, there was a DJ booth and club lighting put in. The loud music sent anyone over 40 years old scurrying for other rumor rooms around town, from hotel bars to upscale Thai restaurants to chain coffee shops.
The big topics last week were Fernando Mendoza, who is approaching Elvis status in Indiana, Maxx Crosby’s next team and the annual game of quarterback musical chairs. The San Francisco 49ers are seemingly one of a dozen teams in play for Crosby, whom the Las Vegas Raiders would move for a couple of draft picks (it doesn’t seem like they can get two first-rounders) and a player. The 49ers pick 27th in the draft, which looks to be a good spot to address their need at wide receiver if Crosby goes elsewhere.
As for the quarterbacks, there were a lot of names being thrown around the Indy bars like credit cards … but Mac Jones’ name was not really one of them. Here’s a recap of what we heard about the 49ers backup quarterback and everything else we jotted down:
Not a robust market thus far for Mac Jones
Let’s be clear: The 49ers are not looking to trade Jones, with general manager John Lynch saying Tuesday that “we’re a better team with him on it.” But they definitely expected to be tempted by a third-round-pick offer — if not higher. The Minnesota Vikings were supposedly very interested, and there were a few teams that also needed someone like Jones, who won five games for the 49ers off the bench last season and is still only 27 years old.
But a lot of those openings, it turns out, weren’t so open. Everybody in the NFL seemingly expects Aaron Rodgers to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and top free agent Malik Willis to end up in Cleveland or Arizona. Mendoza is going first in the draft to the Raiders, and Ty Simpson apparently got a first-round promise from a team so he would forgo all the name, image and likeness money and a return to Alabama.
That leaves the Vikings, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets and maybe the Atlanta Falcons looking for a starter, but they very well might prefer a dirt-cheap option this year over trading for Jones and then extending his contract. The Vikings are said to be considering Anthony Richardson, Kyler Murray and Geno Smith — the last two of which are expected to be cut — as well as Kirk Cousins and Tua Tagovailoa to come in and compete with J.J. McCarthy. If the Arizona Cardinals can’t land Willis, they might even turn to Jimmy Garoppolo, who has ties with new coach Mike LaFleur.
Though Jones was very sharp last season, completing 70 percent of his passes in eight starts, there are still some skeptics.
“The 49ers gonna throw in Kyle Shanahan in the deal, too?” one general manager asked on the other side of town from Prime.
New look on the edge
With Raheem Morris now running their defense, the 49ers are open to a type of player they haven’t paid much attention to in the past: the ’tweener edge defender.
Last year, for example, Morris’ Falcons drafted 245-pound Jalon Walker and 243-pound James Pearce in the first round. Both primarily lined up along the defensive line but were nimble enough to regularly drop into coverage.
When Morris was the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator in 2023, they used a third-round pick on 6-2, 250-pound Byron Young. According to Pro Football Focus, Young took 476 pass-rush snaps during the 2025 regular season and playoffs — resulting in 13.5 sacks — as well as 148 plays in which he dropped into coverage.
Lynch said last week the 49ers likely will use more five-man fronts, a staple for Morris, than they’ve used in the past.
“Raheem’s done a lot more of that because he’s done some 3-4 (alignment) stuff,” Lynch said. “So, yeah, I think there’ll be some different body types and things. But just small tweaks.”
Lynch noted the 49ers began using five-man fronts more frequently last season. Per PFF, they ranked 25th in the number of plays in which five men were on the line of scrimmage after ranking 31st and 30th in the previous two seasons. The Falcons, meanwhile, ranked third last season in using five frontline defenders. Atlanta finished second in the NFL with 57 sacks, 10.5 from Pearce and another 5.5 from Walker.
If Morris is looking for another Young-like ’tweener this season, he has plenty of choices. Edge defender is one of the deepest positions in this year’s draft, with The Athletic’s Dane Brugler including five who weigh 253 pounds or less in his Top 100. That included Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell and Central Florida’s Malachi Lawrence, both of whom stood out at the combine.
“It actually widens the sample size,” Lynch said. “That guy who wasn’t a fit because we thought he was more of a 3-4 outside ‘backer, maybe there’s a spot for him.”
Deebo Samuel 2.0 … or Brandon Aiyuk
The 49ers should be able to address either of their biggest needs — pass rusher or receiver — at No. 27. Indiana’s Omar Cooper Jr. looked the part at the combine, as Mendoza himself compared Cooper to former 49er Deebo Samuel.
“The body control he has is crazy,” Mendoza said. “He’s like a prime Deebo Samuel. … He has great body control, great hands, can play any position on the field. To have him as a receiver that can be a gadget guy, can also take it deep, and also great routes and hands, especially for the quarterback, he helped make me this year.”
Future 49er Omar Cooper Jr. on that Deebo Samuel comp: #NFLCombine pic.twitter.com/w48hBk5Zyd
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) February 27, 2026
Given his similar stature, his smoothness in getting open underneath and his eagerness to run block, the 6-foot, 199-pound Cooper might also remind some of soon-to-be former 49er Brandon Aiyuk. Cooper ran a 4.43 40-yard dash at the combine, just a hair quicker than Aiyuk’s 4.5 in 2020.
Odds and ends
• Howell, whom some have mocked to the 49ers at pick No. 27, had an interesting combine. His arms measured 30 1/2 inches, which is short — very short — for an edge defender. If he went in Round 1, in fact, he’d have the shortest arms of any first-round pass rusher since at least 1999.
On the other hand, his 1.58-second 10-yard split was the fastest of any edge rusher at the combine. And Next Gen Stats clocked him at 14.52 mph while rounding the edge in a pass-rush drill, by far the fastest of any of the defensive linemen. Brugler ranks Howell, who had 11.5 sacks last year for the Aggies, as the 19th-best player in this year’s draft.
• Several other receivers jumped out at the combine, including Alabama’s Germie Bernard and Connecticut’s Skyler Bell.
Bernard had the fastest three-cone run of any prospect at the combine — 6.71 seconds, which he did at 206 pounds. The NFL Network likened his testing numbers to Seattle Seahawks receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba’s. Other comparisons heard at the combine included Amon-Ra St. Brown and former Rams receiver Robert Woods.
Bell’s combine, meanwhile, included a 4.4-second 40, a 41-inch vertical jump and an 11-foot-1-inch broad jump. He had 1,278 receiving yards (second most in the FBS) and 13 touchdowns last season for the Huskies.
• If Riq Woolen doesn’t re-sign with the Seahawks, several NFL executives and coaches think the 49ers will have interest in the 6-foot-4 cornerback. Woolen had some ups and downs winning a ring in Seattle but was pretty consistent locking down receivers, has speed and is only 27. He wouldn’t be cheap — The Athletic had him No. 26 in our free-agent rankings with a price tag of four years and $76 million — but would be an improvement over Renardo Green.
The last time we saw Green, Shanahan was yelling at him on the sidelines of the playoff loss to the Seahawks. There would definitely be a trade market for the 2024 second-round pick if Morris deems Green is not a great fit.
• A familiar name to 49ers fans, Bryce Lance, also popped out in Indianapolis. Quarterback Trey Lance’s little brother, a deep-threat receiver at North Dakota State, ran a 4.34-second 40 at 6-3, 204 pounds. Five years ago, Lynch joked he was keeping his eye on Bryce, who was still in high school when the 49ers drafted Trey No. 3.
“All I could think about was that I wanted to draft his brother,” Lynch said of Trey in April 2021. “His brother’s a senior in high school following in his footsteps at North Dakota State. I think he’s taller than Trey.”
• According to league sources, the 49ers are eyeing assistant offensive line coach Cameron Clemmons to replace Brian Fleury as the team’s tight end coach. Clemmons spent the last two seasons working under offensive line coach Chris Foerster, who helps draw up the team’s running plays.
The Seahawks last month hired Fleury to run their offense after their 2025 offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, left to become the Raiders’ coach.
