49ers take WR De’Zhaun Stribling, edge Romello Height on Day 2 of NFL draft

After making two trades Thursday night, the San Francisco 49ers finally made a pick Friday.

The 49ers made the first selection of the second round of the NFL draft, No. 33 overall, after they did some wheeling and dealing in the first round. The 49ers moved back six spots with their two trades, swapping a fourth-round pick in exchange for a third-rounder and adding a fifth-round selection. The 49ers wound up with a new total of seven picks: Nos. 33 (second round), 58 (second), 90 (third), 127 (fourth), 133 (fourth), 139 (fourth) and 179 (fifth).

On Thursday night, general manager John Lynch indicated the Niners had a player in mind at No. 33 on Friday.

“We have a good idea where we’re going,” Lynch said, “and looking forward to that.”

The 49ers’ areas of need include edge rusher, wide receiver, guard and safety.

Second round (No. 33): De’Zhaun Stribling, WR, Mississippi

Thirteen months after the 49ers’ top three wide receivers were Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings, they’ve completely remade the position. The 49ers’ finished their overhaul by selecting the speedy Stribling with the first pick of the second round.

Stribling (6-foot-2, 207 pounds) ran the 40-yard dash in 4.36 seconds at the combine after he had 107 catches for 1,693 yards and 12 touchdowns in his final two seasons (playing at Oklahoma State in 2024). He could help the 49ers address their need for more speed on offense after the top speed by a ball carrier last season was recorded by a defensive player (linebacker Dee Winters, who hit 20.15 mph on a pick-six).

Stribling joins a still potent offense that ranked seventh in the NFL last season, but is headlined by aging playmakers. Last year, running back Christian McCaffrey averaged 3.9 yards a carry, the second-lowest average of his nine-season career, and had one run over 20 yards. Tight end George Kittle will turn 33 in November and is recovering from a torn Achilles. Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans, 32, was signed in March, and entering his 13th NFL season isn’t known as a deep threat.

“We noticeably were slower this year than we have been in years past,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said in January. “Sometimes that’s substituted for a better football player. That doesn’t mean you’re always worse because of that. But you definitely need more speed out there for some of the situations that come up versus certain schemes and certain defenses.”

The 49ers selected Stribling instead of Washington’s Denzel Boston, who was widely regarded as the better prospect by draft analysts. However, Boston, who is similarly sized (6-4, 212), lacks Stribling’s wheels. He elected not to run the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine. The Browns selected Boston six spots later at No. 39.

On Friday, Shanahan said speed wasn’t a must-have quality when he was evaluating this year’s wideouts. He said he was attracted to Stribling’s all-around ability.

“You always prefer speed,” Shanahan said. “But just because you might not have as much speed on your team as you want, it doesn’t mean you just go get the fastest guy possible. I’ve tried stuff like that in the past … and when it’s all said and done, you’re like, ‘You know what would make us better? Taking the best football player.’ They come in all different shapes and sizes. And we’re fortunate to get a guy who can really run.”

The 49ers’ leading receiver the past two seasons was Jennings, who ran a plodding 40-yard dash (4.72 seconds) at his combine. The 49ers aren’t re-signing Jennings, who remains a free agent, after trading Samuel to the Commanders in March 2025. The 49ers will trade or release Aiyuk before the regular season. Stribling will join a wide receiver corps that’s now headlined by Evans and 2024 first-round pick Ricky Pearsall.

Stribling indicated he had limited contract with the 49ers before he was drafted, not speaking with Lynch or Shanahan until he received the call from the 49ers on Friday.

In 2025, Stribling had 55 catches for 811 yards and six touchdowns, with just one drop. Draft analysts noted Stribling, with his large frame, is a willing and effective run blocker, which is a quality he highlighted. Shanahan said the 49ers viewed Stribling as the best blocking wideout in the draft.

“I can do a lot of things and also block at a high level,” Stribling said. “So I’m very excited go out there and contribute in the pass game, but also the run game.”

Shanahan emphasizes blocking with his wide receivers, and wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson has a mantra: “No block, no rock.”

Last year the 49ers averaged 106.9 rushing yards per game, their fewest since 2017, and managed 3.8 yards per carry. Shanahan said earlier this month that the uncharacteristic performance was partly tied to poor blocking from wide receivers.

“It goes to the scheme, it goes to a couple runs from the backs, and it goes to not blocking on the perimeter as well as I feel we have in the past,” Shanahan said.

Third round (No. 70): Romello Height, edge rusher, Texas Tech

Last season, the 49ers had three fewer sacks than Cleveland’s Myles Garrett. Not surprisingly, their second draft pick was made with avoiding further such futility in mind.

After posting an NFL-worst 20 sacks in 2025, the 49ers grabbed Height (6-3, 239), who had 10 sacks last season and ranked second in the Big 12 with 62 QB pressures, trailing only his teammate, David Bailey, the No. 2 pick of the Jets on Thursday.

Height, 25, played six college seasons at four schools. He’s undersized for the position but has excellent burst (40-yard dash: 4.64 seconds). He profiles as a situational pass rusher behind starting defensive ends Nick Bosa and Mykel Wiliams, the No. 11 pick in 2025.

Before his standout 2025 campaign, Height had just 6.5 sacks in his first five seasons (36 games). Lynch was asked about Height not breaking out until his sixth year.

“He broke out,” Lynch said. “And we liked what we saw. And everybody’s got a different journey. They all do. And you have to evaluate it all. But what we saw in that year at Texas Tech really, really spoke volumes to us.”

At 239 pounds, Height will stick out in his new position group. He’s about 30 pounds lighter than the 49ers’ top three edge rushers: Bosa (266 pounds), Williams (267) and Sam Okuayinonu (269).

Height said he expected to add weight, but the 49ers could have a unique role in mind for him under new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.

At the combine, Height said he met with 49ers linebacker coach K.J. Wright, not defensive line coach Kris Kocurek. Last year, when Morris was the Falcons’ head coach, Atlanta used the No. 15 pick on Jalon Walker, a hybrid linebacker/defensive end at Georgia who played both positions as an NFL rookie.

Shanahan acknowledged that Height was a “tweener” like Walker, and could play multiple spots in the NFL.

“You see him on the line of scrimmage all the time in college,” Shanahan said. “You’ve seen him drop (in coverage) before. So he’s a guy you can use in a linebacker role. He’s a guy you can use in a rush role. So we’ll what Raheem does with him.”

Height made stops at Auburn (2020-2021), USC (2022-2023) and Georgia Tech (2024) before finishing at Texas Tech. He had 16 sacks and four forced fumbles in his final three seasons, production he credited to his quick first step.

“The get-off is the key to pass rush,” Height said. “You’ve got to have great get-off. I just emphasize that and continue to work on it. I’m not going to say I perfected it, but it’s a huge deal that I continue to work on.”

The 49ers’ 20 sacks last season were six fewer than any other team. They were also the fewest in franchise history in a non-strike year and matched the sixth fewest in the league since 2016.

It wasn’t solely due to a lack of talent. Bosa and Williams suffered torn ACLs and combined to miss 22 games. Still, their sack leaders were Bryce Huff and Clelin Ferrell, who had four apiece. Huff retired in March and Ferrell, who was signed off the Chargers’ practice squad last year, wasn’t re-signed and remains a free agent.

On Monday, Lynch noted he and Shanahan emphasized building a disruptive defensive line when they were hired in 2017. The 49ers have used their first pick on a defensive lineman in five of their 10 drafts.

The Niners also traded a third-round pick to acquire Cowboys defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa in March. Odighizuwa’s 52 pressures ranked sixth among defensive tackles last season.

“It’s the great equalizer in today’s football,” Lynch said. “So much is set up for the offense to have success. Can you put that quarterback under duress? … We fell short of that last year. Are there some reasons? Absolutely. Nick Bosa was hurt. Mykel got hurt halfway through. But I think we need to get better in that spot. We need to get these guys back healthy, and then we need to improve there.”

Third round (No. 90): Kaelon Black, running back, Indiana

A sixth-year senior, Black split time at running back for the national champion Hoosiers. He ran for 1,040 yards on 186 carries, averaging 5.6 yards per carry, with 10 rushing touchdowns last season. Backfield counterpart Ronan Hemby shouldered a slightly a bigger workload, rushing 230 times for 1,120 yards and seven touchdowns.

Standing at 5-foot-9 and 211 pounds, Black was a non-factor in Indiana’s passing game, making just four catches for 36 yards. He fits the power-back role previously filled by Brian Robinson Jr. and Jordan Mason, the past two primary backups for Christian McCaffrey in Santa Clara.

“Senior Bowl, you turn on his one-on-ones, I was there, Kyle watched it on the film: The one-on-ones really stood out,” Lynch said in defense of Black’s pass-catching potential out of the backfield.

The 49ers have now taken a running back in each of the past three drafts: Black (third round, 2026), Jordan James (fifth round, 2025) and Isaac Guerendo (fourth round, 2024). James and Guerendo are still on the roster, but neither played much beyond special teams last season.

“I had some talks, but I had no idea it was coming, man,” Black said of being drafted by the Niners.

Mid-round running backs have not fared well in the Shanahan-Lynch era. The 49ers spent third-round picks selecting Tyrion Davis-Price and Trey Sermon in back-to-back drafts, but both were waived prior to two full seasons with the team. Joe Williams, a fourth-round running back from the first draft Lynch and Shanahan managed together in 2017, did not play a snap in the regular season for the 49ers; they waived him after his rookie season.

“I hope we have better luck,” Shanahan said during Friday’s post-draft news conference.

After the Niners used a third-round pick on kicker Jake Moody in 2023, Shanahan joked, “I still can’t believe we didn’t take a running back.”

April 24, 2026|Updated April 24, 2026 9:40 p.m.

Eric Branch has covered the 49ers at the San Francisco Chronicle since 2011, when he arrived after covering the team in 2010 at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

A graduate of UCLA, he’s won nine national APSE awards in various divisions, including recognition in 2018 for a breaking-news story on the arrest of 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster. In 2024, he was named a finalist for the California Sportswriter of the Year award by the National Sports Media Association. In 2023, he received a first-place award in feature writing from the Pro Football Writers of America for a story on team pastor Earl Smith. Before covering the 49ers, he covered endless events, including archery tournaments and lawnmower races, while also working at the Logansport (Ind.) Pharos-Tribune, York (Pa.) Daily Record, Alexandria (La.) Town Talk and San Luis Obispo Tribune. He was included in the “Best American Sports Writing 2001,” under notable writing of that year, for a column on the joy and challenge of being a small-town sportswriter.

Football Trending Reporter

Noah Furtado covers the San Francisco 49ers and college football in the Bay Area as a football trending reporter. Before graduating from Arizona State University in 2024, Furtado interned at the Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism department of the New York Times, where he wrote about Major League Baseball. He also contributed to the Minnesota Star Tribune, where he covered a variety of pro sports teams, and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, where he reported on local high school sports. Furtado also previously freelanced for the Los Angeles Times and the Chronicle.

Furtado grew up in Hawaii and is an alumnus of the nationally recognized, highly competitive Sports Journalism Institute, a nine-week training and internship program designed to prepare college students for careers in sports journalism.