Rookie Review

Niners not getting everything needed from Class of 2016

- Craig Massei

When you’re as bad as the 49ers have been throughout most of this season, the bad trickles down to every area of the roster. And San Francisco’s 2016 rookie draft class comprises a significant portion of that roster.

At least, that’s the way the Niners were hoping this year would play out when they added a fresh layer of young talent to one of the NFL’s worst rosters with their 11 selections in the 2016 draft this past spring.

Instead, the 49ers headed into the final quarter of their season in mid-December with only six of those rookies on their active roster. And only five of them could be considered to have made any impact at all on the team.

Some more than others, of course. But none have been difference-makers this year on a team headed on a one-way trip to a miserable final record.

So it’s no surprise that a review of San Francisco’s 2016 rookies shows that group producing underwhelming results as the Niners play out the string on another lost season.

One of San Francisco’s 11 draft picks never made it to the regular season with the team. Sixthrounder Jeff Driskel was released in early September at the final roster cut-down to 53 players with the Niners planning to immediately sign him back to their developmental practice squad.

But Driskel never made it to the season opener with the team that drafted him. He was claimed off waivers on Sept. 4 by the Cincinnati Bengals, where he has spent the entire season on the active roster as the team’s No. 3 quarterback behind starter Andy Dalton and backup A.J. McCarron.