49ers Work Out Eight Defenders, and Five of Them Play Inside
Nobody got signed off this list. Not yet. But when a 6 and 1 team brings in five defensive linemen the week after trading for one, it's telling you where it's still worried.
The transaction wire dropped this one Tuesday night. Eight names. Eight defenders. Read the positions before you read the names and you'll see what jumped out at me.
Three defensive backs. Five defensive linemen. Four of those five are listed as tackles.
So let's be clear before anybody in the group chat starts building a 53. A workout isn't a signing. Teams bring guys in every Tuesday to keep an emergency list warm, and most of these names will be back on their couches by Thursday. But the shape of the list matters, and the shape of this one points straight at the middle of the line.
Who came in
The linemen first, because they're the story. Matthew Butler is the one with real NFL tape. Tennessee guy, a fifth round pick of the Raiders in 2022, bounced between their practice squad and the active roster for three years, then got claimed by Miami in May of 2025. The Dolphins re-signed him in March and cut him at final cuts in August. We play the Raiders on Sunday. A guy who spent three years in their building is a fun name to have in your facility this particular week. I'm not saying that's why he was there.
I'm saying I noticed.
Aaron Graves is a rookie out of Iowa, second team All Big Ten last year. Baltimore signed him as an undrafted free agent in April, waived him at the end of August, and Houston had him on its practice squad from late September until it let him go on October 20.
Dominic Bailey is another undrafted rookie, out of Tennessee, another Texan. Houston signed him in May and waived him at final cuts. He played 109 preseason snaps for them and hasn't taken a regular season snap yet.
Kristian Williams took the long way. Oregon, then three years at Missouri, where he was a captain in 2024. Denver signed him undrafted in 2025, he got hurt that August, came back on a futures deal in January, and got cut again on August 30. He went up to Toronto in the CFL in September and the Argonauts released him in October.
Then there's Chris Williams, listed as a defensive tackle. There's more than one Chris Williams who's played tackle in this league, and the wire didn't say which one showed up in Santa Clara, so I'm not going to pretend I know his résumé.
The defensive backs are a different flavor. Kyu Blu Kelly is the name Bay Area people know, a Stanford corner who made second team All Pac 12 twice on the Farm. Baltimore took him in the fifth round in 2023 and he's been on five rosters since, and last year in Las Vegas he finally got a real run: 13 games, eight starts, 40 tackles, three picks. Then he tore his patellar tendon against Denver in December and the season was over. He's a free agent now. If he's healthy, I'd love it. That's the homer in me and I'm not hiding it.
David Long is a vet, a Michigan corner the Rams took in the third round in 2019. He's played 79 regular season games. This year he went to camp with the Giants, got released a week later, signed with the Saints, and landed on injured reserve before the opener. New Orleans released him with an injury settlement last week. Christian Braswell went from Temple to Rutgers to Jacksonville as a sixth round pick in 2023, and the Jaguars waived him with an injury designation in October.
Why the middle, and why now
Count the bodies. Alfred Collins is on injured reserve with the knee. C.J. West is on injured reserve. Sam Okuayinonu's foot put him on injured reserve before the season started. On the edge, Mikail Kamara and Andrew Farmer II are both on IR too, and Nick Bosa is still sitting on the report as questionable with that knee.
We traded a 2027 fourth for DeForest Buckner on October 27, and I'm still a little giddy about it. He'd started all seven games for the Colts with four sacks. But one 99 doesn't fix a rotation. Defensive tackles get tired. They get rolled. Somebody has to take the snaps Buckner and Osa Odighizuwa can't.
And the practice squad just got thin in exactly that spot. On Tuesday the Texans signed Naquan Jones off our practice squad. The same afternoon the 49ers brought Robert Beal Jr. back to the practice squad. He spent his first four years here and Miami released him on October 30. That leaves McKinnley Jackson as the only other true tackle on the practice squad. Kevin Givens is there too, after they released him off the 53 and brought him right back.
That's the whole emergency room.
And the corners
The DB part I get even faster. They cut Jack Jones to make room for Buckner, which I cheered. That left Renardo Green and Deommodore Lenoir outside, Upton Stout in the slot with a shoulder that's still questionable, and Ephesians Prysock as the next man up behind Lenoir. Nate Hobbs is on IR. Marques Sigle is questionable at safety. Nobody's panicking.
But it's one bad Sunday from panic, and the front office knows it.
What I'm watching for
Coming off the bye, we're 6 and 1, the one loss to Atlanta, and the Raiders are coming to Levi's on Sunday. Practice starts back up Wednesday. If one of these guys signs, my money's on a tackle going to the practice squad, because that's where the hole actually is. If Kelly signs, I'll be telling anybody who will listen that he's a Stanford kid.
Or nobody signs, and all this was just Lynch keeping his phone list current. That happens too. I just don't think a team brings in four tackles on a Tuesday because it's bored.
The trade that set this up is in the Buckner column, and the cut that opened his spot is in the Jack Jones piece. How we lost Collins is here, and why this keeps happening to our line every single year is in the deja vu column. Who's hurt right now lives on the injury report, who's where is on the depth chart, the rest of the season is on the schedule hub, and everything else is on the 49ers hub.
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