49ers Clips
The 49ers have started signing their 2026 draft picks.
Six of their eight selections are now under contract, including second-rounder De’Zhaun Stribling. The 49ers picked Stribling at the top of the second round after trading out of the first round on the opening night in Pittsburgh.
They also signed third-round running back Kaelon Black, fourth-round offensive lineman Carver Willis, fourth-round cornerback Ephesians Prysock, fifth-round linebacker Jaden Dugger, and fifth-round offensive lineman Enrique Cruz. Third-round defensive end Romello Height and fourth-round defensive tackle Gracen Halton remain unsigned.
The 49ers also announced deals with seven undrafted free agents. They signed Penn State tight end Khalil Dinkins, Tennessee defensive lineman Bryson Eason, North Carolina State wide receiver Wesley Grimes, Indiana defensive lineman Mikail Kamara, Notre Dame wide receiver Will Pauling, Notre Dame safety Jalen Stroman, and Illinois defensive lineman James Thompson.
The NFL will announce the full 2026 schedule on Thursday, May 14, but the league’s international slate of games will be revealed earlier than the domestic ones.
The matchups for this year’s international games will be announced on NFL Network at 9 a.m. eastern time on Wednesday.
Nine international games are on the docket this year, but the matchups for two of them have already been announced. The 49ers and Rams will meet up in Melbourne in Week 1 and the Cowboys will face the Ravens in Rio in Week 3.
One team in each of the other seven games is already known. The Jaguars will play in London twice and the Commanders will be involved in the city’s third game. The 49ers will be in Mexico City, the Falcons will be in Madrid, the Lions will be in Munich and the Saints will take part in the NFL’s first game in Paris.
The Vikings have had a need for another established receiver since Jalen Nailor signed with the Raiders early in free agency. They’ve finally addressed it.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Vikings and receiver Jauan Jennings have agreed to terms on a one-year deal. It’s reportedly worth “up to” $13 million. Which doesn’t shed much light on the true value of the deal. The reported figure is the maximum amount he can earn; without knowing the base value and the triggers for any incentives, it’s impossible to assess the deal.
Jennings became a free agent two years ago, on the heels of a solid performance in Super Bowl LVIII. He re-signed with the 49ers on a fairly modest deal. After generating 975 yards in 2024, he sought a raise. Ultimately, the 49ers added $3 million in incentives.
With the window for compensatory-draft pick consideration closing last week, the move won’t count toward San Francisco’s or Minnesota’s ultimate haul of extra selections.
A seventh-round pick in 2020, Jennings had spent six seasons with the 49ers. He had 643 receiving yards in 2025. He visited the Vikings last week.
In Minnesota, Jennings joins a depth chart led by Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Jennings was the highest remaining available free agent on the PFT list, at No. 23.
The 49ers used the 90th overall pick on Indiana running back Kaelon Black, drawing criticism from draft analysts who labeled his third-round selection a reach.
Both General Manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan have defended when Black was selected.
“That’s just our evaluation of him,” Shanahan said recently. “Right or wrong, that’s our evaluation.”
Black is embracing the scrutiny, using it as motivation for his rookie season.
“It makes me want to go harder,” Black told Chase Senior of Chat Sports, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I’ve got to prove my coach right. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t seen the backlash that [Shanahan] has been getting for the pick, but we just stay the course. We stay focused, and we’re going to keep moving and try to prove him right.”
Black rushed for 251 yards for Indiana in 2024 before becoming one of the Hoosiers’ two 1,000-yard backs in 2025, finishing the season with 1,040 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 36 yards.
The Commanders are hiring 49ers scout Ryan Kessenich as their new director of college scouting, Neil Stratton of ScoutSpeak reports.
Kessenich is returning to Washington, where he began his scouting career in 2005.
His stint in San Francisco began in 2019, where he and Adam Peters worked together before Peters left to become the Commanders’ General Manager in 2024. Kessenich also worked as a scout for the Chiefs and the Bears and had two stops at Northwestern University, along with one year as a scout for the Senior Bowl, before joining the 49ers.
Kessenich will replace Tim Gribble, who left in January to join the Steelers.
The 49ers secured a significant addition to their offense in March by signing veteran receiver Mike Evans.
While Evans will be 33 in August, he was still considered one of the top talents available at receiver this offseason. The 2025 season was the first in Evans’ career that he did not reach 1,000 yards, having played only eight games due to injury.
Even as Evans tallied just 30 catches for 368 yards last year, the 49ers are confident he can continue to be effective in their offense in 2026.
“I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame wide receiver,” 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said on Thursday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “He’s a one-on-one match-up that you can take advantage of when he’s on the field, and when he’s got one-on-one coverage, you want to get the ball to Mike. You feel like he’s going to win.
“He’s about as competitive as they come. He’s a guy who’s going to win his match-ups, and it’s just really cool to have that alpha type of player out on the field at that position for us again. … And we’re going to use him the way he’s been used his whole career, and hopefully, get a few more things out of him, too, along the way, as we get him in our program.”
A six-time Pro Bowler, Evans has recorded 866 catches for 13,052 yards with 108 touchdowns so far in his 12-year career.
The first game of the 2026 season will be televised by NBC, on Wednesday, September 9. The second game of the 2026 season will stream.
According to The Athletic, the 49ers-Rams game from Australia will be televised by Netflix.
It becomes the third Netflix game of 2026. Currently, Netflix handles two Christmas games.
The move meshes with Netflix’s desire to handle big events. With the NFL reportedly splitting four games it absorbed from ESPN between Netflix and YouTube, Netflix will be in line to get one more game for 2026.
The biggest new event for 2026 will be the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game, which is expected to debut this year.
The Vikings are not officially announcing their interviews for General Manager, but three more candidates for the role have now been reported.
According to multiple reports, Minnesota has put in an interview request for Titans assistant G.M. Dave Ziegler and 49ers assistant G.M. RJ Gillen. Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports notes the Vikings have also put in a request for Chargers assistant G.M. Chad Alexander.
Of this group, Ziegler has previous G.M. experience, having served in that role for the Raiders in 2022 and 2023. He was fired midway through his second season, along with former head coach Josh McDaniels.
Gillen has spent the last 11 seasons with the 49ers. He was promoted to assistant G.M. last year after serving as director of player personnel for two years.
Alexander has been the Chargers’ assistant G.M. since 2024. He was previously with the Ravens’ personnel department from 1999-2018 before serving as Jets director of player personnel from 2019-2023.
For many years, Mike Evans was the leader of the Buccaneers’ receivers room.
But that is no longer the case, with Evans electing to sign a three-year deal with the 49ers in March.
Tampa Bay still has plenty of talent at wideout, including 2025 first-round pick Emeka Egbuka. In an interview with Up & Adams this week, Egbuka noted that while the Bucs feel the loss of Evans, they have the players to fill the void.
“Obviously, I think there’s a passing of the torch, and it needs to be received by someone,” Egbuka said. “I think that our management — our G.M., our owners, and everything like that — they’ve done a great job of bringing guys in who are up to the task. So, obviously, they drafted me last year. But we have Chris Godwin, we have Jalen McMillan, and we have a bunch of guys who are ready to make an impact. We just drafted a wide receiver [Ted Hurst out of Georgia State], so we’re really excited to see what he can do.
“But obviously, we’re feeling the effects of Mike being gone. He’s so loved within the building, within the Tampa community. There’s nothing but love for him. There’s no hard feelings or anything. We all believe he’s going to do amazing things in San Francisco. But, yeah, there’s a little bit of a passing of the torch, and handoff, and I think everybody in our room is up to the task.”
Egbuka, in particular, seems up to the task of leading Tampa Bay’s wideouts, telling Kay Adams that he feels leadership is “always something that’s come very natural to me.”
“I remember in draft prep and everything like that, when the Bucs were evaluating me, that was something that they put a lot of high emphasis on, was me being a leader, and stepping into leadership roles,” Egbuka said. “I was a captain at Ohio State — been a captain on pretty much every football team I’ve been a part of. So, it’s definitely something that’s always come naturally to me when I was younger.”
Egbuka, 23, caught 63 passes for 938 yards with six touchdowns as a rookie in 2025.
49ers tight end George Kittle remains on track in his rehab from a torn Achilles.
That gives coach Kyle Shanahan hope that Kittle can get back in time to play in the 49ers’ season opener on Sept. 10. The 49ers will play the Rams in Melbourne, Australia, to open the season.
“I know there’s a chance to,” Shanahan said Thursday on The Rich Eisen Show, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I know he’s working his butt off to do it. I don’t want to say he’s on track, but I think that’s what he’s shooting for. And I don’t put anything past Kittle. He works as hard as anyone.”
Kittle tore his right Achilles during a Jan. 11 playoff game against the Eagles. That gave him only eight months for surgery and rehab, prompting an initial fear that Kittle would miss some of the 2026 season.
Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed the surgery on Kittle’s Achilles in Los Angeles the week of the injury.
Kittle, 32, made a seventh career Pro Bowl last season despite playing only 11 regular-season games due to hamstring and ankle injuries.
