A somewhat strange quirk of fate means that the sons of four former San Francisco 49ers are up for grabs in this week’s NFL Draft.
Brendan Rice (son of legendary wide receiver Jerry), Terique Owens (son of Hall of Famer Terrell), Luke McCaffrey (son of Ed and brother of Christian), plus Frank Gore Jr, will all be hoping their names are called out in Detroit before the end of the week.
Having a famous father could be seen as both a blessing and a curse, as familiarity of the NFL could arguably be offset by the added weight of expectation that a familiar surname could bring.
As the 49ers finalise their draft boards ahead of Thursday night’s first round, could they be tempted to draft one of the sons of a team legend?
“Well, I believe in bloodlines,” 49ers general manager John Lynch told the media, as per Pro Football Talk.
“I really do. I mean, I think there’s evidence that you should. Then you have to step away from that and you have to evaluate it. And that’s sometimes difficult to do and that’s why a lot of different eyes, a lot of different perspectives. And that’s what we try to do when we have our R&D look at it, we have our coaches look at it, we have our scouting look at it, we try to hit it from a variety of measuring points and inflexion points as to how you grade these guys because you don’t want to do it just off that. That wouldn’t be smart.
“But, these guys, there’s some inherent pressure on who their dad is, but there’s also some good genes and I think that matters. And so, it’s exciting that you have all these great, I mean, we’re talking Hall of Fame players and great players and brothers of players and it’s really fun.
“T.O. was out here at the local pro day and his son Terique performed really well and that was pretty cool. I saw him running at me and I played against T.O. a lot and there was something in that stride that was very familiar. It was something about the gait.
“And it’s crazy how those things translate. Is that just a gene pool? Is that modelling the way they watch their dad run? It’s interesting to me but it’s a fun element to this year’s draft that I think is going to be interesting to watch to see how it unfolds.”
The 49ers have the number 31 overall pick after losing this year’s Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs, then nine further selections, including five compensatory picks on the final day.
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