This year’s draft pool includes the sons of four former 49ers, and the brother of one current 49er: Luke McCaffrey (son of Ed, brother of Christian), Brendan Rice (son of Jerry), Terique Owens (son of Terrell), and Frank Gore Jr.
49ers G.M. John Lynch was asked on Monday how he feels about the sons of former NFL players entering the league.
“Well, I believe in bloodlines,” Lynch said. “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 inflection 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 gene pool? Is that modeling 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 bloodlines coupled with the comfort and familiarity with being in and around NFL locker rooms and practice fields and games will help. But the raw, objective ability also must be there.
The challenge is to balance perceived ability with the intangible benefit that comes from having a direct family connection to a former NFL player, especially when (in this case) three of the incoming players are the sons of current or future Hall of Famers and the other is the brother of a future Hall of Famer.
