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Why the 49ers could draft WR Easop Winston Jr. in Round 5

Here are five things to know about one of the most underrated players in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Grant Cohn

What if the 49ers don’t draft a wide receiver in Round 1 this year? Would you feel disappointed?

We’ve spent so much time debating whether the 49ers should aggressively draft a wide receiver with the 13th pick, or exercise restraint and patience and wait to take a receiver with the 31st pick. But it’s entirely possible the 49ers will take a wide receiver with neither pick.

And maybe that would be the smart, safe move. First-round wide receivers don’t always work out. Remember A.J. Jenkins?

Kyle Shanahan isn’t a general manager, but he helps pick players who fit his scheme. And he never has coached for a team that picked a wide receiver in Round 1 while it employed Shanahan.

Kyle’s father, Mike Shanahan, was the Broncos general manager from 1999 to 2008, and he spent a first-rounder on a wide receiver just once. He picked Ashley Lelie with the 19th pick in 2002. And Lelie never lived up to his draft position.

Perhaps Kyle doesn’t want to make a similar mistake. Perhaps he plans to take a wide receiver in Round 5 -- the 49ers don’t have picks in Rounds 2, 3 or 4.

In Round 5, the 49ers could take someone under the radar: Washington State wide receiver Easop Winston Jr. Here are five things to know about him:

1. Winston grew up in San Francisco and went to Serra High school in San Mateo, the same school Tom Brady and Barry Bonds went to. After high school, Winston played two seasons for City College of San Francisco.

2. In 2018, Winston transferred to Washington state and instantly became the security blanket for quarterback Gardner Minshew, who now starts for the Jaguars. Winston played 26 games in two seasons for Washington State and scored 19 touchdowns.

3. Winston has huge hands and rarely drops passes. Former Washington State head coach Mike Leach called Winston’s hand “oven mitts.” The 49ers could use a sure-handed receiver like Winston to complement Deebo Samuel, who dropped nine passes in 2019.

4. The NFL did not invite Winston to the Scouting Combine. That’s why most draft websites project Winston to be an undrafted free agent. But those draft websites most likely are wrong. Here’s why:

5. Winston ran a 4.42 40-yard dash at his “Virtual Pro Day.” It was “virtual,” because NFL teams couldn’t go -- the current pandemic has prevented them from attending any Pro Day. So Winston went to a high school with his agent and ran a 4.42. That’s fast. See for yourself:

Now teams have to reexamine Winston. Who is he like? Who else is 5’11”, 190-ish pounds and runs a 4.4?

Emmanuel Sanders, that’s who. The guy who started nine games for the 49ers last season and now plays for the Saints.

Winston and Sanders are similar. Winston could be the 49ers’ man.

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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