Laughing at the San Francisco 49ers is one of Seattle Seahawks fans' favorite pastimes. The Niners made it even easier to dunk on them during the 2026 NFL Draft, spending their first pick of the draft, which came at No. 33 overall, on De'Zhaun Stribling.
The overall consensus appeared to be that San Francisco could have gotten Stribling much later in the draft, yet they opted to spend the first pick of the second round on him. So far, it's not aging well for John Lynch and the 49ers front office.
That became evident after just one day of training camp. Former Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant responded to a video of Stribling on social media with some criticism for the rookie.
Seattle Seahawks fans enjoying early returns on 49ers’ questionable pick
"I might give him grace if he were pressed and chose to have his outside foot up because it gave him the most comfortable release. But his outside foot being up is why he rolled into the route instead of sticking it. I need my WRs to stick and cross the defender’s face violently… especially if we are running in breaking routes…The minor details make the biggest impact…"
This might not seem terrible on the surface, but to say 49ers fans don't feel great about it would be an understatement. Zane Gelphman of Niner Noise, FanSided's 49ers site, wrote about the criticism toward Stribling and doubled down on what Bryant was saying.
"Such a critique makes sense when considering that Stribling never eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in any season during his college career. In his one season with Ole Miss, he failed to finish the year as the team's leading receiver. In fact, he only had one game in which he surpassed 100 yards through the air," Gelphman wrote. "This inconsistency has to be taken into account when determining his value to San Francisco this year. There has to be a reason why a player of his physique failed to dominate at the college level, while others who boasted less physical prowess produced better results."
While Stribling has yet to take the field, the early returns are not looking promising for him or the 49ers. Maybe the Niners front office saw something the rest of us didn't, but so far, it appears that what everyone else saw in Stribling could be closer to the truth.
For Seahawks fans' sake, hopefully that ends up being the case.
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