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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Stanford receiver Elic Ayomanor, who could be the first Bay Area product drafted later this month, was only an observer at Wednesday’s local pro day. But he’s gotten plenty of exposure to the San Francisco 49ers over the past two seasons.
And he said all the right things. “I know one thing — they ask their receivers to block a lot,” Ayomanor said of the 49ers’ system. “And that’s something I’m willing to do and am very eager to do.
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I think I’d fit well here.” Advertisement Downfield blocking is among Ayomanor’s strengths and is one of the reasons The Athletic’s Dane Brugler lists him as a potential third-round pick . Other local products who could hear their names called during the three-day draft include San Jose State receiver Nick Nash, Washington State offensive tackle Esa Pole and a quartet of Cal defenders: cornerbacks Nohl Williams and Marcus Harris; linebacker Teddye Buchanan; and safety Craig Woodson.
Williams, who will challenge Ayomanor to be the first local player off the board, didn’t attend the local pro day because he was on an official visit elsewhere. Ayomanor burst onto the national stage in 2023 with 13 catches, 294 receiving yards and three touchdowns in a comeback win over Colorado. A number of those catches came against cornerback Travis Hunter, who’s expected to be the No.
2 pick in the draft . Although he didn’t take part in Wednesday’s hour-long session, he did participate in last month’s pro day at Stanford that was attended by general manager John Lynch and receivers coach Leonard Hankerson. Ayomanor said he first met Lynch in 2023 when Lynch served as an honorary team captain, and he was put through the paces by Hankerson at Stanford’s pro day.
“And we had some meetings leading up to that,” he said of Hankerson. “I knew he was gonna come out (for the pro day). And he coached me up a little bit there, too.
” Scouts like Ayomanor’s combination of strength, speed and body control. And as he noted, his hard-nosed blocking would fit nicely in the 49ers’ receiving room. As it stands now, their top wideouts are Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall.
Brandon Aiyuk is recovering from a torn ACL, though Kyle Shanahan said recently he may be back at full strength at the start of the regular season. Nash, meanwhile, was the most prolific wide receiver in college football last season, leading the FBS in catches (104), receiving yards (1,382) and receiving touchdowns (16). Brugler rates him as a fifth-round pick because he worked almost exclusively from the slot at San Jose State, will turn 26 this summer (2021 draft pick Trey Lance is two years younger) and doesn’t have breakaway speed, running the 40-yard dash in 4.
57 seconds at the combine. Advertisement Still, he has some similarities to Jennings in that he’s a former quarterback who’s physical with the ball in the air and who usually comes down with the catch. He also noted that his switch to receiver came late — in 2022 — and that he’s still learning the position.
At his San Jose State pro day last month, Nash likened himself to NFC West wideouts Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, neither of whom had blazing 40 times before their respective drafts. “I think my mind is the biggest key for me — just showing (teams) that I can learn an offense quickly and produce at a high level,” he said. Another player who got a late start — not just at his position, but in the sport of football — was Washington State’s Pole, who measured 6-foot-5, 323 pounds at the combine.
“The mom that I was raised with, she was not a big believer in football,” Pole said. “I was a good student, and she wanted me to stay a good student. She didn’t believe that hitting my head constantly was going to help that.
So I didn’t really get into the football scene.” Instead, he was a power forward in basketball until 2021, which is when he realized he could not overcome his relative lack of height. So he tried football , starting out as a defensive lineman before moving to the other side of the ball.
He proved to be a quick learner, and his basketball background made for a smooth transition to Washington State’s zone-blocking offense when he transferred there in 2023. Pole played left tackle exclusively with the Cougars and said the two games he was most proud of last year came against Texas Tech, which prides itself on stopping the run, and against Boise State, which excelled at rushing the passer. The Cougars ran for 301 yards and four touchdowns against Texas Tech, and Pole didn’t allow any sacks against Boise State.
In fact, he didn’t give up a sack all season. Odds & ends • One hundred-yard practice fields? Ooh-la-la! That’s the plan at the 49ers’ facility where workers are tearing out the lone artificial surface field in preparation of expanding the team’s grass practice fields. The 49ers have a pair of grass fields that run north and south but are only 80 yards long and include just one end zone (on the south end).
The reconfiguration will create east-west fields that stretch 100 yards with a pair of 10-yard end zones on each field. 49ers are ripping out their little-used artificial field that was installed in 2006. They’ll reconfigure the space for a pair of grass fields that will measure — gasp! — 100 yards between the end zones.
(The current grass fields are only 80 yards long, have just one end zone). [image or embed] — Matt Barrows ( @mattbarrows.bsky.
social ) April 9, 2025 at 4:06 PM The artificial field was installed in 2006 under then-head coach Mike Nolan, who wanted a spot to practice if the grass fields got wet and slippery during bad weather. But even that season’s team hardly ever practiced on the field, and in recent years it’s been used only by the team’s kicking specialist and as a spot where rehabbing players work out on the side. Advertisement The 49ers usually use Levi’s Stadium for their local pro day.
The stadium, however, is undergoing renovations, including the installation of new video boards, to get it ready to host Super Bowl LX and the World Cup in 2026 . • Georgia tight end Ben Yurosek was eligible to attend the local pro day because he graduated from Stanford. Yurosek, however, was on a visit with the Minnesota Vikings on Wednesday.
He was used as a pass-catching tight end at Stanford — he had 658 yards in 2021 — before taking on a blocking role with the Bulldogs. Brugler rates him as a priority free agent. • Among the 49ers players who watched from the sideline were second-year players Dominick Puni, Malik Mustapha and a slimmed-down Evan Anderson.
Anderson said he’s the same weight he was last year but has begun to replace fat with muscle. (Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images).
