49ers’ top scout dishes on Romello Height, Kaelon Black and team’s draft class (paywall)
“John Lynch wasn’t just being descriptive when he said the 49ers had a high “hair on fire grade” for Height, whom they took early in the third round.
As Ahmad explained, hair on fire is an analytics measurement the team uses, one that examines where a defensive player is in proximity to the ball. One of the things that impressed the 49ers about Height was his motor — he was determined to be in on the play even
when it was on the opposite side of the field.
“He does not stop,” Ahmad said. “It is incredible watching him strain. It was one of the many things that I absolutely loved about his tape.”
Before he became the team’s vice president of player personnel, Ahmad was the scout who cross-checked defensive linemen in the run-up to the draft. You could say it’s his specialty. And it was clear Height was among his favorites in this year’s class.
“I thought the combine interview was awesome,” he said. “I fell in love with him at the combine. He’s serious. I mean, you could feel how much passion he has. He comes on a 30 visit, and it’s the same thing. He just loves football.”
Why 49ers’ UDFA Mikail Kamara is a popular pick to make the roster
“Kamara can do himself a favor by showing positional versatility and the ability to play both inside and out. Kamara, having played for two different schools across six seasons, allowed him to play in multiple schemes where he was tasked with multiple jobs. He’s played in a two and three-point stance.”
She had an NFL dream. When 49ers drafted her brother, they made it a reality (paywall)
“And before Carver became an offensive and defensive lineman in high school, the longtime quarterback learned about in-the-trenches toughness and tenacity from Kayla, who grew up playing left guard and middle linebacker.
Carver learned to study X’s and O’s from Kayla, who was poring over video and drawing Durango’s entire playbook in a composition book as a freshman, seeking a mental edge that would help compensate for her physical disadvantage…..One grade apart, they were teammates for one season at Miller Middle School, and another on Durango High’s junior varsity. And they grew up spending endless backyard hours together with Carver, a quarterback until his sophomore year, throwing passes to his sister who, he says, “lived and breathed football.”
Kayla’s passion and size made her goal appear less unlikely. She was 4-foot-8 in fourth grade and had sprouted to 5-4 two years later. As a seventh grader, as the only girl playing middle-school football, Kayla became one of the few members of her class to make the eighth-grade “A” team.
Kayla started both years at middle linebacker, and Vogt termed her a “stud.” Carver noted, with pride, that he wasn’t as studly: When he was a seventh grader, he couldn’t quite replicate Kayla’s feat: He swung between his own class’ “B” team and the “A” squad.
“So there is a key point in time,” Carver said, “when my sister was better at football than I was.” ….
“I’m very bossy and I think, growing up, I was just kind of telling Carver what to do more than influencing him,” Kayla said. “I never really thought, ‘Oh, wow, I’m really having an impact on Carver.’ … Then on the (recruiting trips) he would introduce me to coaches: ‘This is my sister, Kayla Willis, and she’s my ‘S.J.’ I mean, someone who is going to support and believe in you. That was the first moment where I was kind of like, ‘Wow, OK.’”
Kayla’s devotion was reciprocated. Carver rejected a scholarship offer from a prominent Division I program whose head coach ignored Kayla when she and Carver attended a football camp at the university when Kayla was a freshman in high school. At the end of the camp, Kayla, the only girl among several hundred attendees, said she extended her hand and thanked the coach for the opportunity. She said the coach dismissed her and shook Carver’s hand.
Years later, when the coach called to offer a scholarship, Carver asked the coach if he recalled a girl attending the school’s camp. The coach said he vaguely remembered.
“Carver said, ‘That girl was my sister. And I will never play for a man like you,’” Kayla said.”
