Clelin Ferrell

4th overall pick in 2019, now on his fourth team — a journeyman rotational edge.

Ferrell was the 4th overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Clemson — the controversial top-5 selection by the Raiders that drew immediate "reach" criticism. His rookie year (4.5 sacks) remained his career high in Las Vegas.

The path since: Raiders (4 years) → 49ers (2023) → Commanders (2024) → 49ers (2025, after a brief LAC stop). Four teams in seven years. He's now what scouts call a "valuable rotational piece" — exactly the role most 4th-overall picks are paid not to be.

2025: 4 sacks in 9 games for the 49ers — already past his career-high pace.

Ferrell signed a 1-year deal with the Chargers in March 2025, played exactly 1 game, was released, and signed with the 49ers in late September. In 9 games for San Francisco he's at 4 sacks, 4 TFLs, 5 QB hits, 15 solo tackles.

The 4-sack pace in 9 games is comfortably ahead of his career-high 4.5 from 2019. If he plays out a full second half, he projects to 7+ sacks — which would be his first real breakout seven years into his NFL career.

Kris Kocurek's 49ers DL group has historically been a sack-rate amplifier; Ferrell may be the latest beneficiary.

His sack rate per game has nearly tripled since leaving Las Vegas — 0.21 with the Raiders, 0.36 since.

In Las Vegas, Ferrell was a 0.20 sacks-per-game rusher — solid for a rotational end but well short of top-10 pick expectations. Since 2023 he's been 0.27/g (10 sacks in 39 games) across three teams.

2025 is the spike: 0.44 sacks/game in San Francisco — a rate that would project to over 7 sacks in a 16-game season and is more than 2x his Raiders rate. Scheme matters: Kocurek's wide-9 alignment puts more pure pass-rush reps on Ferrell's plate than any of his previous stops.

21.0 career sacks in 7 years — well below 2019 first-rounders, comparable to mid-Day-2 edge value.

Among edge defenders taken in the first round of the 2019 draft, the career sack tally: - Josh Allen (#7, Jax): ~50+ career sacks - Brian Burns (#16, Car/NYG): ~50+ career sacks - Montez Sweat (#26, WAS/CHI): ~45+ career sacks - Clelin Ferrell (#4, LV): 21.0 career sacks

Drafted higher than all of them. Ferrell's career sack output is closer to a typical Day 2 rotational edge (think 2nd-3rd round) — and yet he's still earning roster spots seven years in, which is its own data point. 88 career tackles, 29 TFLs, 62 QB hits says the floor of his game (pressure, run defense) has always held even when the splash hasn't.

Played for the Chargers for exactly 1 game in 2025 before being released.

Ferrell signed a 1-year deal with the Chargers in March 2025, made the roster, played in 1 regular-season game, then was cut on September 23, 2025 as LAC reshuffled the DL.

The 49ers signed him within days. The transactional whiplash is a hallmark of his post-Raiders career: he's now had 4 different team affiliations in 3 calendar years (SF → WAS → LAC → SF). For a 4th-overall pick, that's the kind of journeyman footprint that usually only happens to undrafted free agents.

The twist: he's playing his best football in the role.