{"id":900579,"date":"2026-05-25T05:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/900579\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:24:15","slug":"high-ranking-49ers-exec-says-he-fell-in-love-with-rookie-pre-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/900579\/","title":{"rendered":"High-ranking 49ers exec says he &#8216;fell in love&#8217; with rookie pre-draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ninerswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:San Francisco 49ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;San Francisco 49ers&quot;}\" class=\"link \">San Francisco 49ers<\/a> took defensive end Romello Height in the third round (No. 70 overall) in the 2026 NFL draft after a college career that was split between four schools &#8211; Auburn, USC, Georgia Tech and Texas Tech.<\/p>\n<p>In 50 collegiate games over six seasons, Height recorded 111 tackles (27 for a loss), 16.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/san-francisco-49ers\/359\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:49ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;49ers&quot;}\" class=\"link \">49ers<\/a> vice president of player personnel Tariq Ahmed shared that the team identified Height as someone who plays as if his hair were on fire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe does not stop,\u201d Ahmad said (via &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7293234\/2026\/05\/20\/49ers-nfl-draft-class-scouting-reports\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Athletic&quot;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;The Athletic\\&quot;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">The Athletic&#8221;<\/a>). \u201cIt is incredible watching him strain. It was one of the many things that I absolutely loved about his tape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the pre-draft process, Height impressed at the combine and even left a positive impact on his teammates, including two other defensive linemen who went earlier than he did in this year&#8217;s draft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought the combine interview was awesome,\u201d he said. \u201cI fell in love with him at the combine. He\u2019s serious. I mean, you could feel how much passion he has. He comes on a 30 visit, and it\u2019s the same thing. He just loves football&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe talked to teammates of his \u2014 he was the guy they\u2019d want to bring with them. He was a guy they believed in. It\u2019s exciting that everything Texas Tech told us about his passion, we\u2019ve seen out here the last few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the 49ers are bringing <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/players\/31834\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Nick Bosa;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Nick Bosa&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Bosa<\/a> and <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/players\/41796\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mykel Williams;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Mykel Williams&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mykel Williams<\/a> back from torn ACLs, Height may have to play an important role early in his rookie season, and if he impresses his coaches, he could find himself staying in the rotation once Bosa and Williams are healthy.<\/p>\n<p>More 49ers: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/analyst-identifies-underrated-trade-destinations-210024750.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Analyst identifies underrated trade destinations for Brandon Aiyuk;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Analyst identifies underrated trade destinations for Brandon Aiyuk&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Analyst identifies underrated trade destinations for Brandon Aiyuk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/ninerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/niners\/2026\/05\/24\/high-ranking-49ers-exec-says-he-fell-in-love-with-rookie-romello-height-pre-draft\/90245586007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:High-ranking 49ers exec says he &#039;fell in love&#039; with rookie pre-draft;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;High-ranking 49ers exec says he &#039;fell in love&#039; with rookie pre-draft&quot;}\" class=\"link \">High-ranking 49ers exec says he &#8216;fell in love&#8217; with rookie pre-draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers took defensive end Romello Height in the third round (No. 70 overall) in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[4955,120881,7834,7,3023,1493,6,15,1515,35795,252,120880,2299],"class_list":["post-900579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-draft","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-collegiate-games","tag-defensive-linemen","tag-football","tag-georgia-tech","tag-mykel-williams","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nick-bosa","tag-romello-height","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-tariq-ahmed","tag-texas-tech"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116633551762170571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}