{"id":99729,"date":"2025-06-03T03:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T03:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/99729\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T03:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T03:56:10","slug":"former-49ers-draft-pick-earns-honor-as-one-of-spring-football-leagues-top-pass-rushers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/99729\/","title":{"rendered":"Former 49ers draft pick earns honor as one of spring football league&#8217;s top pass rushers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/san-francisco-49ers\/359\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:San Francisco 49ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">San Francisco 49ers<\/a> draft pick has found a home in the UFL.<\/p>\n<p>Pita Taumoepenu, a sixth-round choice of the 49ers in the 2017 draft, was named to the all-league team in the United Football League where he plays for the St. Louis Battlehawks. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theufl.com\/news\/ufl-announces-2025-all-ufl-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The All-UFL squad;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The All-UFL squad<\/a> was announced Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Taumoepenu has spent the last two years in the UFL . This season he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/ufl\/stats?season=2025&amp;category=defense\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:led the spring league with 7.5 sacks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">led the spring league with 7.5 sacks<\/a>, up from his 5.0-sack performance last season.<\/p>\n<p>This is a nice landing spot for Taumoepenu who struggled to find his footing as a pro in the NFL. He played 11 games across four seasons including two with the 49ers, one with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/atlanta-falcons\/323\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Atlanta Falcons;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Atlanta Falcons<\/a> and one with the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/denver-broncos\/332\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Denver Broncos;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Denver Broncos<\/a>. In those 11 games he didn&#8217;t record a sack and notched five tackles in 43 defensive snaps.<\/p>\n<p>Taumoepenu&#8217;s Battlehawks led the UFL with an 8-2 record this season and they&#8217;re slated to face the DC Defenders in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theufl.com\/schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the conference championship game;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">the conference championship game<\/a> Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>More 49ers: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/49ers-officially-announce-low-risk-014341211.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:49ers officially announce low-risk, high-reward trade with Eagles;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">49ers officially announce low-risk, high-reward trade with Eagles<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/ninerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/niners\/2025\/06\/02\/ufl-awards-former-49ers-de-pita-taumoepenu-all-league-honor\/84002095007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:UFL awards: Former 49ers DE Pita Taumoepenu earns all-league honor;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">UFL awards: Former 49ers DE Pita Taumoepenu earns all-league honor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former San Francisco 49ers draft pick has found a home in the UFL. Pita Taumoepenu, a sixth-round&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,254,258,7,6,25832,1161,252,2624,2623,25683,25833,5220],"class_list":{"0":"post-99729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pita-taumoepenu","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","16":"tag-sanfrancisco","17":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","18":"tag-st-louis-battlehawks","19":"tag-taumoepenu","20":"tag-ufl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99729","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=99729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}