LATEST April 24, 6:45 p.m. The 49ers selected Georgia defensive lineman Mykel Williams with the No. 11 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Here's what columnist Eric Ting said about the possibility of selecting Williams before the draft and why it'd be a huge risk for the Niners. — SFGATE sports editor Alex Simon

April 23, 1 p.m. The San Francisco 49ers believe they have the Jesus of defensive line coaching.

Since joining the team in 2019, defensive line coach Kris Kocurek has worked a great many miracles. He saved Arik Armstead from being remembered as another Trent Baalke failure. He coaxed an 8.5-sack season out of journeyman Kerry Hyder. He resuscitated the career of Arden Key, who was headed for the densely populated graveyard of the Raiders’ draft busts.

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The team worked hard to keep Kocurek around in the 2023 offseason — staving off interest from the Houston Texans to stay — because of his ability to turn water into wine. In some cases, he’s even been able to turn sewage water into a drinkable cocktail.

But Kocurek is not Jesus, and hasn’t been able to save everybody. I write this because there’s a common thread that connects the two most high-profile instances where he failed — Javon Kinlaw and Drake Jackson — as well as some of the options in the 2025 NFL draft. In short, those players were freakish athletes in serious need of technical refinement and were selected with the belief that Kocurek could coach them up. Neither panned out, and there are signs the team may be about to make the same mistake again. 

San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa runs a drill as defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, left, and defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, right, look on during practice at the team’s NFL training facility in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 1, 2024.

Kocurek is a great defensive line coach, but even he can’t save every defensive lineman who falls into the “tantalizing athletic gifts but limited collegiate production driven by a lack of technique” archetype. Travon Walker, Tyree Wilson and Payton Turner are recent examples from other NFL teams of athletic but unrefined first-round picks who have not lived up to their draft status.

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The 49ers badly need to walk away with multiple starters out of this draft class after an ownership-induced spending crunch. If San Francisco wishes to contend in the NFC in 2025, the team must avoid project-type defensive linemen at pick No. 11, similar to how Jake Moody’s field goal attempts avoid the........

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