Malik Mustapha's many hats played a crucial role in him being drafted by the San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers’ pick of Malik Mustapha in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft received widespread praise as one of their best selections.

Mustapha received significant plaudits for his play when meeting the ball-carrier, with many labeling the former Wake Forest safety as the best tackling player at the position in the entire draft.

The 49ers obviously put a huge emphasis on tackling in the secondary but, for San Francisco, the most important box Mustapha ticks is one they require all players in their back seven to check.

Asked about Mustapha, who often played at linebacker depth in Wake Forest's 'panther' package, new defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said: "I just think with safeties today and defensive backs today, you need to be versatile. 

"Even linebackers, I mean, look at what we’ve done with certain guys that have kind of been in different positions and it’s such a fast game and offenses look to expose you in certain ways, so you have to be versatile. 

"So, we like when guys have the versatility, but we also just loved his play style. Even with [CB] Renardo Green, it’s how he played. And even with [LB] Tatum Bethune, they fit how we want to play football and how we do play football. And when we see guys like that, it’s like, okay, do they fit us? And he does."

Last season, Mustapha played 327 snaps in the box, 163 as a free safety and 144 in the slot. He even played 27 snaps lined up along the defensive front. 

In other words, he is a player who can be used at all three levels of the defense. Even more encouraging is the speed with which he learned to master the various roles he was asked to play by defensive coordinator Brad Lambert within Wake Forest's panther package after returning from injury in 2022.

"The new defensive staff at Wake Forest came that 2022 season, and I had my ACL surgery in January of 2022, so that panther package really didn't get installed until I came back for fall camp in August, around that time," Mustapha said this week in a press conference. 

"That's when they started installing different stuff for that. I came back ready to go for camp and that’s when coach started developing new packages for me. With that panther package, there were a lot of hats I had to wear. In the beginning, it was more so maybe some fire zone calls that get me able to pressure the quarterback and be able to use my athleticism to kind of disrupt them. 

"You saw me spying the quarterback as well. There were times you saw me down in the defensive line front or I'm in the line with the linebackers. People were so worried about me close to the line of scrimmage, there were some games when I would drop deep and play the middle third. Just coach being able to trust in me being able to pick that up and being able to cook up different defenses week by week based off the teams was something that he trusted me with and it was just something that was a tell of what we were feeling that week. Definitely a lot of versatility within that package."

In short, Lambert felt comfortable implementing the panther package just weeks ahead of the college season and would change Mustapha's role within it on a weekly basis, such was his level of faith in his safety's ability to handle the various changes in assignment.

Mustapha's success in doing so was seemingly the primary reason why the 49ers drafted him. With Ji'Ayir Brown and Talanoa Hufanga primed to be the starters in 2024, Mustapha likely won't have as much asked of him in his rookie year but, should he show the same kind of aptitude for absorbing the the 49ers' defensive scheme, it would be no surprise to see him on the field early and often and once again wearing an array of hats.