NFL.com: Malik Mustapha is the 49ers' Most Underappreciated Player

The 49ers have a core of eight high-profile veteran players who overshadow the rest of the team.

The core is outstanding when healthy, don't get me wrong, but there are other players on the team who are underappreciated. And their most underappreciated player accoding to NFL.com is safety Malik Mustapha.

"Having just signed Brock Purdy to a quarterback megadeal, San Francisco is entering a new phase in team-building," writes NFL.com's Gennaro Filice. "Nailing draft picks is always important, obviously, but it becomes essential when you’re committing such a large chunk of the salary cap to one man. In order to balance the books, you need to roster viable starters on cost-controlled rookie contracts.

"The 49ers found one of those in the fourth round of last year’s draft, with Mustapha immediately making his presence felt as a violent playmaker. Unfortunately, as if the Niners didn’t suffer enough of an injury-riddled Super Bowl hangover last year, we recently discovered that Mustapha hurt his ACL in San Francisco’s season finale. This puts his availability for the start of the 2025 campaign in question.

"He still gets shine here, though, because I self-consciously feel like I personally underappreciated the safety by completely omitting him from last season’s rookie rankings. This dude’s punishing play style is too endearing to go unrecognized!"

Not only is Mustapha a punishing hitter, he's an explosive runner who covers lots of ground. You could argue he was the 49ers' second-best defensive back last season behind cornerback Deommodore Lenoir.

Mustapha's latest ACL tear was his second, so he'll have to show that he hasn't lost any quickness or speed. But if he hasn't, his future will be extremely bright.