The San Francisco 49ers have never been shy about doubling down on a college pipeline, but they just made history in a way that even caught the analytics world off guard. For the first time in the Next Gen Stats era, the Niners drafted the same position from the same school in back-to-back years—and they did it with two wide receivers from Ole Miss.

Let’s rewind for a second. Under the current regime, the 49ers have consistently dipped into familiar wells. They grabbed Notre Dame offensive linemen Aaron Banks and Mike McGlinchey in the top 50. They pulled Deebo Samuel and Javon Kinlaw from South Carolina. In 2021 and 2022, they took Talanoa Hufanga and Drake Jackson from USC. Even pre-John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, you saw patterns: Curtis Taylor and Eric Reid (LSU safeties), Kentwan Balmer and Kentavius Street (NC State), and most recently, Enrique Cruz and Dominick Puni (Kansas) in consecutive years.

But this year? The 49ers took it to another level. In the 2025 and 2026 drafts, they selected Jordan Watkins and De’Zhaun Stribling—both wide receivers from Ole Miss. It’s the first time in the Next Gen Stats database that a team has drafted the same position from the same school in consecutive years. And stylistically, these two couldn’t be more different.

Watkins is a compact, shifty threat at under 6 feet and 200 pounds, with an arm length of 29 3/8 inches. His athletic comps include KC Concepcion, Patriots receiver Kyle Williams, Makai Lemon, and Mecole Hardman. Stribling, on the other hand, stands 6’2 1/8 with over two inches longer arms and nearly an inch bigger hands. Think Sammy Watkins or Christian Watson—taller, longer, and built to win on the outside.

What’s wild is that despite their size differences, both receivers were in the 90th percentile for speed. Stribling edged out Watkins in the 40-yard dash (4.36 vs. 4.37), and they posted identical 10-yard splits at 1.53 seconds. Their college usage was also surprisingly similar. Lane Kiffin deployed Watkins on the outside for two-thirds of his snaps, occasionally sliding him into the slot or even lining him up in the backfield. Stribling played 591 snaps primarily as an outside receiver, proving that the 49ers value versatility as much as they value a familiar scouting report.

For a team that prides itself on finding diamonds in the rough, this back-to-back Ole Miss haul is a testament to their commitment to building through the draft—and to knowing exactly what they want, even if it means going back to the same well twice.