49ers belatedly open Day 3 by selecting a punter
SANTA CLARA — Mitch Wishnowsky, a former Aussie rules football player who took up punting in 2014, was the 49ers’ first selection Saturday in the NFL draft.
Later, picking in the fifth round at No. 148, the 49ers took Arkansas linebacker Dre Greenlaw as part of a trade with Denver. With the first of three picks in the sixth round, the 49ers took Stanford tight end Kaden Smith at No. 176.
The 49ers originally were set to pick at No. 14, but dealt that selection to the Cincinnati Bengals in exchange for Nos. 110, 183 and 198. They also dealt linebacker Dekoda Watson and the fourth of their four 2019 draft picks as well as a sixth-round selection to the Broncos to move up to No. 148.
Wishnowsky, who played one season at Santa Barbara Community College as he transferred his skill set from Aussie rules football to punting, was the Pac-12’s premiere punter at the University of Utah and generally considered the top punter in the draft.
His reaction?
“You are kidding me. Unbelievable,” Wishnowsky said by conference call.
The 49ers had a vacancy at punter after Bradley Pinion departed in free agency and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Pinion was a fifth-round selection in 2015 and the only punter selected in that draft.
At 27, Wishnowsky was a glass installer in Australia who gravitated to football because of shoulder injuries incurred in Aussie rules football.
“I had two operations on my left shoulder, which sort of took me out of action,” Wishnowsky said. “And then I sort of just for fun would go down and play flag American football with a couple of my mates at a park.”
Wishnowsky went from there to ProKick Austrailia, which hooked him up with a chance to play college football in America.
Greenlaw is a shade undersized at 5-foot-11 and 237 pounds, but was a four-year starter at Arkansas, primarily playing on the weak side. He had 6 1/2 tackles for losses, two sacks and was a team captain.
As a youth, Greenlaw grew up in difficult circumstances and was a ward of the state in the foster care system. He was eveentually adopted at age 14 and went on to become a safety at Fayetteville High, where he was a three-year starter and an all-state performer.
“They saw all my tape, they saw my versatility, they like the way I run, they way I hit, my physicality,” Greenlaw said by conference call. “Special teams, whatever they need me to do, I’m going to do whatever coaches tell me to do.”
Smith, at 6-foot-5, 255 pounds, caught 70 passes for 1,049 yards and seven touchdowns in his Stanford career. He is considered a reliable receiver and not particularly explosive despite often working out of the slot for the Cardinal.
The lack of speed was particularly evident at the NFL scouting combine, when he ran a 4.92 40-yard dash. Smith said he doesn’t believe that time is indicative of his game-day speed and that his “first 10 yards” of his combine 40 were responsible for the relatively slow time.
Smith did not participate in 49ers pro day for local athletes, instead going home to see his family. He did, however, keep in touch with general manager John Lynch. Lynch had plenty of opportunities to see Smith, as his son Jake for Stanford.
The 49ers remaining picks, barring trades, are all in the sixth round at No. 183 and 198.