{"id":128388,"date":"2026-04-26T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-francisco-49ers-select-durangos-willis-in-nfl-draft\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T14:00:00","slug":"san-francisco-49ers-select-durangos-willis-in-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-francisco-49ers-select-durangos-willis-in-nfl-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers select Durango\u2019s Willis in NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango's
Durango's Carver Willis prepares for the rush as part of the University of Washington offensive line against UCLA on Nov. 22. (Courtesy Travis Ellison\/UW Athletics)<\/span>Travis Ellison<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango has connections to plenty of professional athletes, but now this small mountain town will be connected to a man playing football on Sundays.<\/p>\n

Former Demons football star Carver Willis was selected in the fourth round of the NFL Draft with the 127th pick by the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday. Willis will have the chance to compete for playing time for one of the most historic franchises in NFL history as the 49ers remain a contender in the NFC and NFC West.<\/p>\n

\"Carver
Carver Willis<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI knew I was on their radar, but no, I had no idea they were about to take me,\u201d Willis said in a call with reporters. \u201cIt was a pretty big surprise at my place, so I\u2019m just fired up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been a straightforward path for Willis, with stops at Kansas State and Washington during his six years of college football. He started games at right tackle in 2023 and 2024 at Kansas State and at left tackle in 2025 at Washington. However, the former first-team all-state football player as a senior at Durango High School looks like he\u2019ll play guard in the NFL.<\/p>\n

\"Carver
Carver Willis of Durango High School bears down on Ty Blackmer of Montezuma-Cortez High School at DHS. (Jerry McBride\/Herald file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Willis doesn\u2019t have the size or the length of a typical pro tackle. The move to guard is something he talked about with every team he met with. He took snaps at guard at the 2026 Senior Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to do it, no matter where they need me on the line,\u201d Willis said about moving positions. \u201cI\u2019ve kind of said this whole time, I just want a shot in the playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-5-inch, 303-pound Willis met with the 49ers informally at the Senior Bowl and NFL Combine. Willis met with San Francisco offensive line coach Chris Foerster multiple times since Foerster was up at Washington for a coaching clinic. Willis said Washington modeled a lot of what they did on offense off what the 49ers do.<\/p>\n

Willis was projected as a Day 3 selection in the NFL Draft, anywhere from the fourth round to being an undrafted free agent. The Athletic\u2019s <\/em>Dane Brugler ranked Willis as a sixth-round prospect and as the 19th-best guard in the class. Brugler and other analysts noted Willis is at his best in the run game, but he needs to improve his core strength and as a pass blocker. Brugler projects Willis as a backup swing offensive lineman with upside to be more than that.<\/p>\n

Despite where the analysts project Willis\u2019 career to go, there is an opening at left guard for the 49ers that he can compete for. San Francisco seems pretty set at the other four positions on the offensive line, but the 49ers lost two of the three left guards who started for them last season, with the lone returner being 2025 seventh-rounder Connor Colby. Willis could compete for the starting job with Colby, Robert Jones, Brett Toth and Nick Zakelj.<\/p>\n

One of the 49ers\u2019 most notable players is left tackle Trent Williams. The 12-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro is 37 and just signed a two-year, $50 million contract extension on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Willis said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys who\u2019s an all-time great; he\u2019s a legend. Any way I can learn from him or any part of his game I can learn from or his process, I\u2019m excited for. It\u2019s actually one of the first things I said when I got drafted to my family is, \u2018I can learn from Trent.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

San Francisco went 12-5 overall last season and has been in the playoffs in five of the last seven years, including two Super Bowl appearances. Head coach Kyle Shanahan has been leading the team since 2017, and Brock Purdy has been the top starting quarterback since 2023.<\/p>\n

Running back Christian McCaffrey is one of the best running backs in the league, but Willis will try and help improve a rushing attack that averaged 3.8 yards per rush and ranked 24th with 106.9 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

bkelly@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historic franchise selected former Demon in fourth round on Saturday <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6407,6408],"tags":[1544,1820,950,592,926,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-128388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-sports","category-professional-sports-sports","tag-us-national-football-league-nfl-north-american","tag-dh-trueanthem","tag-durango","tag-durango-high-school","tag-football","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128388"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=128388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}