SANTA CLARA — The scene, thanks to a draft room camera planted by the 49ers to record the reaction of their 2025 draft class for posterity, cannot be forgotten.
It’s the phone call general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan love, bestowing upon a grateful college player the news he’s always longed to hear.
Lynch could barely get a word out before Upton Stout began saying, “Let’s do it!, let’s do it!, let’s do it!” Then the phone went to Shanahan. “Let’s do it!, let’s do it!, let’s do it! You don’t know what you just got coach! You got a dawg!” Even owner Jed York got in the act, with Stout first calling him “coach” before serenading him with another chorus of, “Let’s do it!, let’s do it!, let’s do it!”
“He’s got a lot of juice,” Lynch said that day. “That was as good a call as we’ve ever had, calling a kid and letting him know.”
At the end of the call, the 49ers draft room in unison chanted “Let’s do it!”
Let the record show that through 10 training camp practices, Stout is indeed doing it. He’s running with the first team as a slot corner. It doesn’t appear Stout is giving it up.
At 5-foot-9, 182 pounds out of Western Kentucky, Stout was a third-round draft pick, No. 100 overall. The way Shanahan sounded Monday, it looks as if the 49ers have found a plug-and-play rookie.
“Knowing that nickel position was open, that’s one of the reasons we invested that draft pick in him, hoping he could do it right away,” Shanahan said. “He looked that way in OTAs and he’s looking that way so far now.”
Stout isn’t a long-armed, prototype corner. But he runs almost as fast as he talks — the words rush out in rapid-fire bursts — and at the NFL scouting combine his 21 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press were the most of any cornerback.
Most important, Stout has worked in traffic as a slot corner and seems to thrive on it .He had the 49ers playbook within 48 hours of being drafted and played slot corner in college, but sought additional expertise to learn even more. He reached out to Deommodore Lenoir, who played the position last year, and K’Waun Williams, who worked the slot for the 49ers from 2017 to 2021.
“He came to my house and we got on the board and were going over the defenses,” Lenoir said. “After that, the game slowed down for him. I’ve seen the plays he’s making, the stuff he’s reacting to and it’s slowly coming together.”
All in a day’s work, Stout said.
“I’m really trying to figure out how to be the best me and figure out what the standard was before I came here and try to surpass that standard,” Stout said.
Upton Stout (20) of the 49ers goes through drills at training camp on July 24 at the club facility. A.P. Photo
Stout was victimized Monday on a deep route from Brock Purdy to Ricky Pearsall, who has been a standout for the last two practices. Then he was right back in the middle of things, and getting after it and talking a mile a minute.
“He’s just putting me on game, being able to go against him every day in practice with the tempo he has and the way he gets out of his breaks and how strong his hands are,” Stout said. “I’ve just got to have a short memory and get ready for the next play because I know he’s going to bring his best any time he’s lined up.”
Stout’s presence will ease some of the burden on Lenoir, one of the few NFL corners who could move seamlessly from outside to inside and excel at both. Renardo Green, expected back next week after missing time with a hamstring strain, will be the other starting outside corner.
Stout said he felt a connection with the 49ers on his pre-draft visit, and is reveling in taking the field with teammates such as Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Lenoir.
“These are people I’ve been looking up to playing Madden for years,” Stout said. “Now it’s kind of like I’ve got to make sure I’m on my P’s and Q’s and not letting the guy next to me down. Being in nickel, me and Fred are talking almost every play so I’ve got to make sure I’m on my P’s and Q’s.”
(Stout likes the phrase “P’s and Q’s” and says it a lot.)
Shanahan said that in terms of learning how to work as a pro Stout is advanced and that his competitiveness is off the charts.
“He’s made of the right stuff. A lot of guys have to learn it, but he doesn’t have to learn it,” Shanahan said. “He was like that in college and he came in right away like that. He’s on everything. He’s one of the bigger competitors I’ve seen coming in as a rookie and every day he’s doing everything he can on and off the field and that’s why he’s passing a lot of guys up.”
Stout may be a big competitor, but in a football sense he’s not big at all. And he uses it as motivation.
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“Since I was young, there was just a lot of doubt and I heard outside noise,” Stout said. “I always kept that chip on my shoulder. I’ve got the ‘I’m going to prove you wrong’ chip.”
The urge to compete is ever-present.
“I’m competitive at anything,” Stout said. “We can be playing chess. We can be walking down the hall, we can be going to get groceries. I’m going to be competitive no matter what it is.”