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Ji'Ayir Brown

San Francisco 49ers
Pos S
Updated August 24, 2026

Model Score

74.0 MODEL
2023
70.9
2024
75.3
2025
74.0

How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →

Season Stats · 17 games

217th
INT
627th
Pass Deflections
65.9%48th
Comp % Allowed
8.144th
Yds / Target
475th
TD Allowed
4346th
Solo Tackles

Draft & College

Round 3, pick 87 · San Francisco 49ers · 2023
Penn State (Big Ten)
Taken
#87
where he actually went
Consensus board
76th
average of the public big boards that spring
Our college model
#5
among S in our college data

He went about where consensus had him.

In college · 2021-2022 · 24 games
10 INT, 10 pass breakups, 141 tackles, 8 TFL

Covers the college seasons in our data, which does not always reach back to a player's first year.

Comps

Overall match
size, testing and production, same career stage
Plays like
on-field production only

STM Take

Super Bowl LVIII appearance plus back-to-back tier 5 finishes (#35, #36) for an 87th overall 3rd-round pick puts Brown in the rare championship-pedigree structural top-40 S class. The Penn State Big Ten 3rd-round origin plus three years of 49ers system experience give him real college foundation. The 2026 question is whether Brown crosses into tier 4 territory or whether the structural tier 5 finish becomes the stable late-prime baseline.

Brown came out of Penn State as the San Francisco 49ers' 3rd-round pick (87th overall) in 2023. He played in Super Bowl LVIII for the 49ers. He has anchored the 49ers' safety rotation across three seasons. His STTM career runs tier 8 (#67) rookie to tier 5 (#35) sophomore to tier 5 (#36) in 2025.

Strengths

  • Super Bowl LVIII appearance plus back-to-back tier 5 finishes (#35, #36) confirms structural top-40 S ceiling.
  • Penn State Big Ten 3rd-round origin plus three years of 49ers system experience gives him real college foundation.

Concerns

  • Career STTM range capped at tier 5 (#35) flags the realistic ceiling at top-40 S rather than Pro Bowl territory.
  • San Francisco's broader defensive identity transition compresses the structural support around Brown.

What to watch: Whether Brown crosses into tier 4 (top 30) in 2026, the threshold for confirming the developmental climb continues.

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