CW #99

C.J. West

Defensive Tackle · Indiana

A five-year college run-stuffer who turned a Kent State-to-Indiana transfer into a fourth-round trip to San Francisco.

C.J. West is a run-clogging defensive tackle who spent most of his college career overshadowed before a big final season at Indiana pushed him into the 2025 draft. Now with the 49ers, the 316-pounder is working to translate his college power into consistent snaps on San Francisco's interior line.

★ Honorable mention All-Big Ten (2024)

★ Fourth-round pick, San Francisco 49ers (2025)

★ 150 career tackles across five college seasons

Path to the league

West began his college career at Kent State before transferring to Indiana for the 2024 season, his fifth and final year of eligibility. He was named honorable mention All-Big Ten after piling up 42 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and two sacks for a Hoosiers team that had a breakout year. The 49ers drafted him in the fourth round, 113th overall, in the 2025 NFL Draft, the highest a Hoosier had gone since tight end Ian Thomas in 2018.

Career highlights

Across five collegiate seasons at Kent State and Indiana, West totaled 150 tackles, 27 of them for loss, along with nine sacks, two forced fumbles and two passes defensed. At 6-foot-1 and 316 pounds, he ran a 4.95-second 40-yard dash and posted a 33-inch vertical jump at the NFL Scouting Combine, athletic testing numbers that stood out for an interior defensive lineman his size.

2025 season recap

West appeared in 14 regular season games as a rookie for San Francisco, finishing with 21 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack while playing roughly a third of the defensive snaps. He added five tackles, two more tackles for loss and a sack across two playoff appearances, showing more as a pass rusher than as a run defender in his first pro season.