Connor
Colby.
Connor
Colby.
Iowa· 6'6"· 309 lb· 5.11s 40
"Fifty career starts across three positions in a Kirk Ferentz run game gave Colby the most decorated resume of any lineman on Day 3, and also the least room left to grow."Pre-draft read
Colby is a right guard by trade who spent four years as a plug-and-play interior starter in Iowa's downhill run game, with 37 of his 50 starts at right guard and the rest split between left guard and right tackle. His identity is the zone scheme: shoulders square at the snap, reach and climb blocks under control, and a real feel for when to stay engaged and when to release to the second level.
The base is the calling card. He keeps a solid platform in the run game and his hands inside in protection. Athletically he is average — a 5.11 forty, modest lower-body explosion — and his pad level rises against power. The signature is reliability: 50 starts, no lost time, nothing left to guess about.
Wide-zone and outside-zone run game with a play-action-heavy passing attack — a Shanahan or Ferentz-style offense that asks its guards to move laterally and climb, not to anchor in long dropback protection.
Year 1: swing interior backup and jumbo-package body who can start in a pinch at either guard. Ceiling: a multi-year starting left guard in a zone scheme, which is exactly the arc San Francisco is betting on for 2026.
A vertical-set, drop-back-heavy protection scheme that isolates guards on nose tackles and 3-techniques in true one-on-one pass pro — his high pads and short arms turn a bull rush into a pocket collapse before the play develops.
Iowa and San Francisco run compatible run games, which is a large part of why he got on the field as a rookie.
Iowa's Connor Colby Could Be a Hidden Gem in the 2025 NFL Draft | NFL Draft Prospect
Pre-draft film breakdown of his zone run blocking and pass-protection limitations.
Connor Colby | #Swarm21 | Highlights
Iowa-produced highlight reel from his run as a four-year interior starter.
Iowa OG Connor Colby interview: "Win the West, win in Indy, win whatever's next"
Senior-year interview covering his position moves across the Iowa line.
Colby is a run-scheme interior lineman with more Power Five starting experience than almost anyone in the class. He is a technician and a competitor before he is an athlete, and the entire evaluation was about whether the pass-protection half of the job would catch up.
The path shaped him. He started 11 games at right guard as a true freshman in 2021 out of necessity, was moved to right tackle for six games in 2022 in a season Iowa's line badly struggled, then settled back inside for third-team All-Big Ten in 2023 and first-team honors in 2024 while blocking for an offense that averaged 197.2 rushing yards, the program's best mark since 2002. The flags were consistent across every board: short arms, high pads against a bull rush, a lunge-and-miss habit against push-pull, and a career spent in a run-first offense that never really tested him in true dropback protection.
Ourlads pegged him fifth-to-sixth round. He fell to the last three picks of the seventh, which said less about the tape than about the archetype: a scheme-specific, average-athlete guard whose ceiling is a good backup and whose floor is a practice-squad body.
- 01
Zone-scheme technician
Keeps his shoulders square at the line and understands the timing of reach and climb blocks, the exact profile a wide-zone offense wants inside.
- 02
Positional versatility
Started at right guard, left guard and right tackle in the Big Ten, giving a staff three spots of coverage from one 53-man roster slot.
- 03
Base and balance
Maintains a solid platform through contact in the run game and rarely gets moved off his spot once he has his feet set under him.
- 04
Starting experience
Fifty career starts and the second-most by an Iowa offensive lineman in the Kirk Ferentz era, with no missed time across four seasons.
- 05
Competitive temperament
Plays with a genuine edge on down blocks and finishes through the whistle, the mentality that keeps late-round linemen employed.
- 01
Pad level
Comes out of his stance high and rises further against a bull rush, which lets stronger interior rushers get under him and walk him into the pocket.
- 02
Length
Short arms by NFL guard standards, so he has to win with placement and timing rather than reaching first and controlling defenders at distance.
- 03
Pass-protection reps
Played in a run-oriented Iowa scheme that rarely asked for true dropback sets, leaving the pass-protection half of his game undercooked.
- 04
Athletic ceiling
A 5.11 forty and modest explosion numbers cap what he can do in space, and he shows a lunge-and-miss habit against push-pull moves.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.11sp50
- Vertical
- 28.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 110inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.78sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.63sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Iowa | 14 |
| 2022 | Iowa | 13 |
| 2023 | Iowa | 14 |
| 2024 | Iowa | 13 |
| Career | — | 54 |
Offensive linemen have no box-score production; games and starts only. Season splits are taken from the official Iowa bio and reconcile exactly: 14+13+14+13 = 54 games and 11+13+13+13 = 50 starts, matching the school's "50th career start" note in 2024 and the 37 RG / 7 LG / 6 RT breakdown reported by Ourlads. The 49ers draft release listed 51 games; the school's own game-by-game accounting is used here. No pressure or sack-allowed totals are individually verified, so none are listed.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rosterable interior swing backup who wins a starting job when injuries clear the room.
Multi-year zone-scheme starting guard whose value is availability and positional flex, not athletic upside.
Camp-body guard who never establishes a stable game-day role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
San Francisco got Colby on the field faster than anyone expected. Ben Bartch's elbow injury in the 2025 preseason moved him into the left guard job, and a Dominick Puni knee injury pushed him to right guard for the opener. He ended up playing 13 games with six starts as a rookie, then lost the job to Spencer Burford when the early results were rough — exactly the kind of struggle a seventh-round pick with limited pass-protection reps was always likely to have against NFL interior power.
Then the depth chart cleared. Bartch and Burford both signed elsewhere in 2026 free agency, and the 49ers spent the offseason talking Colby up: the organization said the job was his to lose, those working with the offensive line credited an "awesome offseason," and by early August camp reports had him working with the first team and solidly ahead of free-agent signing Robert Jones. That is a real return on pick 249. The evaluation still stands — average athlete, run-scheme fit, pass protection the swing skill — but he has already outperformed the slot.
Data note: Offensive linemen have no box-score production; games and starts only. Season splits are taken from the official Iowa bio and reconcile exactly: 14+13+14+13 = 54 games and 11+13+13+13 = 50 starts, matching the school's "50th career start" note in 2024 and the 37 RG / 7 LG / 6 RT breakdown reported by Ourlads. The 49ers draft release listed 51 games; the school's own game-by-game accounting is used here. No pressure or sack-allowed totals are individually verified, so none are listed.