In 2021, an 18-year-old Sebastian Valdez traversed up I-15 North to depart his hometown of Spring Valley for a much less familiar place called Bozeman, Montana. Uncertainty hung in the air. He was set to begin his freshman season at Montana State with a new head coach, a new defensive coordinator and a new position coach – none of whom recruited him to the school.
Shawn Howe, the Bobcats’ first-year defensive line coach, scanned his new group of players at one of the team’s first organized practices. Among them, a scrawny, zero-star freshman edge rusher immediately popped. It was Valdez.
Advertisement
Right then and there, Howe forecasted the young man’s future.
“That’s the next 3-technique (defensive tackle) at Montana State,” Howe, now a defensive assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers, recalled thinking.
Even if Valdez didn’t know it at the time, Howe was right. And even though Howe was right, the moment came a little sooner than either of them could have envisioned. During the first week of the season, one of Montana State’s starting defensive tackles blew out his knee.
That’s when Howe called Valdez into his office. “Hey, we’re gonna move you to D-tackle,” he said, “and you’re the future of this position.”
Advertisement
In that moment, Valdez recalled, anxiety bubbled. He had a lot of questions. But he wasn’t going to turn back now.
“He just laid out this whole vision for me, and I just trusted him,” Valdez told the Chronicle on Thursday. “And yeah, the rest is history.”
San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez (55) delivers a hit on Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels on Oct. 19 in Santa Clara. (Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press)
Five years after being thrust into the spotlight at a Football Championship Subdivision school, Valdez, a 2025 undrafted free agent, is a 6-foot-3, 301-pound rotation regular for the San Francisco 49ers. The 24-year-old defensive tackle earned his first standard NFL contract last month after spending more than a year toiling on the 49ers’ practice squad. In five career games, he has recorded nine tackles, three quarterback hits, two tackles-for-loss and a sack. And most importantly, he looks like he belongs.
Advertisement
What have Valdez’s teammates, who dubbed him “The Hulk” because of his immense strength, thought of his play so far? One teammate offered a three-word response.
“Manhandling dudes, bro,” fellow defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa said.
‘They didn’t understand’
In a league full of underdog stories, Valdez owns one of extreme proportions.
Unlike most NFL players, Valdez never dreamed of this life as a kid. He didn’t play football until sixth grade. He was a no-star recruit out of Monte Vista High School in Southern California, where he also wrestled for three years and won a CIF state championship. In fact, Valdez said, “there was a point in high school that I enjoyed wrestling more than football.”
Advertisement
Despite his success on the mat, he earned no collegiate wrestling offers. He did receive one in football, though, so he informed his parents – both Mexican immigrants – of his intentions to attend Montana State on a scholarship. Jesús and Norah Valdez struggled to grasp the concept.
“My parents never even, like – they didn’t even understand how football works,” Valdez said. “They didn’t understand that I was gonna go away for school and that it was free.”
They eventually understood, and Valdez went off to Bozeman for his freshman campaign under a new and unfamiliar coaching staff. He played “pretty solid” as a fill-in defensive tackle as a freshman, he said, yet there was one problem.
In order to play defensive tackle, he needed to add weight. And a lot of it.
Advertisement
Howe instructed Valdez, weighing around 235 pounds at the time, to eat like crazy, but in a controlled manner. “He didn’t want me getting, like, fat,” Valdez deadpanned. So, what did he eat to remain in an extreme caloric surplus as a college student living in the middle of Montana?
“Oh, man,” Valdez said with a chuckle. “It was chicken and rice, chicken and rice. I can’t even eat chicken and rice anymore. … It was just constantly that.
“Even my roommates would see me with a little scale to weigh food, and they were kind of like, ‘What are you doing? ‘ And I was just like, ‘Man, trust. Like, I got to do this.’ And it worked out. Gained the weight the right way. My speed, my strength got better … I think my second year I was like 265 (pounds).”
Gracen Halton, middle, celebrates with Sebastian Valdez (55) and Khalid Kareem (47) after the 49ers sacked Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels on Oct. 19. (Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press)
Valdez spent three seasons in Bozeman. He played his senior campaign at the University of Washington, which offered a steep increase in competition. Valdez didn’t exactly produce: two sacks and 4½ tackles for loss in 13 games. But he spent the better part of that year playing through an elbow injury that forced him to “walk on eggshells,” according to Jason Kaufusi, Washington’s defensive line coach, and damaged his draft stock.
Advertisement
Valdez failed to earn a 2025 draft combine invite. Instead, his freakish athletic traits popped at the Huskies’ on-campus pro day. Niners guard Carver Willis, who had just transferred from Kansas State to Washington, attended the event. He recalled being in awe while watching Valdez bench press 225 pounds 34 times (which would have led all players at the combine) and run the 40-yard dash in under 5 seconds.
“He basically looked like the UW Hulk,” Willis said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s a dude.'”
Still, Valdez went undrafted.
He signed with the 49ers – largely because of how he fit into their scheme – as a free agent. As a rookie, he sat idly on the 49ers’ practice squad. Head coach Kyle Shanahan elevated him to the active roster for multiple games last season, not with the intention to play him but rather as a “reward” for his hard work.
Advertisement
At that point, San Francisco almost lost Valdez to the Steelers, who wanted to sign him off San Francisco’s practice squad. But Valdez opted against it, explaining that “the vision that the 49ers had for me – and I think the vision I had for myself with this team – was a lot greater than what I had with the Steelers.” He added that Pittsburgh’s’ “read attack” system doesn’t suit him as well.
Said Shanahan: “He was someone we really gambled with. It was someone we were very nervous about losing. We feel lucky that we didn’t because he was playing at that level” while on the practice squad.
‘I gotta work for everything’
In 2026, after a strong preseason, Valdez again didn’t make the cut for the 53-man roster. Sensing a theme here? Earning football respect has never come easy for Valdez.
Advertisement
“It’s been like that every year with me,” he said. “I gotta work for everything I have in my life. It’s not a surprise to me.”
Was he beginning to doubt himself? He claims not.
“It was only a matter of time,” Valdez said, “whether it was here or somewhere else. I didn’t want to go into a hole mentally. I just wanted to stay true to myself and still come in, have a routine and practice the way I practice, and I knew things would work out eventually.”
Odighizuwa shared a similar message with the second-year player at that point: “I’m like, ‘Don’t stop working. I know you’re not going to, but like, especially with how things are going around here (with the injuries). … Your opportunity is right around the corner.'”
Advertisement
Odighizuwa was right. After nearly every defensive tackle ahead of him got hurt, Valdez got his chance. He impressed enough in San Francisco’s Week 3 win over the Arizona Cardinals to earn a spot on the active roster.
And on Oct. 11 against the Seattle Seahawks, Valdez had his moment.
Sebastian Valdez signs autographs before a game in Seattle on Oct. 11. (Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press)
Late in the first quarter, Valdez churned his legs on the Lumen Field turf. He extended his arms through the chest of left guard Grey Zabel. His first move didn’t do much, so he crossed to the left, then to the right, then to the left again. His pure power overmatched his counterpart. Zabel relented. Valdez knocked quarterback Sam Darnold onto his back, crashing to the ground with him before rising up and letting out a passionate roar.
Advertisement
The roar signaled that Valdez, after taking a long, winding road, had finally arrived. Even though Valdez’s salary cap hit ($844,167) remains the lowest on the 49ers’ roster, what do his parents think now about his profession?
“Now they’re super proud,” he said, “and they understand the game of football.”
Subscribe
There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at 49ers’ ‘Hulk’ was a zero-star recruit. Now he’s manhandling NFL linemen.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
