SANTA CLARA –- Trent Brown has gone from a seventh-round pick who started just two games as a rookie to being singled out as a top player at his position by one of the game’s biggest stars.
During an NFL.com video segment in which Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller, the Super Bowl MVP, answered questions from teammate DeMarcus Ware, Miller had high praise for Brown.
“I feel like Trent Brown has a very bright future in the National Football League,” Miller said. “He's 6-8. He knows how to use his arms, he knows how to use his wingspan. He has length. I feel like he's young and people haven't really seen him, but I feel like he's one of the better tackles in the National Football League.”
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Brown, who enters the regular season as the 49ers’ starting right tackle, went up against Miller during two joint practices featuring the 49ers and Broncos three weeks ago. They also played a limited number of head-to-head snaps in the teams’ exhibition game on Aug. 20.
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“Man, I was so taken aback,” Brown said on Wednesday. “It was even more humbling to hear from such a great player. People had been telling me about the video for two days, and when I watched it, it was like, ‘Man!’ ”
Brown said there was a part of him that was simply surprised that Miller even knew his name.
San Francisco 49ers
“When I was coming out for pre-draft training, we kind of trained together in Miami at Pete Bommarito’s (Performance Systems),” Brown said. “And I’m pretty sure he didn’t know my name. But to see it come out of the horse’s mouth is pretty crazy.”
Brown, whom the 49ers selected with the 224th overall pick in the 2015 draft, said such words of praise gives his confidence a tremendous boost.
“I just got to stay humble at the same time,” Brown said. “That’s the Super Bowl MVP. For him to come out and say that, I don’t know. I was speechless.”