Ronnie
Bell.
Ronnie
Bell.
Michigan· 6'0"· 191 lb· 4.54s 40
"A basketball recruit who walked into Michigan, tore an ACL in the first game of what should have been his best season, came back and caught 62 passes, and then scored three NFL touchdowns on six career catches."Pre-draft read
Bell runs routes like someone who has thought about them. A 6.98 three-cone and a 4.15 shuttle put him among the more agile receivers in his class, and he uses that quickness at the top of the stem rather than off the line: he sells vertical, sinks, and comes out of breaks with real separation on option and dig routes. He also catches everything in traffic, which is why Michigan kept throwing to him on third down.
The frame limits the rest. At 191 pounds he gets rerouted by physical press corners and knocked off his track, and his 4.54 speed means he is not running past NFL safeties. He also handled punts in college and was reliable there, which was always going to be part of his roster case.
Timing-based offense that works him from the slot on option routes and uses him as a punt returner
Year 1: fifth receiver and return option; ceiling: slot WR3 in a rhythm passing offense
Vertical offense that asks outside receivers to beat press coverage and win down the field
San Francisco used him almost exclusively in situational and red zone roles.
The career was a story of persistence. Bell arrived at Michigan as a basketball-first recruit, caught eight passes as a freshman, then broke out with 48 for 758 yards in 2019 and 26 for 401 in the shortened 2020 season. Then came 2021, when a knee injury in the opener against Western Michigan ended his year after one catch.
He came back for a fifth season and produced his best: 62 receptions for 889 yards and four touchdowns in 2022, plus 23 rushing yards and a score, finishing with 145 catches for 2,269 yards and nine touchdowns across five years as a team captain.
The testing was solid rather than loud. An 8.12 Relative Athletic Score, a 38.5-inch vertical, elite agility drills and a 4.54 forty that told teams exactly what they were getting. Every board had him seventh round or priority free agent: efficient, tough, smart, undersized, and not fast enough to be more than a slot and special teams option. San Francisco took him 253rd. San Francisco's bet was that a captain with elite agility and clean hands would find a job somewhere in a crowded receiver room.
- 01
Elite short-area agility
A 6.98 three-cone and 4.15 shuttle let him separate at the top of the route instead of off the line.
- 02
Refined route running
Sells vertical stems and sinks his hips cleanly, which is why he was Michigan's primary third-down target.
- 03
Reliable hands in traffic
Finishes contested catches over the middle and rarely lets a catchable ball hit the ground.
- 04
Punt return experience
Handled returns at Michigan without fumbling issues, adding a second path onto an NFL roster.
- 05
Leadership and toughness
A five-year team captain who came back from a season-ending knee injury to post his best season.
- 01
Undersized frame
At 191 pounds he gets rerouted by physical corners and cannot hold his track through contact.
- 02
No vertical threat
A 4.54 forty means NFL safeties never have to respect him deep, shrinking the field for the offense.
- 03
Struggles versus press
Physical jams disrupt his timing and he lacks the release package to escape cleanly.
- 04
Injury history
The 2021 knee injury cost him a full season and raised questions about his long-term durability.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.54sp50
- Vertical
- 38.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 120inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.98sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.15sp50
- Bench
- 14repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Michigan | — | 8 | 145 | 2 |
| 2019 | Michigan | — | 48 | 758 | 1 |
| 2020 | Michigan | — | 26 | 401 | 1 |
| 2021 | Michigan | — | 1 | 76 | 1 |
| 2022 | Michigan | — | 62 | 889 | 4 |
| Career | — | — | 145 | 2269 | 9 |
Season lines verified against cfbstats. Punt return and rushing lines are listed only for seasons with recorded attempts; the 2021 season ended in the opener with a knee injury.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Michigan team captain
- 2,269 career receiving yards
- Returned from a season-ending knee injury to post a 62-catch senior year
Depth receiver who survives on special teams and occasional situational targets.
Undersized slot technician whose route craft turns into legitimate NFL volume.
Good routes without the speed or size to hold a game-day roster spot.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Bell appeared in all 17 games as a rookie in 2023, catching six passes for 68 yards and three touchdowns for a 49ers team that reached the Super Bowl. He played nine games in 2024 with two catches for 22 yards before San Francisco waived him on November 29. He spent most of 2025 on the New Orleans practice squad, appearing in two games with two catches for 23 yards and a touchdown, signed to the Saints active roster on January 2, 2026 and remained with the team through September 2026.
The rookie year was strange and good. Bell appeared in all 17 games for San Francisco in 2023 and caught only six passes for 68 yards, but three of them went for touchdowns, which is an absurd conversion rate and exactly the kind of situational value a seventh-round receiver can offer a great offense. He was on the roster all season for a team that went to the Super Bowl.
Then it thinned out. He played nine games in 2024 with two catches for 22 yards before the 49ers waived him on November 29. New Orleans picked him up and he spent most of 2025 on the practice squad, appearing in two games with two receptions for 23 yards and a touchdown, then signed to the active roster on January 2, 2026 and stayed with the Saints through the following September. Ten career catches, four of them touchdowns, and four years of NFL employment. The route running was always real; the 191-pound frame is why it never became a job.