Post-Draft Diamonds: Reality in the Rough | Sitting Down with 49ers UDFA Rookie Spencer Waege
Opportunity!
That’s the standout word lingering on the mind of UDFA Rookie, Spencer Waege, as the dawn of a new football season arises.
After increased draft stock from a massive Pro-Day, and key plays for Team Kai in the 2023 Hula Bowl, the two-time All-American and Missouri-Valley Football Conference NDSU product still slipped through the cracks as a 2023 NFL Draftee to become one of the 49er’s most anticipated sleepers heading into Training Camp.
Moments after the 7th round concluded, surrounded by the humble beginnings of the family, friends, and farm that were foundational in paving his future, Waege received the call of a lifetime. Though the final stretch was nothing short of a journey, from shaking off the devastation of a blowout loss to rival South Dakota State in the FCS Championship, pivoting straight into the All-Star game, and spending his remaining days leading to the draft at Sanford Sports on the opposite coast of home, when it was all said and done, Waege was less than one percent of players waking up the morning after the draft with a dream turned reality.
“It was a really good feeling. There’s so much that goes on behind from when your last college season ends, all up until the draft weekend,” Waege reminisced, a wide grin evident even through the phone. “Weight was lifted off [my] shoulders figuring out what team [I was] gonna be on.”
Now well past the draft, this diamond in the rough enters the most critical portion of his gridiron pursuits.
“The opportunity itself in general… I know the percentage of college players who get to this stage. You’re the one percent of the one percent,” Waege said, regarding his biggest lesson as a new face in the league thus far.
With even rookie minicamps and OTA’s under his belt, waking up to this new reality still feels surreal. As a part of one of the strongest defensive units heading into pre-season, and the trenches lined with key veterans consisting of Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrove, and Arik Armstead, Waege plans to use his physicality, explosiveness, and versatility to earn a solid spot for a future with San Francisco. Having frequently competed in high-caliber professional talent matchups in his time at NDSU, entering the space of one of the most dominant lines within the league is a match Waege is ready to take on.
In his preparation, Waege has looked to another well-known defensive product of the Midwest in former Texan and Cardinals three-time Defensive Player of the Year, JJ Watt, for an aspirational standard to emulate. Watt’s ability to line up all over the defensive line, play and dominate wherever is a notable skill Waege knows he can bring to the table in his own pursuits of being utilized in his traditional position as an edge rush, with current prominence more so in the defensive tackle position.
In between his first practices at the professional level and preparing for the journey of Training Camp, Waege hit the reset button to prepare himself mentally and emotionally by grounding in where his first seeds of opportunity were planted.
Returning to his recently-labeled centennial family farm, Waege dedicated a sliver of weeks to his identity laying in the pride of being a 5th generation farmer.
“Knowing this league isn’t forever and at any minute it can be taken away from you, it’s not always something you can control,” Waege said when asked what keeps him rooted. “You can’t get too high on the highs and too low on the lows.”
Carrying that mindset every day that where he stands now is “not a guaranteed forever type of job,” Waege, who enjoys the simplicity of the quiet farm life he grew up in, will someday return to his small town of South Shore, South Dakota to continue the work generations before he first started, but not before carrying the honor of continuing the legacy small-school products create by being one of the diminutive elite to make it at the highest level of football.
Rested from all the high and low moments leading up to now, moments forged together to become the momentum for the reality of the work it takes to make it to the regular season itself, Waege is ready to seize this opportunity and win the battles of Training Camp.
“Even on the field I really never say anything along the lines of trash talk,” Waege said. “Truly always just tried to let my play speak for myself.”
A quiet personality that just may have the potential to be a deafening force among the undrafted.
Just as the season peaks over the horizon, so we wait in great anticipation of how this opportunity continues to unfold for Waege and the name he will make for himself in the months to come.