How viral tweet helped Isaiah Winstead get his NFL shot with the 49ers

East Carolina wide receiver Isaiah Winstead thought he would hear his name called during the NFL draft last weekend. But it wasn’t. Then he thought his phone would ring with contract offers or invitations to rookie minicamps. But it didn’t.

So on Sunday evening, about 24 hours after the end of the draft, he posted a simple 75-second highlight reel on Twitter – clips of eye-popping catches and routes from his college practices.

“No mini camp invite or UDFA deal,” Winstead wrote in part of the accompanying message. “[This is] behind the scenes on what I can do.”

By Tuesday, the video had gone viral – with viewership in the millions, and engagement from the likes of NBA star Ja Morant, NFL veteran Dez Bryant and Seattle Seahawks wideout Tyler Lockett, among others.

And by Wednesday night, Winstead had signed his first NFL contract with the San Francisco 49ers, who made him the last member of their 90-man roster.

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“I’ve never been one to just give up,” Winstead told USA TODAY Sports in a phone interview Thursday. “Don't feel sorry for me. I’m just going to work. I’m going to get to where I’ve got to go."

49ers general manager John Lynch said in a radio interview Thursday that the team’s decision to sign Winstead wasn’t swayed by the viral highlight reel. “Our scouts had just been on him for some time,” he told San Francisco station KNBR.

But as Winstead tells it, that one little tweet made all the difference.

"After it went viral, that’s when I started getting a lot of calls," the 23-year-old said.

Before posting the highlight reel, Winstead said he had interest from the Canadian Football League, USFL and XFL, as well as a few wishy-washy conversations with NFL teams about their minicamps. But as the tweet took off, those conversations became hard offers, with at least half a dozen NFL teams vying for his attendance. He said one team's wide receivers coach explicitly mentioned having seen the tweet when he reached out.

Winstead eventually committed to attend the Philadelphia Eagles' and Atlanta Falcons' minicamps on consecutive weekends. When the 49ers called his agent, Gervaris Leaphart, Leaphart told them that Winstead would only back out of those commitments if he got a superior offer. San Francisco then called back and gave him one, offering to sign him as an undrafted free agentf.

"We just wanted to put the video out there and just see what social media’s going to do," said Leaphart, the founder of VL Sports. "You’ve just got to pray and hope everything goes the right way. He’s the one that got blessed."

'Put myself out there'

Winstead said he made the highlight reel a while ago and simply never got around to posting it. He expected it to get some modest interest, maybe around 20,000 views in total. As of Thursday evening, it had been viewed at least 4.6 million times on Twitter and liked by more than 255,000 people on SportsCenter's Instagram page, which reposted the video on Tuesday with Winstead's permission.

“My situation coming up as a kid, all that stuff – that’s what motivated me to at least try to put myself out there," he said. "Because I’ve been through a lot. I came from the bottom of the bottom."

Winstead grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and was raised by his adoptive father, Michael. He said his father did everything he could to provide for him and his adopted siblings but "we were struggling" and "we didn't really have nothing," mentioning stretches where the water or electricity would be cut off at their home.

"I don’t really want to get into all the details of what it really was," Winstead said. "I just always felt like I was destined to be something. I didn’t want to be where I came from. I didn’t want to be a product of that. I always wanted to be something greater."

After helping lead Highland Springs High School to a pair of state championships, Winstead first enrolled at Norfolk State in 2017 before transferring to Toledo, where he had two solid seasons and was among the team's leaders in receptions. He then played a fifth collegiate season for East Carolina in 2022, when he finished third in the American Athletic Conference in catches (88) and fourth in receiving yards (1,085). The two players who ranked ahead of him in those categories, Nathaniel Dell and Rashee Rice, were drafted in the third and second rounds, respectively.

Winstead said he expected to be drafted, too, in large part because of his production at East Carolina as well as his size. He's listed at 6 feet 4 and 213 pounds. But concerns about his speed dimmed his prospects, with NFL scouts reportedly timing his 40-yard dash at 4.7 seconds at the Pirates' pro day.

"I feel like I’m fast enough to play at this level," Winstead said, adding that he consistently ran times around 4.5 seconds during his pre-draft training. "The 49ers, they’re going to get a dog. I’m going to approach practice every day like I’ve been doing. It’s not like I’m there to be somebody I’m not."

It all starts May 12, when Winstead and his fellow rookies will report to 49ers' minicamp. Had he never posted the highlight reel, maybe he would've wound up there anyways. But he probably wouldn't have been offered a contract as an undrafted free agent, allowing him to turn an eye toward organized team activities and trying to earn a roster spot during training camp.

It's a story about the power of social media, sure. But for Winstead, it was just about the willingness to put himself out there, to not give up in the face of disappointment, and to set an example for his 5-month-old son, Zaiden.

"I’m humble. I don’t brag on myself," Winstead said. "I just wanted a chance."

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Isaiah Winstead's viral tweet helps undrafted WR get 49ers chance