Most of the movement in free agency is over and the calendar has flipped to April, which means our focus is shifting to the NFL draft.
Let’s get to your questions in our weekly Tuesday Twitter mailbag:
Appreciate the kind words. Since that post about why the 49ers should take Harold Landry was published Sunday, Pro Football Focus and The Ringer published mocks this week that had Landry going to San Francisco at pick No. 9. Maybe the tide is changing.
Groupthink is generally wide ranging when it comes to evaluating prospects and making projections in the draft – particularly from those of us who spend so much time writing about it on the world wide web. Many look at Landry and see his five sacks last season as a major concern after he logged 16.5 as a junior. It feels like Landry’s burst and athleticism is getting undervalued and last season is carrying too much weight.
Had he come out after 2016, Landry might have been a top five pick based on his traits and production (we might already be talking about Harold Landry the 49er, not Solomon Thomas). Landry’s not an entirely different player a year later, he suffered an ankle injury and was the focus of opposing offenses in 2017. I’m not holding that against him as much as others. His combine performance answered those questions.
Additionally, Landry is being pitted against ascending prospect Marcus Davenport, who had a great showing during the week of the Senior Bowl. So when someone writes a mock draft and has Davenport ranked ahead of Landry at defensive end, Landry is going to fall to the next team on the board that could use a pass rusher. That’s as far as the middle of Round 1, in some cases.
Truth is, mock drafts have little correlation to how things actually play out. We use them here to educate readers about prospects. And, frankly, readers gravitate towards anything with “mock draft” in the headline, far more than other analysis posts.
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