This is a mock I can support
If things continue going as they are, we can all slot Nick Bosa in as the 49ers’ choice at No. 2 with Quinnen Williams as the dark horse candidate with the second pick. The big question has been what happens then? Do the 49ers address safety? Wide receiver? Punter?
That’s what this mock draft today will address. CBS Sports’ R.J. White put together a seven-round mock draft that includes trades and addresses the needs of every team in the NFL. The 49ers inflate their total number of picks from doing some trades of their own, but not from the picks themselves, but players.
First, Solomon Thomas gets traded to the Miami Dolphins for free safety Reshad Jones, a fair trade. Next, Arik Armstead is offloaded to the New England Patriots for a fourth and seventh round pick. Another decent deal.
From there the 49ers have eight picks that they address all their needs with. Nick Bosa, of course, goes first, from there, they have quite a haul.
Round 1 – Pick 2 – Nick Bosa, DE, Ohio State
Round 2 – Pick 36 – Deebo Samuel, WR South Carolina
Round 3 – Pick 67 – Trayvon Mullen, CB, Clemson
Round 4 – Pick 104 – Mecole Hardman, WR, Georgia
Round 4 – Pick 134 – Tre Watson, LB, Maryland
Round 6 – Pick 176 – Chris Slayton, DT, Syracuse
Round 6 – Pick 212- Nate Herbig, G, Stanford
Round 7 – Pick 252 – Adrian Colbert, P, Utah
Before I get to White’s analyses on this full draft I want to make a strong statement on how everything here works: You can’t do a draft right without taking a punter, dammit! And the 49ers do it right, they take a punter at the very end.
With that said, here’s what White said about this haul:
The 49ers might have traded for Dee Ford this offseason, but that’s no reason to pass on Bosa, the best player in this draft. The two will make for an impact tandem the likes of which San Francisco has been trying to build for years. Speaking of, the Bosa-Ford-DeForest Buckner core allows the team to trade a few of their former first-rounders on the defensive line. First they ship Solomon Thomas to the Dolphins for Reshad Jones, a talented free safety who doesn’t fit the Dolphins’ rebuild at his huge cap number, which San Francisco has no trouble absorbing. Then they ship Arik Armstead, who’s playing on the fifth-year option, to New England in their annual trade hookup for fourth- and seventh-round picks.
With that out of the way, the 49ers snag an impact receiver at No. 36 in a class loaded with late-first/early-second talents in the draft. Samuel will help take the load off Marquise Goodwin, who has played 16 games just once in his career. Mullen is a talented boundary corner who is good insurance if Jason Verrett can’t get healthy, and he could develop into the team’s No. 1 corner in a few years.
If other options at the position cause
Mecole Hardman to slip to Round 4, the 49ers would be wise to double-up on the position and grab him as a field-stretching option to add to the offense. Having a young receiving corps of Dante Pettis,Samuel,Hardman and Trent Taylor(and of course George Kittle at tight end) would be excellent for Jimmy Garoppolo.Watson gives the team depth at inside linebacker in case Kwon Alexander isn’t the same after tearing his ACL. Slayton and Herbig provide more depth on the interior of their respective lines, while Wishnowsky can compete for the punter role.
I can support this draft. It addresses several needs and makes smart trades. The 49ers don’t find a way out of No. 2 and given the way this board is shaping up, I think that may be the reality of the situation, especially if Kyler Murray is gone.
Deebo Samuel is a wide receiver I love, but I also don’t know if that’s the wide receiver I’d want for the 49ers. After doing research on A.J. Brown, I’d wonder if the 49ers would find a way back into the first round to take him (Brown goes 32 to the Patriots). Regardless of the player, the position makes sense.
Trayvon Mullen in the third is a pick I could live with that has potential. I don’t know how his NFL career will pan out, but that’s a decent spot for him. I also like the Nate Herbig pick in the sixth. Personally I’d want a tackle, but Herbig has shown a few things as a guard that if given a year or two, he could or could not be an answer for the line. That’s what you want out of sixth round picks, if he doesn’t work out, as late as the 49ers get him, I can stand behind that.
Follow the link to the mock draft above to see how everything panned out across all 32 teams and then slot in who the 49ers should trade up for trade back and get. Personally, I would not be against this as the 49ers’ draft.
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