FanPost

Speaking of the Niners Picks in the 2011 NFL Draft ...



Now that the college football season is FINALLY over, I though that I would cruise the various draft analysis services to see where each was in their preparations for the 2011 NFL draft season. Not surprisingly, most haven't even yet responded to the announced declarations by underclassmen, so all they have on their sights is rankings of seniors ... worthless.

However, also not surprising, Draft Tek has already reflected declarations in their rosters and have forecasted the underclassmen that they believe will declare. Further, they have, at least preliminarily, ranked all potential draftees by position and in the overall. Finally, they have done their first pass on a mock draft. Hey, these guys are all over it!

So, what do they think that the Niners will do, you ask?

Let's look first at what DraftTek believes are our needs, ranked from 1 (most important) to 4 (somewhat less important); interesting to note that DraftTek has all other positions ranked as 9 (no need). Here's what they think that we need:

1 = CB (surprise!); 2 = QB (another surprise!); 3 = DE34; 4 = WRF, OLB34, DT34

Nothing really shocking there -- they seem to understand what we need.

Now, the mock draft for the Niners:

#7 (Round 1) -- J.J. Watt DE34 Wisconsin (ranked #2 DL ahead of Bowers, Jordan, Bailey & #10 overall)

#45 (Round 2) -- Christian Ponder QB Florida State (ranked #5 QB and #60 overall; highest ranked QB = #18))

#76 (Round 3) -- Alfonzo Dennard CB Nebraska (ranked #8 CB and #97 overall; see comments below for other CBs)

#107 (Round 4) -- Sione Fua NT Stanford (ranked #4 NT and #124 overall; at 307 the lightest of the NTs)

#114 (Round 4 from San Diego) -- Tim Barnes OC Missouri (ranked #4 OC and #128 overall)

#137 (Round 5) -- Jeff Demps RBC Florida (ranked #4 RB and #127 overall)

#168 (Round 6) -- Tandon Doss WR Indiana (ranked #13 WR and #169 overall; value skyrocketing)

#199 (Round 7) -- Brett Greenwood FS Iowa (ranked #15 FS and #211 overall)

#200 (Round 7 from Detroit) -- Cecil Shorts III WRF Mount Union (ranked #15 WRF and #191 overall)

There you have it! I won't comment for now, other than to say that it's not bad. For those of you who are about to scream "well what about ...", here's where they were picked --

#2 Prince CB; #4 Peterson CB/S; #22 Jimmy Smith CB; #38 Gabbert QB; #44 House CB; #66 Austin Pettis WRF; #81 Titus Young WRF; #86 Kendrick Ellis NT (could consider him rather than Fua); #92 O'Dowd C; #113 Dowling CB (wow! talk about having your draft stock drop); #148 Marecic FB/LB; #151 Kaepernick QB (wow! maybe draft him at #137 and House at #45???); #194 Romeus DE (wow! another drop like a rock). Perhaps the most unusual thing that I saw in DraftTek's rankings is that they don't have Jeff Maehl (Oregon WR) ranked at all -- the guy was All Pac-10 and had 169 career catches for 2178 yards. Has to be a mistake!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.