The San Francisco 49ers surprised folks Thursday evening, as they traded up from their second round pick to select Stanford offensive guard Joshua Garnett No. 28 in the first round. Trent Baalke later said they valued him enough and given the other teams in front of them, the team felt they needed to make the move to get their guy. Trent Baalke described him as the best run-blocking interior lineman in the draft.
We've heard draft analysts discussing Garnett and every other prospect, but how about what scouts have to say? Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journel Sentinel runs a pre-draft column every year featuring all sorts of random comments from anonymous scouts. The big one this year was someone saying Eli Apple couldn't cook, lacked life skills, and that was worthy of a red flag. Give someone an anonymous platform, and some stupid stuff comes out of their mouths.
I thought that for each 49ers pick that showed up in McGinn's column, I'd pull out what the scouts had to say. Some of the comments are going to be truthful, while it's possible others are scouts looking to get a guy down to them. Whatever the case, it gives us opinions from people who do this for a living, with slightly greater repercussions than your average draft prognosticator.
Here's what scouts had to say about Joshua Garnett:
First Outland Trophy winner in school history. "He's the best guard," said one scout. "Little bit like (Mike) Iupati. Little stiff but real physical. He's big enough to hang in there against those big 3-techniques." Two-year starter at LG. "He's not perfect by any means but you can see the power," another scout said. "He's a better athlete than I anticipated. He wouldn't be a good fit in a zone scheme." Father, Scott, was an NFL DT from 1984-'87. "I just don't think he moves very well," a third scout said. "Just upper body. Very similar to the guy there a couple years ago that didn't make it. David Yankey." From Puyallup, Wash. "What makes him is he's the emotional, vocal leader," a fourth scout said. "Powerful, strong hands (10 1/8), nice feet on pulls. Will overextend at times."
I checked out Garnett's NFL.com combine profile as well, and there is a comment from an anonymous NFC Pac-12 scout:
"He's a physical dude but needs to clean up his body some. The team nutritionist will be important for him. Love the power, but a little worried that he cant unlock his hips."