The San Francisco 49ers head into their general manager search with a couple notable assets in their favor. The first is significant salary cap space. The second is a sizable haul of draft picks. The team has their own seven, plus three day three picks acquired in trades, and a comp pick coming for the loss of Alex Boone.
Following the close of the 2016 regular season, the top 20 picks of the 2017 NFL Draft order were set. That provided us with draft positions for not only the 49ers, but also Washington, Denver, and Cleveland. Those are pertinent because the 49ers hold three picks via trades. Those trades included Derek Carrier (Washington), Vernon Davis (Denver), and Andy Lee (Cleveland).
With those picks established, Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller put together a season-ending seven-round mock draft that includes comp picks. With the trades and comp picks, the 49ers are looking at as many as 11 picks in the draft. Here is what Matt put together for the 49ers.
1 (2). Mitch Trubisky, QB, North Carolina
2 (34). John Ross, WR, Washinton
3 (66). Corn Elder, CB, Miami
4 (102). Carroll Phillips, EDGE, Illinois
4 (139 - Comp). Keith Kelsey, LB, Louisville
5 (147). Kareem Hunt, RB, Toledo
5 (162 - WAS). Trent Taylor, WR, Louisiana Tech
6 (188). Jessamen Dunker, OG, Tennessee State
6 (206 - DEN). Isaac Rochell, DL, Notre Dame
7 (224 - CLE). Matthew Dayes, RB, N.C. State
7 (225). Demetrious Cox, S, Michigan State
Trubisky and all the quarterbacks in the 2017 NFL Draft have enough questions that any QB decision at No. 2 is going to bring with it a lot of question marks. The 49ers do have a lot of needs at the skill positions, so if you do like one of the quarterbacks sufficiently, going QB/WR would make some sense. Of course, a lot of it also could depend on if you think a quality quarterback will drop into the second round.
In terms of the individual players, once you get past that first round pick, it’s a lot of throwing darts in terms of what players will be available in later rounds. Myles Garrett is very likely to go No. 1, which makes it a bit easier to project No. 2 (minus potential trades). But after that, anything can happen to shake up these picks.
That being said, it is intriguing to consider the positions addressed. What do you think of this haul?