A month or so ago I threw up a thread about the Niners Nation partnership with Draft Tek. As part of that partnership I'm supplying 49ers team needs to help set up their daily and weekly mock drafts. Warren over at Draft Tek uses the needs as part of his simulations to predict the seven rounds of the NFL Draft.
So now that the 49ers have made their mark in free agency I wanted to get input for the team's needs going into next month's draft. I made a couple of changes but think more are in order. First a reminder of how the team needs rankings operate:
1 - Highest need and program will reach accordingly (can only have one "1")
2 - Great need and will reach for it, but not quite as far as "1."
3 - Need for starting caliber talent but won't reach more than a few spots for it
4 - Depth needs and no reaching
5 - Positional needs a team wants to fill but not until later rounds
6 - Late round fill needs like kicker, fullback and backup QB
9 - Do not fill under any circumstance.
(There is no 7 or 8 needs ranking in the system)
Right now, the 49ers needs at Draft Tek are as follows:
QB - 4 DT - 6
RB - 6 DE - 2
WR - 2 ILB - 6
OT - 4 OLB - 4
OG - 3 SS - 6
TE - 6 FS - 4
OC - 3 CB - 9
FB - 9 PK - 9
So the general gist of that would be no fullbacks, cornerbacks or kickers AT ALL. I had Warren drop DT to 6 because I thought Sopoaga and Franklin would be splitting all the time. Now with Sopoaga likely to get a lot of play at defensive end that changes things around. I think tight end is fine and might even be worth moving down to 9, particularly if Bajema isn't signed somewhere else as a restricted free agent. At inside linebacker I think it's worth moving up as Dontarrious Thomas and Brandon Moore are certainly not lead pipe locks to be the answer next to Bamm Bamm.
One other option available. Draft Tek has put together "complimentary pairs" of positions where flexibility allows an either-or type of situation. The pairs are DE-OLB, DT-DE, ILB-OLB, FS-SS, OT-OG, and OG-OC. You can "turn them on" so that if one of the two positions is selected, both will then be reset to 9 as being filled. For example, if someone really thinks a guy like Quentin Groves is the answer, maybe you'd suggest turning on DE-OLB and bumping up the defensive end need ranking.
So go to town with how you would rank the various positions. We don't have a 1 position b/c I think wide receiver and offensive line are both important. If you think a certain position should be a 1 feel free to mention with your justification. I've got my own ideas but want to hear what everybody else has to say.