With the NFL Draft approaching, we'll have all kinds of time to break down the various 49ers draft picks and what they may or may not do going forward in 2010 and beyond. Later today, drummer will have something about the excitement and allure of waiting to see who the 49ers grab late in the draft.
In the meantime, I wanted to do a bit of a look back, and get some thoughts looking forward. The draft is changing this year to a 3 day extravaganza. The phrase "Day 2 pick" won't have quite the same cache. However, for now, I thought I'd open up discussion on some of the 49ers recent day 2 picks. We've had plenty of conversations about Glen Coffee and Josh Morgan among others. Today, I wanted to look at some of the other picks the 49ers have gone with, and what the future holds for them. This is definitely not an all-encompassing list, but rather is just a few to get the discussion going. Feel free to contribute your own to the list.
The question in the end is who do we think will have the best career, or contribute the most to the 49ers in the coming years. Here are some of the 49ers recent day 2 picks that are worthy of some kind of debate (round selected in parenthesis:
2009
S Curtis Taylor (7th)
DT Ricky Jean-Francois (7th)
2008
C Cody Wallace (4th)
2007
CB Tarell Brown (5th)
Of the four listed here, Tarell Brown is clearly the closest to breaking through as an every down player. He replaced Nate Clements in the starting lineup November 1, and his star seemed to be on the rise. By the end of the month he was demoted back to the nickel back role behind Dre Bly. It looks like Nate Clements will probably be back with the 49ers in 2010. We still don't know if Dre Bly will be back, and the draft could have a lot to say about that. Assuming Clements is back, the battle in training camp for the starting cornerback role opposite Shawntae Spencer will be immensely interesting. Will Tarell Brown step up and claim the job?
Curtis Taylor and RJF are two guys that are still quite raw and have a lot of work to do, so I'll look past them for now. My second question concerns center Cody Wallace. What exactly do we have with this guy? A lot of people see him as nothing more than a perpetual backup to Eric Heitmann. At the same time, I've spoken with some people who think he could move into the starting lineup at some point. He has had very little regular season playing time to date. What exactly will we see going forward? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?