2011 NFL Draft: 49ers Getting A Look At Iowa's Ricky Stanzi

Thanks to these3words for the linkage, it appears as though the 49ers are continuing their trend of scouting quarterbacks set to be drafted after the first round. According to a Maiocco tweet, the 49ers will have representatives attending Iowa's second pro day, to get a good look at the players, namely quarterback Ricky Stanzi. Many believe that the 49ers will not be grabbing one of the top two quarterbacks in the draft in Cameron Newton or Blaine Gabbert, but will instead look to rounds two, three or four to find one of the many developmental guys to run Jim Harbaugh's West Coast Offense.

There's been buzz lately of the 49ers trading up back into the first round to get one of the other top quarterbacks, namely Christian Ponder. While that's still a possibility, the recent trend of pro day attendances and private workouts suggest that San Francisco will be looking to the later rounds, be it the second or third, paying significant attention to guys like Ryan Mallett and Colin Kapernick.

Ricky Stanzi is a guy who I think will go in the middle of the third round, but a good pro day could send him up a little higher. He's got a lot of natural talent, with good short accuracy and excellent timing for a WCO. His pocket presence and delivery are top-notch, but he struggles on deep and intermediate passes and his decision-making is most certainly not the best.

The best thing I can say about Stanzi is that he progressively got better over time. Each year, he corrected some aspect of his game, and thus is a solid developmental guy for the 49ers. Footwork, decision-making, accuracy and other intangibles all steadily improved over time. The kind of quarterback Jim Harbaugh can use is the kind that can absorb everything he has to teach, and to me, Stanzi can do that. I've always said that San Francisco should draft multiple quarterbacks, and if they were to get someone like Kapernick, Mallett or Jake Locker in the second round, I can easily see them going for Stanzi on top of that if he's around in the fourth. Nothing like some good ol' quarterback controversy in San Francisco, providing it's of the "theyre both so good!" kind.

Here's a link to National Football Post's scouting report on Stanzi.