Fooch's Note: You can go grade my selection of Prince Amukamara at Mocking The Draft.
The writers of SB Nation's NFL blogs have been working on a live mock draft featuring each site's lead blogger. Dan Kadar over at Mocking The Draft has been organizing what will be a two round draft. The 49ers first pick came up and I think I ended up going with a fairly boring pick. I selected cornerback Prince Amukamara, Nebraska Cornhuskers. You can head over to Mocking The Draft to grade this selection on an A to F scale. I'll have a more specific link to the post when I wake up. I'll also provide a look at some of Dan's comments.
I made the 49ers pick a few days ago and when it came up, the first six picks of the draft included:
1. Carolina Panthers - Blaine Gabbert, QB
2. Denver Broncos - Von Miller, OLB
3. Buffalo Bills - Patrick Peterson, CB
4. Cincinnati Bengals - A.J. Green, WR
5. Arizona Cardinals - Cameron Newton, QB
6. Cleveland Browns - Marcell Dareus, DT
According to Mocking the Draft, the top five players available were DE Da'Quan Bowers, DT Nick Fairley, WR Julio Jones, CB Prince Amukamara, and DE/OLB Robert Quinn. I went with Amukamara, but Bowers and Fairley were two very intriguing options. Fairley primarily played inside but would move outside to defensive end in the 49ers 3-4. Is he sufficiently the best player available to justify that kind of pick on a somewhat under the radar position in the 3-4?
Bowers would also slot in at the defensive end position. He played last year with knee problems and there were concerns about the knee. Doug Farrar at Yahoo! indicated the concerns might be overblown and actually projected the 49ers to grab Bowers in his latest mock draft. Is Bowers and the defense end position in general worthy of a pick here?