Niners Nation After Dark: ESPN 2011 NFL Draft, 49ers On The Clock

Welcome back to Niners Nation After Dark, which is making it's much awaited (well at least for one or two of you maybe?) return to the midnight pacific time slot. I haven't posted NN After Dark in a few days in part because I really wasn't sure what to write about. At times the post was starting to feel forced and the lack of comments seemed to support that. If you have any suggestions for NN After Dark ideas for the coming days, I'm all ears. Feel free to post them here, tweet them to @ninersnation or email me at ninersnation@gmail.com. I'm all ears.

However, for today I thought I'd use this slot to post some video from ESPN related to the 2011 NFL Draft (thanks to EcERyda69 for posting it as a FanShot). Every year as the draft approaches, the World Wide Leader puts together a series called On The Clock (or a similar name in past years), in which they assess draft needs and projections for each NFL team. This year it features Mike Tirico as host with Trent Dilfer, Chris Mortensen and Mel Kiper providing analysis.

The first minute is about Jim Harbaugh's rise to power, followed by some discussion about Harbaugh's "infatuation" with Alex Smith this offseason. The final minute and a half or so was actually about draft possibilities. Kiper naturally likes Patrick Peterson and mentioned him and pass rushing OLB Robert Quinn as first round options. He also mentioned Andy Dalton as a possible second round pick since the team does need what he termed "an heir apparent to Alex Smith."

The video is embedded after the jump, so check it out when you get a minute.