The 49ers are back at it again early in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft thanks to a pick acquired from the Carolina Panthers in one of their fourth round trades. With the tenth pick of the sixth round (180 overall), the San Francisco 49ers selected free safety Trenton Robinson out of Michigan State.
The 49ers will head into the 2012 season with Dashon Goldson as their free safety and Donte Whitner as their strong safety. However, behind those two, CJ Spillman is the only reserve safety on the roster, and he generally focuses more on special teams. SI actually rated him as their fourth safety and had him projected as a third round pick. They described him as an undersized safety who lacks top recovery speed. At the same time, he is described as having solid awareness, good quickness and closing speed, and has some solid lateral range.
In their final analysis, he is described as "lack[ing] classic safety size but the ability to play the ball in center field and occasionally line up over the slot receiver makes him worth a middle-round choice."
The 49ers have one more pick in the sixth round (199 overall) and one in the seventh round (237 overall).