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Last month, the San Francisco 49ers signed Tramaine Brock to a four-year contract extension. The deal will keep him in town through 2017. He is joined by Darryl Morris and Carlos Rogers signed through 2015, Chris Culliver signed through 2014, and Eric Wright and Tarell Brown signed through the end of this season.
Prior the extension, there were a lot of questions about what the 49ers had planned at the cornerback position. Most notably, Carlos Rogers is a candidate for release if he does not agree to restructure his contract. Extending Brock gives the team one well-performing player signed long term, but there are still some questions. Eric Wright could end up back for another year, Tarell Brown's contract is a big question mark and Darryl Morris is still a relatively unknown commodity.
Over at SB Nation, Matthew Fairburn released the network's latest 2014 NFL mock draft. Who did he have the 49ers select? Drum-roll please......
28. San Francisco 49ers: Justin Gilbert, Cornerback, Oklahoma State
Justin Gilbert is a borderline first-rounder at this point, but the end of the first round gets tricky. There are a handful of wide receivers who could come off the board in this range, and some cornerbacks will also intrigue teams. Depth is key at cornerback, and the 49ers get a solid prospect who has room to grow.
The cornerbacks coming off the board ahead of Gilbert included Jason Verrett, Darqueze Dennard, Bradley Roby and Ifo Ekpre-Olomu. Earlier this month, Nick Chiamardas released his own early cornerback rankings, and he had Gilbert ranked second.
The Brock extension is nice and all, but cornerback remains a position of need. They'll have Chris Culliver back next season, but with only one year left on his contract, there's no guarantees he'll be around after that. The NFL continues to develop as a passing league, so you can never really develop enough cornerbacks. I don't know that the 49ers will draft several cornerbacks, but I have to think it's relatively high on the needs list.
