The 49ers second round picks the past 10 years

The San Francisco 49ers could do almost anything in next Thursday's NFL Draft. They probably won't trade down, but anything else seems feasible right now. Whether they get aggressive and move up as high as into the top 10, just jump a few spots or stay where they are now and look for a good late-round value remains to be seen.

They could even blow us away by taking a player that none of us have considered. That's the fun thing -- and sometimes heartburn-inducing thing -- about the draft, especially for a team with an 18 wheeler full of selections.

As we get closer to the big day, we figured we'd take a round-by-round look at what the team has done over the past decade.

Previous Round Links:

RD 1 | RD 2 | RD 3 | RD 4 | RD 5 | RD 6 | RD 7

Round Two

So, yeah. We got Colin Kaepernick in the second round!

For as good as the team has been in the first round over the past decade, they've missed quite a bit in the second. Add in that four of the 10 years they didn't even have a pick, and that makes it pretty tough to win the round.

Now, granted, some of those picks were lost in exchange for others, but the second round selections that were actually made just paint an icky picture.

I remember feeling a little knot in my stomach when Pete Carroll passed up on Taylor Mays and the Niners snagged him. He had literally just coached the guy, so that he passed on him had me raising an eyebrow.

It's probably too late to assume something good will come of LaMichael James, but Vance McDonald and Tank Carradine are two guys who could make us feel a whole lot better about the club's track record in this round of the draft.

The Best

You can't win without a good quarterback. And even if you were Team Alex all the way, and still think he's only average, Colin Kaepernick is a real asset for this team. There's still room to grow -- even though he's not really "young" anymore -- and we've seen playoff teams still have a hard time stopping his ground attack even with lots of film at their disposal now.

If the passing game can become a bit more potent, it will only make the 49ers rushing attack that much better. Though he's had his share of miscues, you really can't argue that Kap isn't the best second round pick of the past decade.

Grade

I don't know that I am qualified to assign a letter grade to what the team has done in the second round, but if I'm picking emoticons to share my feeling with you all, I think I would have to pick this one:

:/

I'll let you all assign the grade using the below poll.