Earlier this week, Mike Mayock posted his first positional rankings of the 2016 NFL Draft season. On Thursday, we took a look at quarterbacks, on Friday we took a look at inside linebackers, and then interior offensive linemen, on Saturday we looked at tight ends, on Sunday we looked at safeties, on Monday we looked at wide receivers, on Tuesday we looked at edge rushers, and on Wednesday we looked at offensive tackles.
We're going to continue moving through these position-by-position, and for this post we move back to the defensive side of the ball, looking at cornerbacks. Here's how Mayock ranked out the top five cornerbacks in the 2016 NFL Draft:
1. Jalen Ramsey, Florida State
2. Vernon Hargreaves, Florida
3. Mackensie Alexander, Clemson
4. Eli Apple, Ohio State
5. Cyrus Jones, Alabama
The 49ers cornerback position is another tough one to figure out. Tramaine Brock started 93.4 percent of the team's total defensive snaps. Across from him, we saw some shuffling. Kenneth Acker got the bulk of the work with 70.9 percent of the snaps. Dontae Johnson played 32.2 percent of the defensive snaps, getting the start the final three weeks of the season. Marcus Cromartie (10.7 percent) and Keith Reaser (6.9 percent) each got a little bit of work as well.
The team has bodies competing, but it is hard to tell where the young players will stand under the new defensive coordinator. I still am not sure why Dontae Johnson did not get more opportunities earlier in the season. And Keith Reaser seemed like a potential player coming out of camp, but was shuffled to special teams for much of the season. There are some talented cornerbacks, but I really have no idea what the change to the defensive coaching staff might mean for the current depth chart, free agent possibilities, and potential draft options this spring.