With the departure of Alex Boone and Anthony Davis' questionable future with the San Francisco 49ers, offensive lineman are needed in Santa Clara in this years draft. Stanford's Joshua Garnett, is one of those candidates. He is projected as a 2nd round pick and deemed the third best offensive lineman in by CBSsports.com. He was the first true freshman to start on Stanford's OL since Kirk Chambers in 2000.
In his final year at Stanford, Garnett was not only an All-American but an Outland Trophy winner and a Morris Trophy Award winner (PAC 12 lineman of the year), while receiving other numerous titles and recognition. The 6'4 312 lb. guard is from Puyallup, WA and he first met Chip Kelly while being recruited to attend Oregon.
Normally, players of his caliber will attend pro days but not do all of the work, Garnett, however, participated in all of the drills. He felt it was necessary to show that he would be able to contribute quickly, able to run outside zone, able to pull out and run schemes, even though they predominantly ran power at Stanford. Why did he run all of the drills?
I want to go out here and like you guys said, I want to show that I can run zone and I can do all that stuff, I don't want to just leave it to the film. I mean whatever you can do, if you really want to come to a team and you feel like you have a good fit and a good mold like I think I would have here, you want to do everything possible to put yourself in a position to get picked up by that team. I mean, what better thing to do than to come out here and let coach put his hands on you, see you run around, have all the coaches out here. I feel like I'm just that guy, it's my style of play. I'm going to come out and do everything possible and put it all out there, leave it all out there, not going to leave it to chance or just to film. I wanted to get out here and show them what I can do.
Garnett's father, Scott, was a nose tackle who played 4 years in the NFL, in Denver, San Francisco, San Diego and Buffalo. His family, especially his mother, are 49ers Faithful and would be incredibly excited to see the younger Garnett in the red and gold.
It was awesome to be a local guy and come to Levi's and work out with the coaching staff. Growing up, my dad played for the 49ers for a year so I was really excited to come out here and be able to compete and just be with coach and see coach Kelly and coach Flaherty, and be able to show them my athleticism and move a little bit. I know they need some O-linemen. I'd be really happy to come down here and stay close to Stanford and enjoy this California weather and be a part of this organization.
As of the 49ers local pro day, Garnett had only one pre-draft meeting, which was with Chicago. The need for interior OL in the league has kept him in demand and he has seen interest from several teams. They have either visited him at Stanford, like the 49ers, at the combine or a pro day.
When Garnett was asked if he could imagine playing next to Joe Staley his face lit up and giant grin spead across his face.
Oh man that would be wild! That would be wild to be able to play next to Joe. He's one of the best, he's going to be a hall of fame guy. To learn from him and and kind of take some of the stuff he does would be awesome.