The 2016 NFL Draft kicks off in exactly three weeks. Mock drafts will wrap up at that point, but in the meantime, they are expanding beyond a single round. NFL.com draft analyst Chad Reuter posted his newest 2016 NFL mock draft last week, and it is five rounds long.
The 49ers have eight picks in the first five rounds, so there is a lot that can be done. There will be trades throughout the first five rounds, and odds are pretty good that the 49ers are involved in at least one of them. That being said, it is still interesting to see what Reuter focuses on as needs for the 49ers.
Here are all the picks Reuter made for the 49ers:
1 (7). Jared Goff, QB, Cal
2 (37). Will Fuller, WR, Notre Dame
3 (68). KeiVarae Russell, CB, Notre Dame
4 (105). Caleb Benenoch, OL, UCLA
4 (133). Tyler Ervin, RB, San Jose State
5 (142). Blake Martinez, ILB, Stanford
5 (145). D.J. Reader, DT, Clemson
5 (174). Adairius Barnes, CB, Louisiana Tech
I normally don't pay a ton of attention to the specific players after the first round pick, because so much can change after the early portion of the draft. I mean really after the top ten it can become a free-for-all. However, there are a couple things that caught my eye.
The first is wide receiver Will Fuller. If the 49ers are going 100 percent BPA, I can see some value in him at some point. However, he seems to be more of a pure stretch-the-field burner type. The 49ers could use more than just Torrey Smith, but I'm just not sure I see them making a play for Fuller.
The other interesting thing is that Reuter has the 49ers drafting three Bay Area players, and another player who played in the Pac 12 (UCLA). The last time the 49ers drafted more than one player from the combined "region" and Pac-12 was 2011, when they drafted Colin Kaepernick (Nevada-Reno, so only sort of) and Ronald Johnson (USC). In 2010, they drafted Taylor Mays (USC) and Kyle Williams (Arizona State).
Trent Baalke has generally avoided the Pac-12 and Bay Area players for some reason. It might be a coincidence, or it could be a specific philosophy. Chip Kelly joins the team this year, and while Baalke is in charge of the draft, Kelly will likely have some kind of input. Could it lead to more Pac-12 players?