The last evening before the 2017 NFL draft brought with it Mike Mayock’s annual mock draft. He had the San Francisco 49ers selecting safety Jamal Adams after considering running back Leonard Fournette for the spot. He stayed away from Fournette because of Shanahan’s work with mid-round backs, and thinks pairing Jamal Adams with Eric Reid would give the 49ers one of the best safety tandems in football.
Mike Mayock watches a ton of football, so there is no doubting that he has some well-informed opinions about players. He will be proven wrong on some of them, but it’s not for lack of effort.
And 49ers GM John Lynch appreciates that effort. During his introductory press conference, Lynch mentioned how he liked to do mock drafts during his broadcasting days. On Monday, Lynch said he and the front office have been plenty active in putting together scenarios and studying the way things might fall.
Someone asked Lynch if some mock drafts are more valuable than others. He talked about the valuable information some of them can provide given the insight certain media folks have. He pointed to Mayock in particular:
“Well, I think all of them because I think what you want is, one thing I think sometimes we scoff at these people and assumptions that are being made, but I know there’s a lot of people that talk to a lot of people in this league and there’s people in my role who go to people for information. So, those aren’t completely misguided. So, you get a general sense by looking at all of them and obviously, the ones that have shown to be reputable. You kind of take averages there. I’ll tell you one thing, not to give guys plugs but like [NFL Network analyst] Mike Mayock, that sucker, every pro day I was at, he was at. He’s out there doing the work. Probably someone who’s showing up and doing the work, you tend to listen to guys like that a little more.
Mayock’s mock draft had three quarterbacks going in the first round. He had the Cleveland Browns moving up from No. 12 to No. 5 to select Mitchell Trubisky. He had DeShaun Watson going No. 25 to the Houston Texans, which would be a bit of a surprise considering how much Houston has been connected to Patrick Mahomes. Mayock has Mahomes going No. 32 with the Arizona Cardinals trading up with the New Orleans Saints to do the deal.
I think we see a fourth quarterback go in the first round. Davis Webb has been getting some love, while DeShone Kizer has seen his stock slip. I would not be at all surprised to see one of them go in the first round. Whether or not the 49ers move up from No. 34 to make that happens remains to be seen. But maybe Mayock’s trade involving the Cardinals and Saints will inspire the 49ers GM.