49ers take TCU cornerback Jeff Gladney in Dan Kadar’s latest mock

It’s nice when we get to start with the massive onslaught of mock drafts in February, isn’t it? Now that we know where the San Francisco 49ers pick, the debate can rage on! Well, most of us can subscribe to the notion that they trade out but there is still discussions to be had.

SB Nation did their weekly mock draft and has the 49ers taking TCU cornerback Jeff Gladney at 31st. I bring up the trades notion because SB Nation’s Dan Kadar did not have the 49ers trading out of 31. There were other trades, but the 49ers did not make one. So here’s what he says about Gladney:

If Gladney does well for himself at the combine, he’s a player who could jump into the back part of the first round. Ahkello Witherspoon had a rocky third season, and the 49ers could look to bolster their talent in the secondary.

This is a very weird draft. So much is going to be depending on what happens in free agency. Of all positions, cornerback is not something I would want this early, even if the 49ers stay in the first round. I’m going to bring back that tired tradition we hear me going on about every. Single. Year.

Yep. You know what’s coming. Brace yourselves:

O-line, O-line, O-line, O-line, O-line, O-line. If the 49ers want to have the deadly offense they are on the cusp of having, they need to get that interior figured out. Joe Staley isn’t getting any younger either. If they stay in the first round, I’d rather they get a guard or a tackle (or how about a swing?) and get them ready to go to either take Staley’s role, or Mike McGlinchey’s spot when he moves over.

A cornerback seems like a luxury. Interior help, or a successor to Staley is almost a necessity. There’s always Daniel Brunskill who could be that guy. There’s also Justin Skule who I’m not ready to give up on just yet.

But cornerback here. You put Gladney on the 49ers you now make the secondary even stronger. Richard Sherman has himself a protege for when he hangs it up and Ahkello Witherspoon is officially put on notice. At the same time, I felt like Emmanuel Moseley was really coming into his own in 2019. Yes, he flubbed a single assignment that led to the Kansas City Chiefs coming back and winning the Super Bowl, but before that game, he had been decent. Between him and Witherspoon, you’d think there’d be enough competition for a role opposite Richard Sherman.

We got a couple months to talk about this.