New toy for 49ers brass: The best options for San Francisco’s No. 13 draft pick
It’s not often teams that play in the Super Bowl wind up picking in the first half of the following NFL Draft. But that’s where the 49ers find themselves after dealing away star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to the Indianapolis Colts earlier this week.
What does the pick mean for the team? Simply put, San Francisco has too many players to pay and not enough cap space to make it all happen. George Kittle, Fred Warner and a handful of others will get lucrative new contracts at some point over the next two seasons while veterans like Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Staley, Richard Sherman, Arik Armstead and Dee Ford are already getting hefty sums. Buckner signed a new deal with the Colts paying him some $21 million per season through 2024.
Which is why the NFL Draft is so important. Getting quality players on rookie contracts is how Super Bowl teams are built. Having premier players like Bosa, Kittle and Buckner on their first contracts was key to San Francisco fielding one of the best rosters in the NFL last season.
Key to that No. 13 pick is that player is under team control for five seasons at a predetermined annual salary that can’t escalate until after the third year, when that player becomes eligible to negotiate a second contract, which is where Kittle stands this offseason.
Finding an All-Pro caliber player like Buckner — and getting Armstead to build off his impressive 2019 campaign — will determine if the 49ers made the right decision in their decision to trade their away their young star.
Let’s take a look at five routes Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch could take with the 13th pick they received in the swap with Indy.
Wide receiver
Fawning over receiver prospects is an annual tradition for 49ers fans. After all, the team hasn’t drafted a 1,000-yard wideout since Michael Crabtree in 2009, more than a full decade ago (feeling old yet?). Yet the club has taken a receiver every year since 2002 and might have a need if Emmanuel Sanders bolts in free agency.
Yet many observers believe this year’s class is the best since 2014, when Odell Beckham Jr., Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins, Brandin Cooks, Davante Adams and Allen Robinson were all taken in the first two rounds.
This year, at No. 13, the 49ers could have a shot at the top three wideouts in this year’s class, who all look like eventual stars: Jerry Jeudy (Alabama), Henry Ruggs III (Alabama), and CeeDee Lamb (Oklahoma).
Shanahan prizes route running and the ability to separate from man-to-man coverage more than any other traits in his receivers. That would lend to Jeudy possibly being the pick of the bunch because of his precise route running and technical skills. Ruggs will be one of the fastest wideouts in the NFL (think Tyreek Hill). He ran a 4.27 at the combine and could be a devastating weapon for Shanahan to toy with.
Lamb doesn’t run routes like Jeudy or dust defenders like Ruggs, but he makes up for it with ball skills. Shanahan often says it can be difficult to judge receivers in college because they rarely see press coverage from physical cornerbacks. That might be the case here with Lamb because of the soft defenses he went against in the Big 12, as opposed to Jeudy and Ruggs in the SEC. Lamb may be the most versatile at all three levels of the field, and might be the best red-zone option of the three.
Defensive line
Buckner’s departure could lead to San Francisco replacing him in the middle of the defense with another highly-drafted rookie. There are a few options in this year’s class early in Round 1 as the team will likely add to the group including Solomon Thomas and D.J. Jones, neither of whom appear to be every-down options, as Buckner was.
Derrick Brown (Auburn), K’Lavon Chaisson (LSU) and Javon Kinlaw (South Carolina) all appear slated to go in the top half of Round 1. Brown (6-5, 326) is one of the most powerful players in the draft. He might not be as athletic as Buckner, but he is as hard to move. He was one of the most productive players in the SEC the past two seasons. He didn’t test well at the combine, leaving observers to wonder about his high-end ceiling. His game film outweighs his measurables.
Kinlaw (6-5, 324) is more similar to Buckner in that he’s explosive off the line with athletic traits that indicate his ceiling might be higher. He’s not the a run-stuffer like Brown, but he makes up for it with skills as a pass rusher. He had 17.0 sacks the last two seasons while Brown had 8.5.
Chaisson (6-3, 254) is more of an edge rusher and is considered the top defensive end in the class behind Ohio State’s Chase Young. He’s expected to go somewhere in the middle of Round 1. The 49ers appear set at the edge, for now, with Bosa, Dee Ford and Ronald Blair III under contract. But getting a player like Chaisson could give them a long-term pairing with Bosa if Ford, who played 22 percent of the snaps last season, doesn’t work out.
Cornerback
Sherman is entering the final year of his contract with the 49ers and turns 32 later this month. He remains an elite player, as he earned second-team All-Pro recognition last season. But San Francisco has to start thinking about life beyond him and might benefit from getting his replacement while he’s still here to serve as a mentor (and maybe a high-end rookie could displace Ahkello Witherspoon or Emmanuel Moseley, as the two split the role opposite Sherman last season).
C.J. Henderson (Florida), Kristian Fulton (LSU) and Jeff Gladney (LSU) are the three cornerbacks that could be in range for San Francisco in Round 1 while Ohio State’s Jeff Okudah is slated to go top 10.
Henderson is an elite athlete though he might not be a perfect fit for San Francisco’s zone-heavy scheme. Henderson is known more for his work in man-to-man coverage and there are questions about his willingness to defend against the run, which was the knock on Witherspoon entering the league.
Fulton and Gladney both starred for the national champions and look like the next premier players to come out of “DBU.” They were both asked to play predominately man coverage, which also raises the question about their fit with San Francisco, though they often pressed receivers at the line of scrimmage. Fulton is more natural in coverage while Gladney is the more physical and aggressive player against the run.
Offensive tackle
Remember in 2018 when the 49ers didn’t have an apparent need at tackle with Joe Staley and Trent Brown book-ending the offensive line?
San Francisco wound up going the surprising route and drafting Notre Dame’s Mike McGlinchey anyway hours before trading Brown to the Patriots. The 49ers aren’t likely to trade one of their current starters away, but 13 could be the right place to add Staley’s eventual replacement and stick him at guard in the meantime.
Jedrick Wills (Alabama), Tristan Wirfs (Iowa), Mehki Becton (Louisville) and Andrew Thomas (Georgia) could all be in the mix here as this offensive tackle class might rival the group of receivers when it comes to top-end talent.
Wills played right tackle for the Crimson Tide and was lauded for his physical mindset. Becton is simply enormous at 6-7 and 364 pounds, but he has firehose arms that measure 35 5/8 inches. He also ran an incredible-for-his-size 5.1 seconds in the 40-yard dash. Thomas (6-5, 315) has arms even longer (36 1/8) inches and played left tackle in a pro-style scheme for the Bulldogs.
But Wirfs could be the player to watch here, at least from the 49ers’ perspective. The team loves prospects from Iowa and Wirfs has the same kind of dominating mindset as George Kittle, and Wirfs plays in a scheme that has translated well to Shanahan’s offense. Not to mention he’s a complete athletic freak. Wirfs (6-5, 320) ran a ridiculous 4.85 in the 40-yard dash (98th percentile), jumped 36.5 inches in the vertical (99th percentile) and 121 inches in the broad jump (99th percentile).
Wirfs might be the player the 49ers believe could be a star over the next decade more than any other prospect. But will he be available at 13?
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
