We are approaching two weeks until the NFL Draft, and the San Francisco 49ers feel pretty good about things.
They added Mike Evans, Christian Kirk and Osa Odighizuwa, and were able to hang on to everybody’s favorite locker room guy, backup QB Mac Jones.
“I mean, it was definitely a better offseason than the year prior,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said last week at the NFL owners meetings. “(That) was tough, just losing all those guys …
“Still have the draft ahead of us, but love where we’re at now.”
The 49ers, coming off a 12-5 season in which you can say they overachieved because of their many injuries, are pretty clearly in win-now mode. That’s based on the older cast of veterans they are bringing back, plus the ones they just added. Evans is in Year 13 and essentially signed a one-year deal. So it might be a tough ask for general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan to break away from their entrenched drafting philosophy.
And those leanings have been clear — draft a defensive lineman or receiver early, don’t worry about offensive linemen and then shoot for the moon in Round 3. The 49ers have drafted four defensive linemen and three receivers in the first two rounds over the last seven years, and the other four picks were a cornerback, linebacker, quarterback (Happy Fifth Anniversary, Trey Lance!) and a guard.
The 49ers believe in taking big swings in the third round. Since grabbing linebacker Fred Warner in the third round in 2018, the 49ers have made 11 picks in the third round. Two seem to be solid hits (Upton Stout and Dominick Puni), the jury is still out on two others (Nick Martin and Ji’Ayir Brown), while the remaining seven seem like Lynch and Shanahan were throwing darts blindfolded.
Kicker Jake Moody was the most successful pick of the seven, and he lasted all of 32 games. The other six are either out of the NFL or barely hanging on: TE Cameron Latu, RB Tyrion Davis-Price, WR Danny Gray, RB Trey Sermon, CB Ambry Thomas and WR Jalen Hurd. (Since the 49ers seem excited about backup RB Jordan James, it works out that they traded their third round pick to the Cowboys for Odighizuwa.)
That’s assuming they don’t take a receiver in the first round, and Omar Cooper is going to need to be off the board to resist that temptation. The 49ers have a bigger need at edge rusher, and my colleague, Matt Barrows, has not been able to resist the temptation of taking Cashius Howell at No. 27 in mock drafts, short arms be damned.
But there is a move that makes more sense, and it requires the 49ers to suspend their skepticism on first-round tackles ever since they drafted Mike McGlinchey in the first round in 2018. Shanahan and offensive line coach Chris Foerster believe the gap between a first-round offensive lineman and one drafted in the third-to-fifth round — starting right tackle Colton McKitiz was pick No. 153 in 2020 — is much smaller than that of a play-making defensive lineman or receiver.
Drafting Kadyn Proctor, an All-American tackle at Alabama, could plug current and future roster holes for the 49ers. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
We disagree. This year, at least.
Kadyn Proctor is 6-foot-7 and 352 pounds and was an All-American tackle for Alabama. He has rare explosiveness and quick feet for a guy that size, and would be the perfect long-term replacement for left tackle Trent Williams, whenever the 38-year-old (in July) veteran signs off on his restructured contract.
And while that doesn’t meet the win-now criteria … it actually can. Proctor is a body-mover in the run game and can start at left guard — the 49ers’ one opening — this season while being an understudy to Williams.
The 49ers really need to embrace this vision, and targeting Proctor likely requires a trade up of four or five spots from No. 27. But that should be OK. A fourth-round pick next year is well worth locking up your left tackle spot post-Williams.
The 49ers could then target a pass rusher like R Mason Thomas (short arms!) or Zion Young in the second round (it’s a deep draft at that position) or revisit bringing in Joey Bosa to team up with his brother, Nick. Lynch has said that the former Charger and Bill was too expensive for the 49ers, but, hey, that was last week.
Things change.
Sometimes, even a team’s drafting philosophy — if the draft board dictates it.