How the Seahawks won the draft among NFC West teams
By Andy Excell
49ers draft
49ers draft needs
- Linebackers
- Guard
- Safety
- QB
- Wide receiver
To be honest, the 49ers entered the draft with a pretty good roster to start with, so they were looking to go from pretty good to very good in the draft. But did they?
The 49ers dominated the pre-draft chat after trading up to the 3 position at the cost of first round picks in the next two drafts. Having made that move, I personally would have picked Justin Fields, but they have picked Trey Lance.
Lance could be truly great. I really like him, but he lacks experience and will likely need plenty of time before assuming the starting QB mantle from Jimmy G. On the flip side, not all college talent translates to the NFL, particularly at the QB position. Worst case scenario for the 49ers is that they have just drafted the next Tim Tebow/Johnny Manziel.
For 2021 the 49ers will likely still have Jimmy G at the helm.
In the second round they took guard Aaron Banks, which definitely fills a need at right guard for the 49ers. Their next two picks were Trey Sermon at RB and Ambry Thomas at corner. With Mostert, Wilson, Gallman and Hasty all ready filling out their RB depth chart, why do they need Sermon? Thomas may compete for a starting role with RCB Dontae Johnson, but like Trey lance may be more of a long-term plan.
Then they took offensive tackle Jaylon Moore and another corner in Deommodore Lenoir. I really don’t see the need in either of these picks.
With their last two picks, they took safety Talanoa Hufanga and another RB in Elijah Mitchell. I really like Hufanga and safety was a good pick there, but another RB? Just how many do you want?
What they failed to do was upgrade their linebacking corps. With the exception of the excellent Fred Warner, their linebackers are well below average. According to spotrac.com, they do have $17.8 million of cap space available, so they need to get busy in free agency to address this need.
So a mixed bag for the 49ers, some picks that look like good long-term planning, one or two that could improve them in 2021 and some that just do not make sense to me.