San Francisco 49ers Draft Day Two: More Trades and More Defense

The San Francisco 49ers got some more help on defense during the draft’s second day, and also added another quarterback to the competition.

San Francisco 49ers’ general manager John Lynch was back at it again on Friday night, getting back to wheeling and dealing for the second day of the NFL draft. They made two selections on day two, and made a few more trades after getting a bit trigger happy on day one as well.

The 49ers picked Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas with the third overall pick and linebacker Reuben Foster from Alabama on Thursday, and continued to try and rebuild the defense through the draft. Their first pick of day two came in the third round, the 66th overall pick, and they used it to take Colorado cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon.

Witherspoon, a tall cornerback listed at 6’3″ and 198 pounds, comes with long arms (33 inches) and showed off a big vertical leap at the NFL Combine, jumping 40.5 inches. He played three seasons at Colorado, and racked up three interceptions in 25 games over the past two years. He led the Buffaloes’ defense, which was one of the best in the Pac-12 last year, with 19 passes defended in 2016, and also recorded a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

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Witherspoon’s teammate and fellow cornerback at Colorado, Chidobe Awuzie, was also drafted on day two. He was taken by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round, 60th overall. Witherspoon combined with Awuzie to make one of the most fearsome corner duos in the nation, with Awuzie totaling three interceptions, eight sacks, and 18 passes defended over the last two seasons.

The 49ers were also scheduled to take the 67th pick as well, but swung another trade to pick up some more future picks. They received one pick this year (seventh round, 229th overall), and a 2018 second-round selection as well from the New Orleans Saints. Using the pick they got from San Francisco, New Orleans picked running back Alvin Kamara out of Tennessee.

Towards the end of the night, the 49ers traded their way back into the third round. They acquired pick number 104 (third round compensatory pick) from the Minnesota Vikings for two picks this year, a fourth-rounder (109th overall) and seventh-rounder (219th overall, initially acquired from the Cleveland Browns).

With that pick, the 49ers got themselves a quarterback to add to the depth chart alongside Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley. They selected Iowa signal caller C.J. Beathard.

Beathard, the grandson of former NFL GM Bobby Beathard, stands 6’2″ and weighs in at 219 pounds. He played four seasons at Iowa, but wasn’t the full-time starter until his junior season. Over his career, he completed 454 passes in 782 attempts, good for a 58.1 percent completion rate, with 40 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.

In his junior year of 2015, he led Iowa to a 12-2 record, getting as high as third in the AP rankings, while completing 223 of 362 attempts (61.6 percent) for 2,809 yards and 17 touchdowns with only five interceptions. The Hawkeyes made it to the Rose Bowl, but fell short to the Stanford Cardinal (Solomon Thomas had two tackles for loss and a sack), and they dropped to ninth in the final AP rankings.

Next: Lynch Nails It on First Day of Draft

The 49ers have six picks remaining in the final four rounds:

Round 4 – 143rd pick (compensatory)
Round 5 – 146th pick
Round 5 – 161st pick (from Washington)
Round 6 – 198th pick (from Baltimore)
Round 6 – 202nd pick (from Denver)
Round 7 – 229th pick (from New Orleans)