Should the 49ers Trade Up in the Draft?

Over the last few years, the drafting philosophy of San Francisco 49ers‘ general manager Trent Baalke was to acquire as many draft picks as possible and bolster up depth. With the amount of talent that the 49ers had, he was able to do this. However, after coming off an 8-8 season and a few surprise losses, it might be time to mortgage a few picks for a potential star.

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On Thursday, Bleacher Report’s draft expert Matt Miller reported that the 49ers may be planning to move up in the draft in order to draft top WR prospect Amari Cooper.

According to Miller, the 49ers would need to trade up to at least pick number six in order to bypass the Chicago Bears.

Moving from pick 15 to pick six is no easy task and it won’t come cheap.

According to the draft pick value chart, it would take 550 points to move up 10 spots.

Baalke has proven himself to be a frugal spender in both the draft and free agency, but maybe it’s time to dish out the big bucks in order to get a surefire player.

The 49ers have had struggled in the past at drafting receivers, so maybe it’s about time they aim high for a “probably good player” rather than a “maybe good player” in he later half of the first round.

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Last year there were rumors that Baalke had fallen in love with a receiver that went in the top half of the draft. Sound familiar? It sounds awfully similar to the situation this year with Cooper.

Well that receiver was Odell Beckham Jr, and if you paid attention to the NFL last year, you would know how he turned out.

Baalke has talked about drafting Beckham in hindsight, but according to him, “it would have taken too much ammunition.”

In 2014 the 49ers were had the 30th pick, and Beckham came off the board to the New York Giants at pick 13. Obviously to move down that many spots would’ve cost a lot, but in hindsight, would it have been worth it?

Perhaps that question is bugging Baalke to this day and he feels he needs to make up for that decision by not making the same “mistake” this year.

At least this year, the 49ers are in a much more manageable position to go get their potential star receiver.