San Francisco 49ers: Early 3-round 2019 NFL mock draft upgrades defense
By Kevin Saito
The San Francisco 49ers find themselves with a host of needs heading toward the NFL Draft. Our initial three-round 2019 NFL mock draft fills some of them.
Obviously, things have not gone according to play for general manager John Lynch, head coach Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers this season. That’s putting it lightly.
After trading for – and then giving a mammoth contract to – their franchise quarterback in Jimmy Garoppolo, the 49ers had to watch him blow his ACL in a Week 3 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. That came after watching prized free agent running back Jerick McKinnon tear his ACL right before the season began.
Without those two weapons – obviously key parts of the engine that powers San Francisco’s offense – the 49ers have been stuck in neutral on good weeks and have gone in reverse in bad ones.
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What this lost season has exposed though, is that the 49ers, though filled with a Garoppolo-fueled hope, optimism, and dreams of a playoff run, are a bit further away than we anticipated. It’s shown us that this team lacks depth, has some pretty glaring holes on the roster that need to be filled, and needs an infusion of young talent.
There are needs on both sides of the ball and with a warchest that OverTheCap.com estimates to be around $67 million dollars, they should be able to shore up some of those weak spots via free agency.
But they’ll also be able to bring in some young talent during the 2019 NFL Draft and there are some good players coming in to be had. The one bright spot of such a horrible season is that they’ll be picking high and will have a bounty of players to choose from to address those needs.
The priority of needs though, is the big question at the moment. Which position to the 49ers need to upgrade the most? San Francisco is obviously going to need help at the cornerback, safety, linebacker, and guard positions. As stated before, some of those needs will be addressed when the free agency window opens.
But, with the draft capital they have, where do they want to use it? Or the better question is, where would they be best served using it?
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We used Fanspeak.com’s mock draft simulator to put together a way-too-early three-round mock draft of our own to see what we could come up with. Obviously, things are still in flux – at least for a few more weeks – but as of this writing, the 49ers are holding the second overall pick, sandwiched between the Arizona Cardinals at No. 1 and the Oakland Raiders at No. 3.
We made our selections based on what we perceived to be the team’s most important areas of need – which is, of course, debatable. Opinions will obviously vary.
Based on draft order and areas of need though, here is our initial, way-too-early three-round mock draft…