San Francisco 49ers: Grading the 2019 NFL Draft class
By Justin Fried
The San Francisco 49ers had quite the eventful draft weekend making eight selections in total. Here are our grades for their entire 2019 NFL Draft class.
The 2019 NFL Draft has come and past and the San Francisco 49ers have come away with eight players who they feel will be parts of their future going forward.
For some of their draft picks, the hope is that they could be key building blocks of the current and future roster while others will simply be expected to provide occasional contributions. Either way, the hope is to receive solid production out of all of their draft picks, even if that isn’t exactly likely.
While the 49ers undoubtedly made their biggest acquisition in the first round, their mid-round picks will still be counted on to contribute, some of them pretty early on. In fact, it’s generally the mid-round selections that wind up filling out the 53-man roster and holding a team together.
San Francisco needed to nail this draft after a disappointing 4-12 2018 season plagued by injuries and inconsistent play. Now, it’s certainly too early to say whether they accomplished that or not yet. However, we can do our best to gauge the initial value of their selections prior to these players making their NFL debuts.
With that, let’s jump in and give some initial grades for the San Francisco 49ers 2019 NFL Draft class.
Round 1 (2nd Overall) — Nick Bosa, DE, Ohio State
Simply put, the success of this draft class will hinge on the success of Nick Bosa. Fortunately, this is one player that is absolutely worth betting on.
Considered by many to be the best overall player in this class, Bosa excelled during his time at Ohio State being named the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year in 2017 following an 8.5 sack season. He was named a First-Team All-Big Ten selection helping lead Ohio State to a Big Ten Conference championship.
Bosa is about as safe of a prospect as you could get from a performance standpoint. He is well-rounded as a technically gifted pass rusher as well as being a refined run defender. The only red flags come with prior injury issues but those concerns are more overblown than true deterrents.
The 49ers added Dee Ford this offseason to help out a struggling group of edge rushers and Bosa will only further solidify the unit. 2017 third-overall pick Solomon Thomas could soon find himself on the move as the Stanford product has yet to show much promise as a pass rusher, despite his solid run defense.
Expect the 49ers to kick Arik Armstead inside permanently with Bosa and Ford assuming the starting edge roles, leaving little room for Thomas at least in the starting lineup.
Either way, the selection of Bosa solidifies the 49ers front-four as the clear strength of the defensive unit — especially when you factor in rising star DeForest Buckner. While some will have preferred Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, there should be no complaints about the direction the 49ers chose to go in.
And if there are complaints, expect them to be silenced once the season gets underway and Bosa begins to show his true value.