Jason Ross: An Idea For The 49ers And Their Upcoming NFL Draft
Next week the NFL draft will finally be here.
Drafts from every sport are important but in the NFL you really can clean up if you have a great draft.
It appears that the San Francisco 49ers are in a good spot in the opening round with the 2nd overall pick. The question is, what should they do with it?
I believe the best thing would be to move down. That sounds simple enough, but you need to have a willing party that wants to do that. I don't think there will be the demand with this particular draft to jump up to #2 overall.
Most times when this happens, case in point last draft, teams have an insatiable desire to get their next franchise quarterback. Last year both the Rams and the Eagles moved up to get Goff and Wentz in hopes of having their future at quarterback locked up for years to come.
The San Francisco 49ers are in that spot right now too where they don't have a long term solution at the most important position in the NFL.
In the short term, the new front office for San Francisco has decided to give rookie head coach Kyle Shanahan a combo platter of Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley. This isn't the most exciting combo ever but if Shanahan believes he can make that work, then I actually think he can make that work.
With that said, my next question is should the 49ers draft a quarterback this season? Could they be the team that takes the first QB this year? Watson, Kizer, Trubisky, Mahomes, there are many choices but many "experts" have deemed this a week draft for QB's. So here is my thought....
I think San Francisco tackle the draft with filling the roster with talent at as many positions as possible except quarterback. I don't personally see the "difference maker" that San Francisco can get in 2017.
Now 2018 is a different story.
If you look at the 2018 free agent class you will find names like Kirk Cousins, Sam Bradford, Jimmy Garoppolo and Matthew Stafford. If any of those names aren't a possibility then the 49ers can try the 2018 NFL draft which is projected to be loaded with QB talent.
Names like Luke Falk from Washington State, Baker Mayfield from Oklahoma, (uh-umm) I can't believe I am saying this but, USC's Sam Darnold and UCLA's Josh Rosen. Rosen has all the tools to be a great pro and yes I have a UCLA bias. With that said, Darnold is a stud and should be high first round material.
So I think the logical thing to do is spend this year building talent at other key positions, and have rookie head coach Kyle Shanahan mold Hoyer and Barkley into competent quarterbacks and then strike in 2018 in either free agency or the draft and hopefully find the QB that can take this team back to where they once were for so many years.
