In the past two years, the San Francisco 49ers have left their fans in a depressed state of thought wondering, will we ever win another super bowl? Are the Raiders really better than us? What are the odds that Joe Montana can come back?
Coming off their first losing season after the Harbaugh Era, team owner Jed York had strong words to say about his team’s current state and the gist of his words were that the team needs to be better, I would’ve never thought of it myself.
The place to rebuild a fallen roster is the annual draft and the 49ers held a wealth of picks with 12 and plenty of spots to fill.
The 49ers first selection was defensive lineman DeForest Buckner from Oregon University, whohelps a struggling defensive line that ranked near the bottom of the league in defending the pass.
Buckner specialized in ruining the lives of quarterbacks across the country with 10.5 sacks making him an obvious choice for the 49ers.
Buckner will be reunited with his former college teammate Arik Armstead, San Francisco’s 2015 first round pick, making for a suddenly talented defensive line.
The one complaint that many fans had with Buckner being drafted by the Niners, is that many loyal fans are worried that Kelly will be bringing in his former recruits from Oregon as he did in Philadelphia.
The 49ers’ night was presumably over with no more first round selections until they used three of their 11 remaining picks to move back in.
The Kansas City Chiefs gave San Francisco the No. 28 pick in exchange for the 49ers’ second, fourth and sixth round picks.
The 49ers used three picks to move up only nine slots, to get Stanford University’s Joshua Garnett.
Garnett plays Guard on the offensive line and won the 2015 Outland Trophy for the most outstanding interior lineman in the nation.
Garnett’s size, strength and agility plays well in Kelly’s spread offense where lineman are required to be on the move.
The 49ers used the rest of the draft to add depth to weak positions such as cornerback, outside linebacker, offensive line, quarterback, running back and wide receiver.
Notable selections are cornerbacks Will Redmond of Mississippi State and Rashard Robinson of Louisiana State University (LSU).
Redmond is coming off of an ACL tear and an already injury riddled team probably doesn’t need that in their life.
However, Redmond is expected to be ready for training camp.
Robinson’s career at LSU was cut short due to off the field troubles; he didn’t play in a single game last year.
49ers General Manager, Trent Baalke ,must believe that his troubles are behind him considering that the team has had multiple players with off the field troubles and it would not be smart to let more bad eggs onto the team.
On the positive side, the 49ers’ sixth round selection, quarterback Jeff Driskel from Louisiana Tech, is a sleeper to make a major impact in the near future.
His skill set would seem to make a perfect fit in Kelly’s offense, he has the arm and precision plus running ability to fit in the quick pace offense.
While Kaepernick is considered the favorite to be the starting quarterback due to his $11-million price tag, but after being benched last season, anything is possible for Driskel.
The only question remaining is the inside linebacker position with the only viable option to team with Navarro Bowman would be the less than stellar Gerald Hodges or Michael Wilhoite.