The draft is less than two weeks away, and many feel the linebacker position has catapulted near the top of the need list for the San Francisco 49ers. The team's young star, Reuben Foster, has (allegedly) gotten himself into a whole lot of trouble this offseason. He has been arrested twice and is now facing some serious legal charges thanks to the latest incident, which occurred in February.
On Thursday, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced that Foster is facing charges of domestic violence with an allegation that he inflicted great bodily injury, forcefully attempting to prevent a victim from reporting a crime, and possession of an assault weapon.
The alleged victim was his live-in girlfriend. Foster was arrested on February 11 following an altercation that took place at his residence.
"The victim told responding sheriff's deputies and Los Gatos police that Foster dragged her by her hair, physically threw her out of the house, and punched her in the head 8 to 10 times," read the release by the DA.
"If convicted, [Foster] faces more than 11 years in prison," it added.
While Foster's future with the 49ers is uncertain, the team is not changing its draft plan, according to a report by Steve Wyche of NFL Network.
"It doesn't necessarily impact their draft strategy," Wyche said on-air. "I spoke to a couple of people with the organization yesterday, and they were preparing for the possibility of Reuben Foster not being on this team because the arrest happened a while ago. They did not know it was as severe as the charges that were levied yesterday.
"So now, they're looking at possibly not having him there for the entire season or worse, should he be found guilty on some of these charges. However, they were looking at drafting some linebackers, but not until the later rounds. As of right now, that is still the case even though they don't have Reuben Foster to start the season – or at least it doesn't look like they will.
"They are still not planning on altering their draft plans."
The 49ers begin their offseason program on Monday. While Ian Rapoport of NFL Network stated he would be surprised if Foster were in attendance or around the team before the legal matters are resolved, Wyche hears a different story.
"From everything I was told, there is the possibility that Foster could be part of those team activities," Wyche said. "The big concern coming out of the building in Santa Clara is that he needs that support. [...] He had Richard Sherman in the courtroom, who offered up his support to Reuben Foster. The team feels he needs some sort of structure at this moment because if he is left up to his own devices in terms of not having any structure, having all of this free time, they don't necessarily know how he is going to respond.
"So they feel that even though this is hanging over him and hanging over the team, the best situation for him right now is to somehow or some way be around the organization and be around people who can, right now, help him navigate through this very serious situation."
Wyche's report is similar to the opinion of Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area.
"At this point, I fully expect Reuben Foster to attend (the) 49ers offseason program, which opens Monday," wrote Maiocco via Twitter. "As noted earlier, teams often talk about how some troubled individuals need the support and structure they get from an NFL environment."