Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee was on the 95.7 The Game morning show, Joe, Lo and Dibs, on Wednesday. With the annual event just over a week away, the discussion focused on the draft. The San Francisco 49ers own the ninth-overall pick and will make that selection (or trade out of it) next Thursday night.
Who will the 49ers take with their top selection? Barrows feels the three most likely prospects to land in San Francisco are linebackers Tremaine Edmunds from Virginia Tech and Roquan Smith from Georgia, as well as defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick from Alabama. The trio of players also happens to be the three most popular projected picks among mock drafts of the 77 that we surveyed this week.
Regarding the potential of the 49ers selecting Fitzpatrick, Barrows was asked if the 49ers would pause on using another first-round selection on a player out of Alabama. Their last first-round pick from the Crimson Tide, linebacker Reuben Foster, has landed in a lot of trouble this offseason. He has been arrested twice with his most recent incident resulting in multiple felony charges and potential prison time if convicted.
Barrows views Fitzpatrick as a safer pick than the riskier one of Foster from last year.
"I think you have to look at the Alabama guys a little bit more carefully, scrutinize them more," Barrows said. "But Minkah Fitzpatrick, from everything I've read and seen and heard, is just a great guy and does not have any of the off-the-field baggage coming out that Reuben Foster did. So, in this case, I don't think that would be a problem."
While Fitzpatrick may not be a problem in the eyes of the 49ers, there are prospects that general manager John Lynch and company may avoid because of the embarrassment and trouble for the franchise that the Foster situation has caused.
"There are guys, though, in this draft that do have red flags," Barrows said. "The 49ers have spent a lot of time with LSU defensive end Arden Key, for example. He's got some red flags attached to him. It's a good question. They like him. They like what he does a lot. He's at a position of need, edge rusher for them.
"Does this Reuben Foster experience now make him off limits? I would have to guess that the answer is yes but it's going to be a 'We shall see' type of thing. Do they bring in any guys with those nine picks that have sort of similar off-the-field character concerns?"