How many draft "experts" saw this one coming? Even the newest addition to the 49ers family, Mike McGlinchey, didn't see this one coming. He said his only contact with the team was at the combine and not a peep since. This might not have been the most popular pick due to the obvious needs in the pass rush and the secondary, but it makes a lot of sense. Yes the 49ers need a star pass rusher, but with Bradley Chubb gone, was one really available at pick No. 9? Same for a true outside cornerback with Denzel Ward off the board early. Inside linebacker certainly would have made sense but Roquan Smith was already gone and perhaps the team has questions about Tremaine Edmunds at the next level.
McGlinchey makes sense for a number of reasons. First, and perhaps the most obvious is need: Joe Staley turns 34 this summer and isn't getting younger; Trent Brown is coming off surgery and may not even be on the team next year. Two, McGlinchey won't need to start at tackle right away. Rather, he can move inside and compete at guard and serve as a swing tackle his rookie year. Three, at 6'7" and 315 pounds, he's big but also very mobile, which is an absolute must in Shanahan's outside zone scheme. Four, John Lynch is protecting his 100 million dollar plus investment in Jimmy Garoppolo.
And before you say, "couldn't we have traded back and still got him?", take this into consideration: the Raiders, who had the next pick at No. 10 after losing the coin toss to the 49ers, immediately traded their pick to the Cardinals for next to nothing (they moved back to the Cardinals spot at No. 15 and picked up the Cardinal's 3rd and 5th round pick) only to pick another tackle, Kolton Miller, who was largely considered a second day pick. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Raiders wanted McGlinchey. And if that is true, and McGlinchey really was the 49ers "guy" all along, they obviously couldn't have traded back and still got there guy.
The biggest question now is, how does this immediately affect Trent Brown? Does Lynch try to move him at some point during the draft to pick up some additional picks in later rounds?