My mock draft 1.0

Okay I don't feel like doing the whole thing, and to be honest you I personally would prefer that we trade back if certain players we want aren't there(Berry/Bryant/Spiller/Haden etc.)

That said, I dunno if they'll be there or not, if our pick isn't that bad, one of them probably should be. Trading back would make picking an OLineman in the first a lot more palatable(think that's the word I'm looking for).

Panthers pick: CJ Spiller RB-Why? I know you guys are going to get on me for this pick and say he's too small, he's not as explosive as Chris Johnson, blah blah blah. But he does what we need him to do, and that's give us a home run hitter. Add in the fact that he can run between the tackles pretty well, he's 5'11'' and not one of these real little backs who wear down too early. He's a great prospect IMO and I'd take him on this team any day.

Our pick: Earl Thomas S-We need a playmaking ball hawking safety and this guy is that guy. He's a really good athlete who played a bunch of different sports in HS, has 8 INTs this year and 10 in his career, and he's better in coverage than a guy like Taylor Mays who just tries to hit. We really need a FS who can cover and has ball skills and if Berry is gone than he's the next best guy IMO.

Round 2: Jared Veldheer OT: I know I'm going to get killed for making this pick with our 2nd rounder on here. I know it. I haven't even seen this guy play, I don't think anyone on here has. But OTC had him in one of his prospect watch posts or whatever, sleeper posts, whatever. He's huge for a RT, 6'9'' 321, but he's mobile and he runs a 4.9 40 yard dash. He's the 9th ranked OT on nfldraftcountdown, he seems like a beast. And everyone's going to kill me for this and say "well you haven't even seen him play, he's not a blue chip guy, blah blah blah", but the Pats did a similar pick last year, with Sebastian Vollmer from Germany or somewhere like that I guess, he was good athletically and his technique was good and they coached him up and he locked down Freeney on Sunday Night Football and has started a few games at LT. They must really trust that guy to protect Brady's blindside. I think this guy has some potential with those measurables, and to be from a small school and stand out like he has, he has to be doing a pretty damn good job IMO. I had a hard time using a first rounder on one of the OTs like Trent Williams, when you got guys who can be pro bowlers at skill positions where we need infusions of talent, so the next best thing is using the 2nd rounder on a guy with a lot of potential right? If we can coach him up I don't see why he can't play RT for a long time for us, and it's not like you should use a first rounder pick on a right tackle anyways, except if the guy is just going to play RT until he learns to play LT.

3rd rounder: Brian Jackson, CB Oklahoma- He's 6'1'' and 200 LBs, he's a big physical corner who matches up well with the guys we play in the division like Fitz/Boldin/Housh. He's also gotten pretty good at making plays, he has 4 picks and 7 pass break ups this year. He does a good job against the smaller slot guys too, he shut down Jordan Shipley when they played Texas. I saw him have a few passes broken up against Oklahoma State a week or 2 ago also, and was impressed with him again. I think he'd help us out, and we need help in the secondary.

Another guy to look out for is Marquis Johnson from Bama, but he has a poor 40 time according to draftcountdown. At the same time, he's had a hell of a lot of passes defensed this year. I couldn't get a good read on what round he'd be projected to go in, I need to pay attention to him when Bama plays Texas in a month for the championship.

4th round pick: Jermaine Cunningham, DE/OLB Florida: He probably won't fall this far to tell you the truth, I don't have a really good read on where some of these later round guys are going to go. He might be a 3rd or 2nd rounder. But he says some sacks in the last few years, 7 this year, and he runs a 4.7 which isn't too bad for a guy that weighs 250 and is a senior DE. I think he probably has some athleticism to translate to OLB in our defense. He has consistently gotten some sacks though, 5 in his soph year, 6 as a junior, and 7 so far as a senior. He has 10 TFLs in each of the last 2 years.

I hate picking an OLB this late but Spiller IMO is too good to pass up on in the first, I like Earl Thomas a whole lot and our secondary needs help at that spot and we need a ball hawk. I like Veldheer since he seems like the most athletically gifted OT at that spot and a good project. Then I like Jackson a whole lot since he's one of the players I've really started paying attention too and he's a big corner when we have a bunch of small corners.

Another guy to watch out for here is George Selvie, he has a helluva lot of TFLs but his sack totals have dipped each of the last 2 years, he had 14 as a soph, then 5 as a junior dealing with a sprained ankle, then 3 this year. He's still gotten a lot of TFLs, but he's been overshadowed by his teammate Jason Pierre-Paul

5th round: Emmanuel Sanders, WR Southern Methodist University: Again I'm probably going to get killed on here for this pick. None of you know who the guy is though, and I haven't really seen him play either. But he has good stats, 1200 yards, 6 TDs, and his team is going to a bowl game. He's got speed, he's a smaller WR at like 5'11'', he has 33 career touchdowns, and a lot of you guys never heard of a guy like Johnny Knox on the Bears but he was another small guy from a small college(if i remember correctly) who had speed and got picked in the middle of the draft and has had a good rookie year. I'm not sure on this pick either but I'm going to try to watch his bowl game and get a good idea of what he can do.

6th round: Antonio Coleman, DE/OLB, Auburn: I'm actually not sure we could get him here, I'd probably should've put him higher up here. But he has 9 sacks, this year, he's not the fastest guy, but he's 6'3'' and 260 so atleast he has some size. He reminds me a bit of Adalius Thomas or Terrell Suggs. He's not the most athletic guy, but he's decent and if he's there in the 6th(he probably won't be) there's no reason not to take a shot on a good pass rusher.

7th round: Chris Marinelli, OG Stanford: I don't know if he'll be here or not, it's hard to get a ranking on OLineman so I'm just going on where NFL draftcountdown has him ranked, and that's in the middle of the OGs. I do know though, that this guy has been on a good oline, so with a 7th rounder there's no real point in not taking a shot on him. Whatever

FA:
Steve Neal: OG, NE Pats-We need this guy. ProFootballFocus.com rates him as their best OLineman, he's a FA with more than 6 years of service so even if we go to an uncapped year he's still a FA and NE usually doesn't spend big on offensive lineman. They have a history of letting these guys go. Last year the NY Jets paid big for Faneca from Pittsburgh, and even though they haven't been great as a team their OLine has gotten a whole lot better. Scotty may have said you can get OGs off the trash heap and have them play well, but we all have found out that's truth and a good interior OLine is worth their weight in gold, which is why we should give Neal plenty of it.

Tony Pashos: OT, SF-Yeah I know he got injured. But he's better than Snyder, and he's a good back up in a worst case scenario, and he's likely to be better than whatever rookie we get. Sign him to a 2 year deal with a team option for a 3rd.

Franchise Tag Abrayo Franklin: NT, SF- Well, he's probably going to try to get paid. It's rare that you find a good 3-4 NT, and other teams running the 3-4 know that. At the same time his work ethic was a little questionable, his first year and a half with us he was kind of lazy, and now you wonder if it's a contract year type of thing. Well lets make him prove that it wasn't. Nobody is going to give up the 2 picks required for him, and at the same time he's going to be playing for another contract. I doubt he complains about the high one year salary.
Barry Sims: LT, SF: Give him a one year deal, he's a good back up LT.

let go:

Roman: We don't need an old FS who gets owned and doesn't get picks like Roman.
Bly: He's not the same guy he used to be, he's small, and whenever he gets a pick in his hands he seems to drop it.
Walt Harris: He should retire IMO, I have my doubts about a 35(will be 36 I think) year old CB coming back off of ACL surgery.
Isaac Bruce: He should retire.
Arnaz Battle: He's getting older, he doesn't offer a mismatch, his hands aren't that great, he's not as talented as our other WRs, he can't return punts or kicks well, he's pretty much outlived his usefullness.

This is my first mock this year and I haven't watch as much college football as I have in the past so don't kill me too much lol. But I do want some constructive criticism since this is my first mock this year and it's certainly not going to be my last, so help me get a better idea of where some of these guys may go, etc.

[ Edited by WillistheWall on Dec 9, 2009 at 03:30:11 ]

Positionally speaking, you tend to put off pass rush until the mid-rounds, which I disagree with tremendously.

Plus I don't think your safety pick in the first is good value. You could easily trade down and select him - increasing the # of picks while limiting liability in salary for the specific player.

Good free agent pick up in Neal. Spiller is always good in my book.

I think having safety and a playmaker is more important than a pass rusher right now, The 49ers are getting enough pressure with the front 7 right now. The secondary only has 10 percent of the Sacks so far in the season and the 49ers are ranked 7th in the league in sacks. Pressure is coming from the right places. pass rush should be addressed but its not a huge priority to bring in a top flight pass rusher.

RB are dime in a dozen I don't think niners will use their 1st round picks on a RB. Probably later rounds.

Not to bad if we could get all of them.

Originally posted by GEEK:
Positionally speaking, you tend to put off pass rush until the mid-rounds, which I disagree with tremendously.

Plus I don't think your safety pick in the first is good value. You could easily trade down and select him - increasing the # of picks while limiting liability in salary for the specific player.

Good free agent pick up in Neal. Spiller is always good in my book.

See I didn't want to put off the pass rush until the mid rounds, but then in every round there was someone I liked better than a potential OLB at that same position. You can say I could trade back for Earl Thomas, and ideally that's what I would do if I knew how the draft order was going to shake out at the end of the season and who wants what player, etc. But to be honest with you I think this is a guy who has had 8 picks this year, and he's a redshirt sophomore, and he's a good athlete, and I think he's going to rise a whole lot after the season gets done. The guy is a player. Other people pick Taylor Mays at the same spot, and Thomas is better and younger than him, so it's a reasonable pick IMO.

Also with the pick of Spiller I wondered whether I should/could deal Gore for a 1st round pick and then sign Bush and have a Bush/Spiller backfield. I wasn't too sure though.

Neal is the guy I really want to see us sign this offseason. ProFootballFocus.com rates him as the Pats best OLineman and one of the best guards in the league.

Originally posted by WillistheWall:

Originally posted by GEEK:
Positionally speaking, you tend to put off pass rush until the mid-rounds, which I disagree with tremendously.

Plus I don't think your safety pick in the first is good value. You could easily trade down and select him - increasing the # of picks while limiting liability in salary for the specific player.

Good free agent pick up in Neal. Spiller is always good in my book.

See I didn't want to put off the pass rush until the mid rounds, but then in every round there was someone I liked better than a potential OLB at that same position. You can say I could trade back for Earl Thomas, and ideally that's what I would do if I knew how the draft order was going to shake out at the end of the season and who wants what player, etc. But to be honest with you I think this is a guy who has had 8 picks this year, and he's a redshirt sophomore, and he's a good athlete, and I think he's going to rise a whole lot after the season gets done. The guy is a player. Other people pick Taylor Mays at the same spot, and Thomas is better and younger than him, so it's a reasonable pick IMO.

Also with the pick of Spiller I wondered whether I should/could deal Gore for a 1st round pick and then sign Bush and have a Bush/Spiller backfield. I wasn't too sure though.

Neal is the guy I really want to see us sign this offseason. ProFootballFocus.com rates him as the Pats best OLineman and one of the best guards in the league.

I don't think Neal or Mankins hits the free agency market. But imo it' sjust to hard to try these mocks before free agency takes place or at least til we know who is on the market. But I do agree with GEEK gotta take a flyer on a pass rush earlier.

Originally posted by lamontb:

Originally posted by WillistheWall:

Originally posted by GEEK:
Positionally speaking, you tend to put off pass rush until the mid-rounds, which I disagree with tremendously.

Plus I don't think your safety pick in the first is good value. You could easily trade down and select him - increasing the # of picks while limiting liability in salary for the specific player.

Good free agent pick up in Neal. Spiller is always good in my book.

See I didn't want to put off the pass rush until the mid rounds, but then in every round there was someone I liked better than a potential OLB at that same position. You can say I could trade back for Earl Thomas, and ideally that's what I would do if I knew how the draft order was going to shake out at the end of the season and who wants what player, etc. But to be honest with you I think this is a guy who has had 8 picks this year, and he's a redshirt sophomore, and he's a good athlete, and I think he's going to rise a whole lot after the season gets done. The guy is a player. Other people pick Taylor Mays at the same spot, and Thomas is better and younger than him, so it's a reasonable pick IMO.

Also with the pick of Spiller I wondered whether I should/could deal Gore for a 1st round pick and then sign Bush and have a Bush/Spiller backfield. I wasn't too sure though.

Neal is the guy I really want to see us sign this offseason. ProFootballFocus.com rates him as the Pats best OLineman and one of the best guards in the league.

I don't think Neal or Mankins hits the free agency market. But imo it' sjust to hard to try these mocks before free agency takes place or at least til we know who is on the market. But I do agree with GEEK gotta take a flyer on a pass rush earlier.

Yeah it is hard before FA. We don't really know who is going to be out there. I'm guessing Neal will though, they don't spend big on their own FA. Just look at when they let Samuel leave. They aren't going to spend big on a 30 year old guard IMO. It just doesn't seem very Belichickian.