7th round pick: Lawrence Okoye

http://fansided.com/2013/04/07/nfl-regional-combine-lawrence-okoye-british-discus-throw-puts-on-a-show/

Everyone's fascinated by his uber athleticism, but never played organized american football.
And yes, there's a lot of athletic marvels who never translated it to the field, ex Vernon Gholston and way back, Mike Mamula, but we have so many picks, why not?
We are going to London this year, so good publicity and he can show the team the pubs.

isn't there a thread already about this guy?

Visited with the 49ers recently. Given our affinity for versatile late-round projects, I'm not going to be surprised to hear his name called on Day 3.

I wouldn't mind this at all. Okoye is huge with freakish athletic ability, and he is still young. Give him a few years to learn from Tomsula and see what happens. He has huge upside, and with a 7th round pick you can take that chance

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2013/04/11/report-british-discus-star-okoye-visited-49ers/

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/11/lawrence-okoye-starts-making-the-rounds/

Draft Jesse Williams, Margus Hunt, Lawrence Okoye good for 49ers overseas marketing. not saying they will do it.

Must. Draft. Him.

http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/mobile/index.php?num=172290

Just spend a 5th or 6th rounder on him to guarantee you get him. It's not a big risk. At 21 years old he could sit for a couple of years. Start developing the best athlete's from other countries...

4th comp. Pull the trigger.

I say we take him at 31. Who cares if he's never played the sport before? He looks like he could play & that's the important thing.

Originally posted by Overkill:
I say we take him at 31. Who cares if he's never played the sport before? He looks like he could play & that's the important thing.

In all seriousness, it's a tough balance. Eye-popping measurables were the reason MadDog was so sure JJ Watt was special, and he was right. Now 10 teams regret passing on Watt.

Since Okoye has never played football before, you can't take him early, that much is obvious. But if he has once-in-a-generation measurables for a big man, he becomes the ultimate boom or bust pick. He'll never be a mediocre player. He'll become a star, or he'll never play a down. Different teams are going to evaluate that risk differently, so it will be interesting to see where he falls.

For the 49ers, I personally wouldn't object to taking him as early as our 4th comp pick. That would be after taking six safer players in the first four rounds, which is practically a whole draft for normal teams.

Yeah, I'd love to see us put one of those 6th or 7th round picks to good use. Nobody taken that late will even make our team. We could draft this kid and develop him on the PS.

Better teach him how to play special teams though, cause as soon as he shows promise we won't be able to keep a guy like that on our PS for long. He'd need a spot on the 53.

I doubt we draft him, but if he goes as an UDFA, we present an ideal situation for him, with Tomsula. We could stash him on the practice squad, too, because I think he realizes that his best chance to succeed would be consistency and continuity in coaching.

Funny that he mentions Brock Lesnar in that video ... does anyone remember Lesnar getting his one, and only, pre-season sack against us?

Originally posted by Overkill:
I say we take him at 31. Who cares if he's never played the sport before? He looks like he could play & that's the important thing.

I chuckled... ... but anyway, I wouldn't mind us spending a 6th on Okoye or Glenn Foster (Illinois). Take a low-risk chance on that kind of freakishness.