While the 49ers are focused heavily on Super Bowl LIV, they’re not far from turning their sights toward the 2020 NFL draft. General manager John Lynch and members of the 49ers’ front office were in Mobile, Ala. during the Super Bowl Bye week to check out practices and get a head start on prospect evaluation.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. released his first mock of the draft season and stuck with an emerging trend in pre-draft analysis of the 49ers. He has San Francisco selecting LSU safety Grant Delpit with the No. 31 overall pick.
Delpit is massive at 6-3, 200 pounds, which makes him big enough to play in the box, but he’s athletic enough to play in coverage on the back end. Across three seasons for the Tigers, Delpit posted 199 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 7.0 sacks, eight interceptions and 24 pass breakups.
Secondary helps seems to be the theme for San Francisco in early mock drafts. The emergence of offensive tackles Justin Skule and Daniel Brunskill as quality depth and possible starters along the offensive line moved around some of the prioritization of draft needs for the 49ers.
If Jimmie Ward exits in free agency, safety becomes an immediate need that the 49ers would probably aim to address early in the draft. However, the prospect of a trade back remains since San Francisco doesn’t own a pick in Rounds 2, 3 or 4.
Getting a top-end safety that can plug in and start right away if Ward leaves is probably the right call if the 49ers do use their first-round pick, and Delpit might be a great value that late in the draft.