We decided to get in on the mock draft action and do a seven-round mock that we cut up by round. Chances are the 49ers make some trades and don’t use all 11 of their scheduled selections, but for our purposes we stuck with the 11 picks to get a feel for what types of players San Francisco might target in which round. We used the Pro Football Focus mock draft simulator to execute the mock, and made thee picks for the 49ers. Here’s the third round:
The 49ers are in a place to start the draft where they don’t necessarily need to target a specific need. If a good player slides to them, they have the roster flexibility to make a pick at virtually any position.
However, we stuck mostly to their top needs in the first three picks with an offensive tackle, a defensive back and a cornerback. The latter two picks sound redundant, but they’re very different players who’ll fill different roles that could both be improved for the 49ers.
It stands to reason they could go with a tight end or edge rusher early on, especially if they make a trade up the board. For now we stuck to the needs since some good players at those positions fell to the back of Round 3: