The 49ers’ time away from Round 1 of the NFL draft is scheduled to end next year. They’ve been out of the first round in the last two drafts after dealing their 2022 and 2023 first-round choices to Miami in the trade up to No. 3 in the 2021 draft.
Their return to the first round means a return to standard mock drafts. The last couple years the 49ers’ participation in a projection required the mock to go into the second or third round. We can welcome San Francisco back to the Round 1 mock fold with USA TODAY’s way-too-early edition of a 2024 mock.
In this version the 49ers pick 31st, one spot before the Chiefs, implying San Francisco returns to the Super Bowl and falls to the defending champs.
Their selection is an interesting one given how their draft went this year. USA TODAY’s Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz has the 49ers taking Clemson safety Andrew Mukuba with their first first-round pick in three years.
Via Middlehurst-Schwartz:
Having missed out on the first round the last two drafts due to the trade up for Trey Lance in 2021, San Francisco is set to return to Day 1 action next April. The ACC defensive rookie of the year in 2021, Mukuba is looking to bounce back this year after being hampered by multiple injuries last year, and has the overall athleticism to be a versatile coverage asset for the 49ers’ secondary.
It’s impossible to put anything in stone or take anything off the table a year away from a draft. However, Mukuba dealing with an injury and playing the same position as Ji’Ayir Brown, who San Francisco just traded up for, doesn’t bode well for this projection to stick.
Perhaps Brown doesn’t play well in his first season and leaves the 49ers in need of a free safety. For now though it appears he’s in line to be the long-term option at that spot, so it wouldn’t be a huge shock if safety isn’t on the team’s radar when they’re on the clock in the first round next April.
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