The biggest news on Monday so far has been the Houston Texans trading DeAndre Hopkins and a fourth-round pick in 2020 to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson and a fourth-round pick in 2021. The wisdom of that deal for the Texans has been hotly debated — well, actually not hotly debated as much as it’s been universally (and rightly) panned.
After that, the second-biggest news was unquestionably the San Francisco 49ers signing defensive lineman DeForest Buckner to a five-year, $85 million contract and then trading him to the Indianapolis Colts for Indy’s first-round pick, which is the 13th overall.
It’s an interesting move for the 49ers, who have Nick Bosa, Dee Ford, and Arik Armstead on their defensive line already. Buckner has been a relative multi-gap force since San Francisco selected him with the seventh pick in the 2016 draft, but given what the Colts gave up, this sets the defending NFC champions up nicely to restock an already stacked roster.
So, what should the 49ers do with that 13th overall pick? They also have the 31st overall pick, so they could ostensibly trade up even higher than 13 if they wanted to, but if they stand pat, there are all kinds of interesting options. Let’s look at positional need and draft possibility.