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Mykel Williams (#13) and Jalon Walker (#11) of the Georgia Bulldogs.
The San Francisco 49ers are officially in a new era. In what was a massive offseason exodus, the 49ers saw a number of key players from their two Super Bowl teams leave, with players such as Dre Greenlaw, Deebo Samuel and Talanoa Hufanga all departing these last couple of months.
And while all of these players left, the franchise believes that their Super Bowl window is still open. So it is no surprise that during the draft, the Niners were aggressive in making sure that they found viable pieces that can contribute from the jump and provide the team with strong production to make up for their losses.
Bringing back defensive coordinator, Robert Saleh, the 49ers were very aggressive when it came to revamping their defense, drafting a defensive player with their first five picks. And even though the Niners did not invest too much on the offense, arguably the team’s biggest strength during their 2023 Super Bowl run, Pro Football Talk analyst Chris Simms believes that the franchise dominated the draft.
Headlining the 49ers’ draft was Mykel Williams, an edge rusher out of Georgia who was the 11th overall pick. In day two, the Niners continued to bolster their defensive line, selecting defensive tackle Alfred Collins out of Texas followed by the selection of linebacker Nick Martin out of Oklahoma State and Upton Stout out of Western Kentucky.
The rest of the draft saw the Niners take a swing on prospects from both sides of the ball, with the team’s first offensive player coming in round four when they selected wide receiver Jordan Watkins out of Ole Miss. While none of these players have yet taken a snap yet, there is high confidence from Simms that these guys will become stars.
A Draft Weekend Win
If there was any season in which the 49ers needed to have a fantastic draft, it was this one. With the amount of starters and/or starting caliber players that they lost, replacing those players with rookies who could potentially start on day one was a must. But one thing that really caught Simms’ eye was how the Niners stuck to their identity when drafting.
“I thought the San Francisco 49ers absolutely crushed the draft,” Simms told Mike Florio on Pro Football Talk Live. “They got back to their roots. This is what they were. This is what [head coach Kyle Shanahan] and [president of football operations and general manager John Lynch] took over. This is how the team was formed. A bunch of badasses on the defensive side of the ball. Let’s accumulate that, let’s kick the crap out of everybody else.”
“They’ll get over to the offensive side of the ball in a year,” Simms added. “But Shanahan is awesome, he can cover some holes over there with how he coaches.”
Defense overall was a massive issue for the 49ers last season, particularly takeaways and run defense, with the team coming in ranked at No. 29 in points allowed. But with the emphasis that the team put in the draft, it is clear that the 49ers want to go back to being a defense-first team.
Early Picks Get the Rave
Simms spoke on the 49ers draft as a whole and loved how it turned out for them overall. But it was the picks that the franchise made early in the weekend that had Simms raving to Florio, even going as far as to single out some select individuals.
“Mykel Williams, big badass MOFO off the edge from Georgia to start,” Simms said. “Alfred Collins, big bad ass MOFO from Texas in the middle of the defense. Nick Martin, our kind of guy that we talk about with the 49ers – linebacker, a little smaller, kamikaze, throws his body around everywhere. CJ West, a great D-tackle from Indiana, who’s really good, undersized, disrupt-the-play kind of guy.”
Simms’ stance on the 49ers draft is the polar opposite of what others think, with some outlets such as Pro Football Focus giving the 49ers a very low draft grade of a D. When it came time for PFF to evaluate why they gave the 49ers that grade, they believed that the 49ers reached on a lot of their prospects. For example, Mykel Williams was ranked as the 38th best prospect by PFF while Martin, the 75th overall pick, was ranked in the 300s.
It is entirely possible that this draft ends up being a massive swing and miss for the franchise, but it could also turn out to be a major success. Only time will tell if they were successful in finding sustainable talent for the future.
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