2023 NFL draft thread

[Forge]

4 minutes ago, NinerNation21 said:

I just looked back at the pre-draft official 30 visits since 2017 to see how many we've drafted. Here's the breakdown:

• 2017: 3 (Kittle, Foster, and Witherspoon)
• 2018: 2 (Warner and Pettis)
• 2019: 4 (Bosa, Deebo, Hurd, and Tim Harris)
• 2020: 0 
• 2021: 3 (Lance, Lenoir, and Sermon)
• 2022: 5 (Jackson, Burford, Davis, TDP, and Gray)

It seems like we take a couple of guys we meet with each year with the exception of 2020. Could be the gamesmanship you're talking about with 2020. We traded back into the 1st to grab Aiyuk without even meeting him and same goes for Kinlaw. 

It's kind of hard to find a pattern between the years with the exception that we seem to meet with every guy we take in the 3rd round and we've only drafted one guy in the second that we did not meet with (Banks). We've drafted 7 guys in the 1st round but only met with 2 of them. 

Looking at the 2021 draft class, we met with 5 of the 9 guys we drafted and didn't have a pick in the top 50. With this year being similar, maybe we go the same route?

 

There weren't any top 30 visits in 2020 due to covid. Pretty sure all the visits conducted that year were standard virtual meetings, combine, etc. 

Also, fwiw, I'm almost positive that  Greenlaw had a top 30 visit scheduled as well, but it was cancelled at the last moment. But they did have one on the books for 2019. 

[GW21]

4 minutes ago, NinerNation21 said:

I just looked back at the pre-draft official 30 visits since 2017 to see how many we've drafted. Here's the breakdown:

• 2017: 3 (Kittle, Foster, and Witherspoon)
• 2018: 2 (Warner and Pettis)
• 2019: 4 (Bosa, Deebo, Hurd, and Tim Harris)
• 2020: 0 
• 2021: 3 (Lance, Lenoir, and Sermon)
• 2022: 5 (Jackson, Burford, Davis, TDP, and Gray)

It seems like we take a couple of guys we meet with each year with the exception of 2020. Could be the gamesmanship you're talking about with 2020. We traded back into the 1st to grab Aiyuk without even meeting him and same goes for Kinlaw. 

It's kind of hard to find a pattern between the years with the exception that we seem to meet with every guy we take in the 3rd round and we've only drafted one guy in the second that we did not meet with (Banks). We've drafted 7 guys in the 1st round but only met with 2 of them. 

Looking at the 2022 draft class, we met with 5 of the 9 guys we drafted and didn't have a pick in the top 50. With this year being similar, maybe we go the same route?

 

I'm pretty impressed at how quickly you found all of this lol. Nice work! 

Idk I just keep hearing (not just here, but multiple places) about how we always draft the guys we've had in on 30 visits, which I don't think is the end-all-be-all. Like @Forge said, it's more of a guide.  

[NinerNation21]

7 minutes ago, Forge said:

There weren't any top 30 visits in 2020 due to covid. Pretty sure all the visits conducted that year were standard virtual meetings, combine, etc. 

Also, fwiw, I'm almost positive that  Greenlaw had a top 30 visit scheduled as well, but it was cancelled at the last moment. But they did have one on the books for 2019. 

This is true, but it's strange that none of the guys drafted had virtual meetings with the 49ers. I do think there was some gamesmanship that year as we met with Lamb and Jefferson and showed interest in Jeudy but were radio-silent on Aiyuk. 

5 minutes ago, GW21 said:

I'm pretty impressed at how quickly you found all of this lol. Nice work! 

Idk I just keep hearing (not just here, but multiple places) about how we always draft the guys we've had in on 30 visits, which I don't think is the end-all-be-all. Like @Forge said, it's more of a guide.  

It seems like they prefer to meet with guys they're going to be spending premium draft capital on and rely on scouting and conversations at the combine and pro days for the later-round picks. 

But, I do think this year could be different for two reasons. Our draft capital this year is similar to last year's and we met with the most prospects ever in the Lynch era, and Lynch mentioned that they're scouting from the bottom up and holding top 30 visits with guys who could be late-round picks or UDFAs, which makes me think we could see more draft picks coming from our top-30 visit list. 

Maybe I'm grasping at straws, but I truly hope we draft some of the guys we met with. There are a number of them I like. 

[Forge]

19 minutes ago, NinerNation21 said:

This is true, but it's strange that none of the guys drafted had virtual meetings with the 49ers. I do think there was some gamesmanship that year as we met with Lamb and Jefferson and showed interest in Jeudy but were radio-silent on Aiyuk. 

 We did have meetings with Aiyuk pre-draft,  but I'm not sure how much was known at the time or not, which may have been a byproduct of the wonky draft season. Some of that stuff did get out, but it was also much easier to hide it as well. Apparently he was dealing with Wes Welker a lot. 

We also met with Charlie Woerner in a predraft virtual, but that was disclosed after the fact. Sylvan Ahmed also met with the 49ers virtually; didn't draft him, but signed him as a udfa. 

[straighthate]

I think the visits are as much to disqualify guys as qualify them. I don’t think we can assume it means they’re interested. It may be that they have a particular concern they want to verify in person. Someone else that they don’t bring in could be that they’ve already got enough sources or tape to feel confident in their grade. So I don’t think a visit necessarily means they are more or less interested in a prospect. 

[NinerNation21]

47 minutes ago, straighthate said:

I think the visits are as much to disqualify guys as qualify them. I don’t think we can assume it means they’re interested. It may be that they have a particular concern they want to verify in person. Someone else that they don’t bring in could be that they’ve already got enough sources or tape to feel confident in their grade. So I don’t think a visit necessarily means they are more or less interested in a prospect. 

The ones I'm paying close attention to are guys we've met with multiple times as well as a top 30 visit. Braeden Daniels fits this as we've met with him 3 times. 

[49erscap]

Not sure if posted, but NFL.com's Chad Reuter's 7 round mock.

99- OT Blake Freehand, BYU

101- EDGE Zach Harrison, Ohio State

102- CB Jartavius Martin, Illinois

155- FB Hunter Luepke, North Dakota State

164- DB Marte Mapu, Sacramento State

173- OG Colby Sorsdal, William & Mary

216- TE Elijah Higgins, Stanford

222- RB Deneric Prince, Tulsa

247- EDGE Lonnie Phelps, Kansas

253- WR Jalen Moreno-Cooper, Fresno State

255- LB Ben VanSumeren, Michigan State

[Forge]

Man the Levis at two thing is really picking up steam

[Justone2]

40 minutes ago, Forge said:

Man the Levis at two thing is really picking up steam

Watch it be them just liking him at 12 or with a move-up from there instead of at 2.

[Melbourne 9er]

They've probably heard that Indy really wants him. Therefore Indy gives up 4 and a 2nd this and next year which leaves Houston to pick either Stroud or Anderson. If they are double bluffed and Stroud and Anderson go at 2&3 then they can just pick up Carter at 4 and the best remaining Edge at 12. No lose situation here for Houston.

[49erscap]

Another 7 round mock, Matt Miller of ESPN.

99- S Ji'Ayir Brown, Penn State

101- OT Carter Warren, Pittsburgh

102- TE Brenton Strange, Penn State

155- DE Lonnie Phelps, Kansas

164- ILB Owen Pappoe, Auburn

173- WR Andrei Isoivas, Princeton

216- FB Hunter Luepke, North Dakota State

222- WR Puka Nacua, BYU

247- CB Isaiah Bolden, Jackson State

253- C Alan Ali, TCU

255- S Trevon Flowers, Tennessee

[49erurtaza]

1 hour ago, 49erscap said:

216- FB Hunter Luepke, North Dakota State

Starting to see him mocked to us on a lot of mocks this week.

[straighthate]

How many truly open roster spots do we have? I know we do well in the end of the draft but I really think we should be active moving up for guys we want or trading out of this year if there’s no one we’re really excited about. Hate to see draft picks get cut because of roster space. 

[Justone2]

1 hour ago, straighthate said:

How many truly open roster spots do we have? I know we do well in the end of the draft but I really think we should be active moving up for guys we want or trading out of this year if there’s no one we’re really excited about. Hate to see draft picks get cut because of roster space. 

Truly open i say 5 or 6. But not locked in it can easily grow to 10-15. Especially on defense there is a whole lot of depth where i can easily see a late rounder beating someone for that spot. Like this class isn't great up top and we mostly have late late picks that won't really add much in a trade. Like we have a ton of picks but a majority is in the final three round and at that point you usually are better off throwing more darts and seeing who sticks.

[Forge]

1 hour ago, straighthate said:

How many truly open roster spots do we have? I know we do well in the end of the draft but I really think we should be active moving up for guys we want or trading out of this year if there’s no one we’re really excited about. Hate to see draft picks get cut because of roster space. 

The thing is, it's not a good draft and given that so many of our picks are late (5 of them  216 or later), I'm not sure what value they add in a trade. If you go by the trade value chart (not exact, obviously, but just a guide) giving up all 4 of our 7th round picks along with pick 99 gets us to.....pick 98 lol. I'd rather just throw more darts at the board.