Savvy 1st round places 49ers in good position
It’s always fun to rip the local team’s top draft pick, so in that respect, Thursday night’s NFL draft was a big disappointment.
The 49ers used their first pick to select a very good defensive tackle, Javon Kinlaw from South Carolina.
The 49ers were slotted at No. 13, but traded down one spot, with Tampa Bay, and got the best defensive player available, assuming there are no other Bosa brothers out there somewhere.
This was one of the most important drafts in 49ers history. The past several years, at least, the 49ers were drafting to try to dig the club out of a dumpster and into a contender. This time, they were drafting to keep from screwing up their very precious window as a Super Bowl contender.
Whiff on their firstround pick and the 49ers could blow their dream of converting last season’s emergence as an elite team into something real and lasting.
To avoid that tragedy, they went allin on the
defensive line, which was the key to their success last season, but needed help.
The 49ers also traded up late in the round, from No. 31 to No. 25, and took Arizona State wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who has Inspector Gadget arms — an 81inch wingspan on a receiver who stands 72 inches tall.
What’s not to like about that night’s work by general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan, who spent the rest of his night designing 15 new alleyoop pass plays for Aiyuk?
The Raiders, meanwhile, picked in the No. 12 spot and drafted Alabama wide receiver Henry Ruggs III, the best available basketball player. In high school, he dunked up a storm, so the Raiders are all set if they are tied for a final playoff spot and the tiebreaker is a dunkoff.
It was all part of an inspiring and uplifting night, although probably not quite as inspiring and uplifting as ESPN and the
NFL tried to convince us it was. ESPN studio host Trey Wingo said this draft would provide for America “the hope that is missing.”
The league and the network suffered multiple rotatorcuff injuries from patting themselves on the back, but that’s kind of what they do best.
As if 32 NFL teams, each drafting a young man who may or may not pan out, would make us all forget that people all over the world are dying and starving and going broke.
So the draft was not as uplifting as a vaccine discovery, say, but it did provide a tiny diversion and get football fans hyped up for a season that, with the help of a few miracles, actually might take place.
That said, the 49ers did what you’re supposed to do in the first round. They got better. Kinlaw should slip into the vacancy left by the 49ers trading DeForest Buckner. In theory, that gives the 49ers the best defensive line in football again. Playing alongside Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead and Dee Ford, Kinlaw won’t get doubleteamed.
This takes pressure off quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers’ D line will tell Jimmy G, “Just give us a field goal, we’ll take care of the rest.”
It was a defining moment for Lynch, who has taken risks in the first round — Reuben Foster (emotional issues) and Bosa (questions of durability and socialmedia red flags) — but this time played it relatively safe and sane.
There’s no free lunch. Kinlaw has miles to go before he can be considered a oneforone swap with Buckner. And Kinlaw has knee issues, both of them showing wear and tear, along with a history of hip and back injuries. Hey, it’s football.
But he’s a shade over 6foot5, weighs 324 pounds and has, as they say, long arms and levers, which is something the 49ers and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh like.
Another positive is Kinlaw’s attitude. He already has expressed admiration for the 49ers and their team spirit, and he’ll get plenty of mentoring from his fellow linemen.
He also seems like a highcharacter guy, having survived times when, splitting time between his parents in Washington, D.C., and Goose Creek, S.C., he was homeless.
So: Entitled and spoiled? Not likely.
The 49ers thrived on night one of the draft, which was a challenging draft for the league’s decisionmakers. Unable to conduct the usual inperson interviews and teamvisit workouts, the NFL general managers had to base their decisions on how well guys play football.
For the 49ers, potentially this is a draft that gives some continuity and momentum to what they’ve been building since Shanahan and Lynch arrived three years ago.
This draft, along with a vaccine, could do wonders for the 49ers’ 2020 season.