Kurtenbach: The 49ers’ first-round draft pick should be their easiest

SANTA CLARA The ers cannot have the home-run draft they need without nailing their first-round pick scheduled to be No on Thursday The plan is to take a defensive lineman An interior athlete is preferable but an end will work too Of unit as John Lynch mentioned Tuesday a draft breaks out and you never know what s going to happen However the way draft boards seem to be shaking out suggests that things couldn t be working out better for the ers If San Francisco stays at No I have every indication that they ll be able to select a defensive lineman who can make an immediate substantial impact on the band in and beyond And they won t have to stretch or reach to do it either Related Articles ers mailbag Here is my starting to open boom-or-bust NFL Draft ers McCaffrey welcomes the skeptics after injury-riddled season What time is the ers first pick in the NFL Draft Purdy Warner among ers reuniting as Kittle misses offseason undertaking start San Jose State s Nick Nash triple crown or not a likely Day NFL draft pick I wish I could give you a firm prediction of who the ers pick will be because I can t reliably tell you what the teams preceding the Niners will do Do the Raiders even know what they will do at No But I know enough to say that the Niners should be sitting pretty There s no need for this squad to agreement up nor should they get cute and exchange down That s because the Niners could land either the No participant on my draft board the top defensive tackle or the defensive tackle with the highest ceiling in this class Any one of the three would be a triumph of a pick The biggest win would be landing Georgia defensive end Mykel Williams In a draft class that I have determined to be underwhelming I keep finding new procedures to be amazed by Williams Let me tell you about my favorite contest during the last meager months I would open up the All- cut-ups of Williams pick a random match against a top opponent and then scroll to a random part of the challenge No rhyme or reason just chance And then I d watch Williams win his rep Every Single Time You end up struggling when you project too much These guys have had ample time Lynch announced At particular point the production doesn t lie And that folks is why you cross Texas A M defensive tackle and workout warrior Shemar Stewart off your list of possibilities for the Niners at No He s No on my board Williams is my No as in I d take him over Travis Hunter You don t have to agree with me now but you ll come around when he s in the NFL So for him to possibly be available at No overall to the Niners would be downright malpractice from other teams Then again general malpractice is why so a great number of of the top- teams are consistently picking early If this first round didn t appear to be developing the Niners way I would have suggested that San Francisco arrangement up to draft Williams But seeing as it is they can take the menace of standing pat Related Articles I ve spent five months watching NFL Draft Prospects Here are my favorite players Kurtenbach The ers are all-in on the worst NFL Draft in a decade Jed York is gaslighting ers fans on his band s lack of spending Kurtenbach The ers will have to pay for Brandon Aiyuk s deal one way or another The ers think they re on the Rams plan They re really following the Cowboys That s because if Williams isn t available one or both of my top two defensive tackles Michigan s Mason Graham No and Ole Miss Walter Nolen No will be available to San Francisco Graham has been discussed as a top-five lock for the last inadequate months but that was groupthink at its finest No one seemed to check with the teams in the top five about picking him and I don t get the impression from my conversations that they will After that juncture the slip is on the second half of the top is better set at defensive tackle It s not much of a fall from No to No but it will feel substantial on Thursday for those who follow national I m-just-guessing mock drafts For the Niners it would bring the highest-floor defensive tackle no flash all crash down to them Seeing as this club is presently planning on starting Jordan Elliott and Evan Anderson at defensive tackle with a lawn chair and Kevin Givens as backups taking a technician with exceptional play balance that inspires confidence that he can give you starter reps in Week would be manna from heaven Or the Niners could take Nolen who will almost certainly be available at No There has been a lot of talk about Nolen s temperament and off-the-field vibes this draft cycle Did he act a bit big-time at Ole Miss I can corroborate that Then again he was making more than a large number of of the group s assistant coaches the power dynamic in college sports is strange these days While the players are paid a lot more in the NFL the power dynamic between coaches and players is a lot healthier You don t listen you don t play I suspect Nolen understands that he is by all accounts a sharp guy I haven t heard nearly enough about Nolen s on-the-field play in the last meager weeks and months It s exceptional He s the prototype -technique in a one-gap system like the ers run He s such an obvious fit that part of the character smearing of Nolen feels like an intentional smokescreen from the Philadelphia Eagles who because they run a similar scheme no doubt covet him as well I d be willing to bet big on Nolen who has the possible to be everything the ers thought they were getting in Javon Hargrave when they signed him to a four-year million contract in He can also be more There s a reason Ole Miss paid him all that money And though he might not be a plug-and-play starter for Week because of chosen pad-level concerns he d be a great pick at No So who is it going to be The do-it-all defensive lineman who can explode into the backfield set the edge play inside and be a perfect -technique prospect across from Nick Bosa The ready-for-the-NFL bowling ball defensive tackle who could fall to No Or do you go for the defensive tackle with crazy explosion who will have at least a scant people in the facility standing on the table If the Niners are lucky they ll have all three available to select Even picking between two would be a win But one of the three will be there and that has to be at the very least comforting to a crew that cannot miss with this pick Yes for the ers their first-round pick might be the easiest to make Rarely do things work out so well for a company in the middle of the first round Of class there s the rest of the draft and six other starter-caliber players who need to be picked That of subject won t be as easy But at least the Niners will be off to a good start