Mock Twist: 49ers take the best player at their position first – Home

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Getty George Kittle during the NFC divisional round game in Green Bay on January 22, 2022.

In 15 days, the San Francisco 49ers will finally have a chance to address their biggest NFL Draft need.

By now, we’ve heard that the 49ers need a cornerback, a power hitter, an interior lineman or a wide receiver. The tight end was considered an afterthought among the four ranked No. 61, especially with All-Pro George Kittle taking his place and Ross Dwelley resigning during the offseason.

Or isn’t tight end an afterthought?

On Wednesday, April 13, Doug Farrar of USA Today’s Touchdown Wire came up with this latest mock twist in the draft: The 49ers select who is considered the best prospect at their position — who plays tight end.

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The last name attached to the 49ers

With the 61st pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, the 49ers are now up for pick: Trey McBride, TE, Colorado State.

That’s right, the No. 1 tight end prospect by D. Orlando Ledbetter of The Atlanta Constitution-Journal on Thursday, April 14. And before Ledbetter, Pro Football Network placed the CSU Rams star atop the tight end board on April 6. .

There is more. The NFL Draft Buzz website has McBride ranked first in the tight end class. Mark Schofield of USA Today’s Touchdown Wire has the standout Mountain West Conference as the leader in his spot.

Lastly, Sports Illustrated’s Kevin Hanson predicted on March 29 that McBride would be the first pick in his job.

But now, the 6-foot-3, 249-pound McBride is tagged as a potential future 49er.

Why McBride is coveted

Even in this evolution of the position from the recent success established by Kittle, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce, the Las Vegas Raiders’ Darren Waller and the odd attributes Kyle Pitts displayed before becoming a top-five pick in 2021 for the Atlanta Falcons. , the tight end class of 2022 isn’t particularly strong.

After all, McBride is listed as a second-round talent. And outside of McBride, there are mocks that don’t include other highly touted prospects like Coastal Carolina’s Isaiah Likely and Ohio State’s Jeremy Ruckert in the first round.

But there are numerous reasons why McBride is so coveted for this TE class.

For starters, he’s a winner of the John Mackey Award, which honors the nation’s best tight end in college football.

McBride then displayed a trait that makes NFL teams a tight end: consistently making tough, contested catches, which McBride pulled off very well.

And there are leading experts on the NFL Draft who are excited about McBride. Lance Zierlein of nfl.com said McBride has the top three player attributes for his position.

“Two-way tight end with the size, strength and ball skills to help impact games in the line and in space,” was the evaluation of the first sentence Zierlein wrote in his analysis. Zierlein added that a unanimous personnel director for an NFC team told him that McBride is a “good Y/U hybrid tight end. I think he’s a really good TE2 and a TE1 for some teams.”

Meanwhile, Nate Tice of Bleacher Report called McBride a second-round talent but a potential impact player in his evaluation.

And while ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has UCLA’s Greg Dulcich up against McBride at the No. 63 overall Cincinnati Bengals in his latest mock draft, Kiper had this to say about the No. 64 CSU Rams star:

“McBride is more advanced as a pass catcher than Dulcich, which is what the Broncos need with new quarterback Russell Wilson. With Noah Fant in Seattle, there are targets available. McBride had 90 catches for 1,121 yards last season; he could stretch the seams in Denver,” Kiper wrote.

But now, the mock draft of Touchdown Wire has McBride getting ahead of Dulcich, and giving the 49ers a previously unthought-of perspective through constant talk of position needs outside of the tight end.

Play Trey McBride || Colorado State Rams tight end || 2021 Senior Season Highlights Trey McBride 2021 Senior Season Highlights. 90 receptions, 1,121 receiving yards, 1 receiving touchdown, 1 fake punt touchdown. We do not own the copyright to this video, it belongs to ESPN and its affiliates. All the things shown in the video also have no intention of copying, stealing or any kind of things like… 2021-12-05T03:10:59Z

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