San Francisco 49ers 2021 NFL Draft: Niners’ remaining picks going into Day 3
The San Francisco 49ers selected two offensive players with their first two picks in the 2021 NFL Draft.
It was no secret that after the trade, the Niners would take a QB to get the number 3 among the Miami Dolphins. Head Coach Kyle Shanahan and General Manager John Lynch selected North Dakota State’s Trey Lance to be the QB of the Future Franchise.
San Francisco originally held number 43 overall but struck a deal with the Las Vegas Raiders to move five spots back to 48th, costing them the opportunity to draw cornerback Asante Samuel Jr., who finished a 47th. Place went to Los Angeles chargers.
The 49ers took advantage of the selection to improve the inside of the offensive line by going with Notre Banks guard Aaron Banks.
Here’s Pro Football Focus’s report on banks:
Aaron Banks was heavily recruited as a four-star offensive lineman at El Cerrito High School, California. He has received more than 30 scholarship offers including Notre Dame, Michigan, Oregon, Arizona, and Arizona State. After his senior season in 2016, he was honored several times in the first team and paved the way for an offense against El Cerrito that averaged 29.4 points per game.
Banks broke into the Irish starting line-up in the middle of the 2018 season and has been a mainstay of the Left Guard ever since. He’s a big boy who will only be on watch at the NFL level despite being Notre Dame’s emergency device. While he’s had quality pass protection for three years, he doesn’t have the foot speed or anchor to believe it will stay that way at the NFL level. Even with his size, you rarely see him bringing guys from the frontier. I struggle to call someone with a cap, but as tech-savvy Banks is already, I’m not sure where he’s going from here.
Lynch then decided it was time to act. The Niners sent their own fourth round picks, as well as the fourth round picks they received from the Raiders, to the Los Angeles Rams for the 88th pick.
San Francisco decided to bolster its backcourt by picking the state of Ohio, which returned Trey Sermon.
Sermon played three seasons in Oklahoma, racing 339 times for 2,076 yards (6.1 ypc) and 22 TDs
36 catches for 391 yards 3 TDs
In the state of Ohio in 2020
116 carries 12 TDs for 870 (7.5 ypc) yards
12 catches for 95 meters
– Jennifer Lee Chan (@jenniferleechan) May 1, 2021
Lynch and Shanahan eventually decided to target secondary school with their compensatory selection at 102nd place. The 49ers went with Michigan cornerback Ambry Thomas.
Here is the Draft Network’s scouting report on Thomas:
Ambry Thomas projects as a potential corner kick for an NFL franchise. You certainly wish you had the chance to watch Thomas’ game in 2020, but the Michigan product was disabled prior to the start of the season due to the uncertainties surrounding the Big Ten season and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Thomas has been most effective at reporting in the press and interrupting route releases in the contact window – he’s a physical gamer who does well getting his hands on the receiver and upsetting the timing of patterns. Thomas also flashes quite strongly in flat spaces as a flat defender in the zone coverage; shows a good awareness of games that develop underneath to drive back to football. The upper limit of Thomas in the draft depends directly on how comfortable the teams are with a “Redshirt” season 2020 and how he stands on his tape from the previous year.
Here is a full list of the 49ers’ draft picks:
- Round 1, Selection 3: North Dakota State QB Trey Lance
- Round 2, Selection 48: Notre Dame is guarding Aaron Banks
- Round 3, Pick 88 (via Rams) Ohio State RB Trey Sermon
- Round 3, pick 102 (comp pick) Michigan CB Ambry Thomas
- Round 5, pick 155
- Round 5, pick 172 (via New Orleans, Kwon Alexander Handel)
- Round 5, Pick 180 (Comp Pick)
- Round 6, selection 193
The 49ers are supposed to do four picks on Saturday. That could certainly change as we usually see a lot of movement on day 3.
What remaining players would you like to see San Francisco target in Rounds 4-7?
