The 49ers will set out to bolster a Super Bowl-caliber roster on Friday when they’re due to make three picks in the third round of the NFL Draft, but their path through the NFC seems to have gotten tougher after the first day of picks in Kansas City.

San Francisco saw the quality of its biggest rival in the division and the team that beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game improve as both the Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles played impressive first rounds.

Seattle won gold with Pick 5 and 20th overall pick, landing Illinois State cornerback Devon Witherspoon and Ohio State wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Witherspoon gives the Seahawks a fluid and physical corner, characterized by excellent plays at catch point and an aggressive playstyle that the secondary in Seattle was arguably lacking. In his final season in Illinois, he had three interceptions and 14 pass breakups.

Smith-Njigba, on the other hand, is an exceptionally smooth and creative route-runner, excellent at tracking the ball and adding yards after catches. He’ll likely play mostly next-level slots, can form an impressive trio with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and help Geno Smith continue to thrive after his 2022 comeback Player of the Year season.

The Seahawks were swept by the 49ers in the regular season and routed in the San Francisco wild card round. Witherspoon improves Seattle’s chances of defending San Francisco’s star-studded offense, while Smith-Njigba poses a potentially significant problem for a vaunted defense that lost Emmanuel Moseley and Jimmie Ward from the secondary on free hands.

San Francisco will still be the favorite to successfully defend its NFC West title in 2023, but a bigger problem for the 49ers could be toppling the team that ended its Super Bowl hopes last season has finished.

The conference title game may have been effectively decided on the 49ers’ first offensive series when Brock Purdy tore the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the elbow of his throwing arm, but Georgia Eagles new signings Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith The ninth and 30th picks will make a defensive front that caused significant problems for the Niners in January even more difficult to stop.

Smith, considered by many to be the first-round steal, had lost 15 tackles in his last two seasons with the Bulldogs.

Of course, the 49ers have one of the best rosters in football themselves, and they reinforced their excellent defensive line by signing defensive tackle Javon Hargrave from the Eagles in the headline San Francisco offseason.

And given their recent history of uncovering contributors with mid- and late-round picks, the Niners will be confident of improving their roster despite a lack of premium capital.

Still, it has to be argued that the Seahawks closed the gap and the Eagles created an even greater obstacle with their respective first-round moves that should make them better now and in the future. Last but not least, the progress they’ve made with their top pick reinforces the importance of the 49ers capitalizing on this Super Bowl window as soon as possible.

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I’m a UK-based journalist who has covered the NFL extensively since 2014. I was previously a featured columnist with the San Francisco 49ers for Bleacher Report and have since written for Fanside covering all aspects of the league for their flagship website and the NFL Draft for ‘With The First Pick’.

I cover the league from an analytical perspective for the Pro Football Network and have also been featured frequently in Sporting News. I am also a contributor to UK NFL magazine Gridiron, with articles published in the monthly and weekly online editions.

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SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – While his city was still rocking a mass shooting that killed nine transit workers, Mayor Sam Liccardo brought his plea for stricter gun control laws to the White House for a meeting with President Joe Biden on Monday.

Liccardo will attend the meeting of Eric Adams, President of the Brooklyn District and likely the next Mayor of New York, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Memphis Police Chief, CJ Davis, Chicago Chief David Brown and Lt. Anthony Lima of Newark attend, New Jersey, Police.

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It has been almost two months since VTA employee Samuel Cassidy opened fire on his employees in the Guadalupe Yard transit center. He killed nine employees before taking his own life.

The VTA light rail trains have still not returned to normal as the agency has been devastated by the ongoing emotional impact of the shooting.

Two weeks after the shootings, Liccardo announced several proposed new San Jose gun ordinances, including requiring gun owners to purchase liability insurance for their guns and retailers to videotape their gun sales.

The city council unanimously approved the plan, which will be presented for final vote in the fall before the ordinances can be enacted.

On Monday, Liccardo told KPIX 5 Morning News that he would press for stricter national gun laws during the president’s meeting with city officials from across the country.

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“We’ll talk a lot about how the federal government can be a partner to cities,” he said. “We’re seeing increasing gun violence in cities across the county … So we’re going to talk about how we’re using federal funds to, for example, expand strike patrols in high-crime neighborhoods, to occupy young adults in gang-hit neighborhoods, and the resilience of.” to support the city. “

“We (will) talk more about (the) innovative approaches cities are taking to reduce gun violence, like the recent regulation we put in place to crack down on arms dealers who buy straw.”

A “straw” purchase of a firearm is when a person buys a weapon – generally in a state with less restrictive sales laws – with the intention of giving the weapon to another person.

In June, Biden unveiled a number of implementing regulations aimed at reducing gun violence. Liccardo believes that even stricter standards are needed, especially when it comes to arms trafficking and straw purchases.

“We know that there are a lot of guns in circulation – around 30,000 guns are bought for example for criminal organizations like gangs,” said Liccardo. “So we’ve got safeguards in place here in San Jose, but we need other parts of the country to do the same because we know guns are usually bought in states with no restrictive gun laws and taken to California.”

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“The possibility of federal tracking and surveillance would help enormously. So we can take action against the organizations that transport weapons in and out of cities. “

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