In each of his previous five go-arounds as the 49ers’ final word on roster acquisitions and allocation of capital, he’s liberally moved up and down the draft board, using players and picks as bargaining chips with abandon.
However, not this year.
The brass has talked for years about preventing leaks and keeping moves under wraps, but I don’t think anyone would have anticipated this big of a zag.
So, how do you explain such a tremendous tendency breaker? Well, like every time the draft ends, you end up learning a lot more about how teams see themselves compared to how they’re viewed from the outside.
All of those positions had top-tier guys available, but taking them would’ve required trading up to the end of the first or beginning of the second round.
Jackson means that the Niners have used their first selection of the draft on a defensive lineman four out of the last six years.
The team spent a second-round pick on a player to fill this role once before, and, at least this time, it won’t cost them an 85 million dollar extension.
This philosophy seems to apply to the entire draft.
First, they filled the team’s most screamingly, glaringly, horrifyingly obvious need at cornerback, which would have been impossible in the draft without a huge move up.
When you put this all together with hindsight being 20/20, it can pretty easily be deduced that the 49ers approached this draft with a complete top-to-bottom-bottom-to-top construction plan.
The belief seems to be that there’s enough superstar talent at the premium positions that the biggest need was an overall talent level increase.
Or, on the other hand, you’re so satisfied with the team as-built that you can afford to go the best player available/value plays simply.
