2023 NFL Draft

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

Another favorite player of mine is Eli Ricks. I can’t believe he’s still on the board. If the 9ers were to draft him today, I’d be ecstatic.

[thesack12]

While I'm not thrilled with taking a kicker in the 3rd, I can't really hate it either. Sure you would have preferred grabbing that position with one of the 5ths or even 7ths, but it seems as though Moody would have been gone by then. I get the argument that 9ers could have been able to trade up and into the 4th or whatever to be able to grab Moody later on, but that is far from guaranteed. Moody easily could have gotten picked before any potential trade up scenarios started to develop. Besides, we are already bemoaning the lack of draft picks overall, and if they did winded up TRADING UP for a kicker that move would have been crucified anyways.

Moody seems to widely be considered the #1 Kicker prospect in the draft, and it was a position of need for the 9ers. So while the positional value of a 3rd is pretty undesirable, being able to get the top prospect at a position of need isn't a bad pick overall. Admittedly, I don't know how much of a dropoff there was between the K prospects, but Moody seems to check all of the boxes at the position. Has good accuracy overall and is solid from long distance, also has the ability to kickoff.

I personally went into this draft with the idea that since the 9ers didn't have any premium picks, I would be happy if they came away with a few players that will actually be able to contribute as rotational players. Well, Moody figures to be a Day 1 starter and play a significantly important role from jump. So on that notion, all things considered I like the pick.

Not sure if the trade up was necessary but, I'm kind of loving the Brown pick at the moment. While he's kind of slow, he seems to have a couple things that most 9er DB's in recent memory don't; quick twitch anticipation and ball skills. He also has versatility to line up high and in the box, I thought I read somewhere that he even has experience playing slot corner. He also is a very solid blitzer that has shown the ability to really disrupt the QB. Really solid pick at a position of need, that figures to be in the rotation early and groom as Gipson's eventual replacement.

I'm kind of indifferent on the Cameron Latu pick. TE was surely a position that needed to be addressed, but Latu doesn't seem to have any noteworthy traits but seems to have enough workable talent overall. Te's seemed to be flying off the board, so I can see why they felt the need to grab one when they did. Regardless, it shouldn't be too hard for Latu to be better than Kroft, Dwelley, and Woerner. Kittle misses a handful of games every year, so an upgrade at TE was needed. If Latu can become a competent blocker, he sure seems to have more receiving talent than any of those other guys.

[TheMonarch]

I liked the Safety pick. Didn't really like the other two picks. I feel like we could have got Latu in the 5th, but who knows. Picking a kicker in round 3 is not great even if it is a compensatory pick.
That being said, just because people on this board think the 9ers should have traded down, does not mean they could have. You can only trade down if someone wants to move up, and we don't know if anyone did.

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

Day is starting

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

I liked the Safety pick. Didn't really like the other two picks. I feel like we could have got Latu in the 5th, but who knows. Picking a kicker in round 3 is not great even if it is a compensatory pick.
That being said, just because people on this board think the 9ers should have traded down, does not mean they could have. You can only trade down if someone wants to move up, and we don't know if anyone did.

I’m just now realizing we passed up on Antonio Johnson. He was my #2 rated Safety in the entire draft. Second only behind Branch.

[CrimsonCrew]

While I'm not thrilled with taking a kicker in the 3rd, I can't really hate it either. Sure you would have preferred grabbing that position with one of the 5ths or even 7ths, but it seems as though Moody would have been gone by then. I get the argument that 9ers could have been able to trade up and into the 4th or whatever to be able to grab Moody later on, but that is far from guaranteed. Moody easily could have gotten picked before any potential trade up scenarios started to develop. Besides, we are already bemoaning the lack of draft picks overall, and if they did winded up TRADING UP for a kicker that move would have been crucified anyways.

Moody seems to widely be considered the #1 Kicker prospect in the draft, and it was a position of need for the 9ers. So while the positional value of a 3rd is pretty undesirable, being able to get the top prospect at a position of need isn't a bad pick overall. Admittedly, I don't know how much of a dropoff there was between the K prospects, but Moody seems to check all of the boxes at the position. Has good accuracy overall and is solid from long distance, also has the ability to kickoff.

I personally went into this draft with the idea that since the 9ers didn't have any premium picks, I would be happy if they came away with a few players that will actually be able to contribute as rotational players. Well, Moody figures to be a Day 1 starter and play a significantly important role from jump. So on that notion, all things considered I like the pick.

Not sure if the trade up was necessary but, I'm kind of loving the Brown pick at the moment. While he's kind of slow, he seems to have a couple things that most 9er DB's in recent memory don't; quick twitch anticipation and ball skills. He also has versatility to line up high and in the box, I thought I read somewhere that he even has experience playing slot corner. He also is a very solid blitzer that has shown the ability to really disrupt the QB. Really solid pick at a position of need, that figures to be in the rotation early and groom as Gipson's eventual replacement.

I'm kind of indifferent on the Cameron Latu pick. TE was surely a position that needed to be addressed, but Latu doesn't seem to have any noteworthy traits but seems to have enough workable talent overall. Te's seemed to be flying off the board, so I can see why they felt the need to grab one when they did. Regardless, it shouldn't be too hard for Latu to be better than Kroft, Dwelley, and Woerner. Kittle misses a handful of games every year, so an upgrade at TE was needed. If Latu can become a competent blocker, he sure seems to have more receiving talent than any of those other guys.

The Niners started with 11 picks. No one is bemoaning the lack of picks. They are bemoaning the lack of QUALITY picks. A late third is arguably not a quality pick, but because of Covid extensions, it's a surprisingly deep draft. There are a lot of players with starter potential at high value positions of need on the board.

As said, if this was a case where the Niners had all their original picks and had made three or four picks leading up to 99, I still would be pissed about a kicker, but at least I'd kind of get it. But he was our second pick. We may not have lost any elite players this year, but we lost a lot of those solid, steady type guys who provide depth and stability across a playoff roster.

Let's look at our depth chart at some crucial positions:

OT: Trent Williams, Colton McKivitz, Jaylon Moore, and maybe Matt Pryor in a pinch. Does anyone feel good about that group? McKivitz was cut from this roster two years ago. Moore has been awful every time he's seen the field. What if Trent gets hurt? What happens if he retires next year? We could easily be going into next offseason with two starting tackle spots that need to be filled. I don't know that Dawand Jones is a great fit for our team, but he was shockingly available. Blake Freeland is a project, but he profiles like a more athletic McGlinchey (not a great first-round pick, but he would have been great for a late-third). Could we have used one of those guys?

DE: Nick Bosa, Drake Jackson, Clelin Ferrell, Kerry Hyder, and Austin Bryant. Again, outside of the elite player at the top of that list, does anyone feel confident about any one of those guys? Jackson flashed, and the hope is that he spent the offseason working on his strength and fitness. I'm actually higher on Ferrell than many, but at best he's probably a solid run-stopper who can eat up some snaps. There were solid players like Isaiah McGuire available. Adetomiwa Adeboware has some inside-outside versatility and could play some base end on early downs before shifting inside.

WR: Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings, Ray-Ray McCloud, Danny Gray, Chris Conley (stopping here). Now, this position we're actually really strong at the top. But Aiyuk and Jennings could both be gone next year. I think McCloud is a FA, and he's not a great receiver anyway. Danny Gray has done nothing to instill any confidence. Could we have used a Tyler Scott, who has great movement skills and was a HS RB who might be useful in some gimmick plays? AT Perry, who has potential as a Jennings replacement with much better speed?

CB: Mooney Ward, Deommodore Lenoir, Isaiah Oliver, Samuel Womack, Ambry Thomas. How would people have felt last year if I told you Lenoir was going to be our starting outside corner going into this year? And he played pretty well through the playoffs, but he's hardly a lockdown corner. Oliver should fit our scheme, but he's hardly a sure thing. Womack has shown some promise, but it's just that right now. And Thomas may not make the roster. CB is harder for me to scout as scheme is so important and I'm not entirely certain what our scheme will look like, but CB was five or six deep with players that would have intrigued me in the late third.

I see a lot of needs on this roster, and that will definitely become more glaring over the next few years. Taking a kicker in this situation just doesn't fly IMO.

[CrimsonCrew]

I liked the Safety pick. Didn't really like the other two picks. I feel like we could have got Latu in the 5th, but who knows. Picking a kicker in round 3 is not great even if it is a compensatory pick.
That being said, just because people on this board think the 9ers should have traded down, does not mean they could have. You can only trade down if someone wants to move up, and we don't know if anyone did.

I’m just now realizing we passed up on Antonio Johnson. He was my #2 rated Safety in the entire draft. Second only behind Branch.

I just don't think he fits what we need. He's a box safety.

[CrimsonCrew]

And the eagles start the 4th by taking a CB many had going in the second.

[clyde21]

people out here really trying to justify taking a kicker in the 3rd? what's next a long snapper?

[clyde21]

And the eagles start the 4th by taking a CB many had going in the second.

woah, you mean they are loading up on high-value positions earlier in the draft?

lets not get crazy here CC

[CrimsonCrew]

Ha! And the Patriots take another placekicker. Priceless.

[CrimsonCrew]

And the eagles start the 4th by taking a CB many had going in the second.

woah, you mean they are loading up on high-value positions earlier in the draft?

lets not get crazy here CC

It's a really revolutionary approach to the draft.

[arich35]

Oh look, Pats took a kicker in the 4th. Maybe we knew something

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

Watch on YouTube

[Samurai]

Ha! And the Patriots take another placekicker. Priceless.

Mel Kiper had the Pats kicker rated higher than Moody!

I get that we wanted to get a kicker at some point. But didn't we sign Gonzalez to be our PK? And Gonzalez made 87% of his FG's of 40+ yards in 2021 (didn't play last season) compared to Moody making 67% from that distance over the past 2 years. At the college level. If we wanted a competition for someone to go against Gonzalez in training camp, couldn't we do that with an undrafted FA or a late 7th round pick? Just don't see the need to use our 2nd pick in this draft to do that.

[Dodub]

I know we don’t need another RB, but I’d love to see us draft Deuce Vaughn

[TheMonarch]

I liked the Safety pick. Didn't really like the other two picks. I feel like we could have got Latu in the 5th, but who knows. Picking a kicker in round 3 is not great even if it is a compensatory pick.
That being said, just because people on this board think the 9ers should have traded down, does not mean they could have. You can only trade down if someone wants to move up, and we don't know if anyone did.

I’m just now realizing we passed up on Antonio Johnson. He was my #2 rated Safety in the entire draft. Second only behind Branch.

Still available now in the 5th

[TheMonarch]

CB Darrell Luter

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

Read on Twitter

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[Bingo_AlphaMan]

I liked the Safety pick. Didn't really like the other two picks. I feel like we could have got Latu in the 5th, but who knows. Picking a kicker in round 3 is not great even if it is a compensatory pick.
That being said, just because people on this board think the 9ers should have traded down, does not mean they could have. You can only trade down if someone wants to move up, and we don't know if anyone did.

I’m just now realizing we passed up on Antonio Johnson. He was my #2 rated Safety in the entire draft. Second only behind Branch.

Still available now in the 5th

He’s now gone. Jacksonville got him in the 5th. They need to coach him up - he has so much potential / borderline elite potential.