Texas A&M alum and Butkus Award winner Von Miller will be meeting with 49ers on April 13.  The nation’s top linebacker last year will visit with coaches and the front office while he is in the Bay Area.  Miller’s draft stock has risen significantly since the NFL Combine in March and he is expected to go in the top-ten in the draft.  With how highly touted Miller is right now it might be a long shot for him to be available when the 49ers select with the seventh pick.  The 49ers two biggest needs on defense are at defensive line and cornerback but if Miller is available for the 49ers there is no way they can pass him up.  Even if one of the top-three quarterbacks are available, if Miller is still on the board the 49ers should draft him.

Miller has 27.5 sacks over the last season while at A&M.  Miller played the “joker” position meaning he can play both defensive end and linebacker.  49ers new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has said he will run a 3-4 scheme next season and Miller could fit in well and excel right away for the 49ers.  This what the 49ers need with their seventh pick, a player who can make an impact right away.  With outside linebacker Manny Lawson most likely signing elsewhere when a new CBA is in place the 49ers will need to make up for his loss with a player who can play as a hybrid as both a rusher off the edge and drop back in coverage on either the left or right side.  The thought of having Miller and Patrick Willis at linebacker makes me salivate. Miller’s power and explosiveness will work well with Willis’ speed, vision and great tackling ability. Miller finished last season with 68 tackles, 17.5 for loss, 10.5 sacks and three forced fumbles.

49ers Receive Compensatory Draft Picks

The 49ers were awarded two seventh round picks, the 238th and 249th overall selections.  The 49ers received the picks for “losing more or better compensatory free agents than it acquires in the previous year.  The number of picks a team receives equals the net loss of compensatory free agents up to a maximum of four,” according to NFL.com.

The 49ers will have 12 selections in the draft, the most of any team.  Let’s hope they use them wisely.

49ers draft picks:

1. First round, No. 7 (7th overall)

2. Second round, No. 13 (45th overall)

3. Third round, No. 12 (76th overall)

4. Fourth round, No. 11 (108th overall)

5. Fourth round, No. 18 (115th overall, from San Diego in 2010 draft-day trade)

6. Fifth round, No. 10 (141st overall)

7. Sixth round, No. 9 (174th overall)

8. Sixth round, No. 25 (190th overall, from Seattle for DT Kentwan Balmer)

9. Seventh round, No. 8 (210th overall)

10. Seventh round, No. 30 (230th overall, from Detroit for QB Shaun Hill) (Jets original pick in the round)

11. Seventh round, No. 38 (238th overall, compensatory)

12. Seventh round, No. 49 (249th overall, compensatory)

Last week I made a post a few hours before NFL owners and players agreed to disagree with the NFLPA decertifying and the owners locking out the players that called for the 49ers to trade their top draft pick for Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb (Read here).  I wrote the post knowing the NFL was either close to an extension, a new CBA agreement or a lockout.  Wishful thinking had me hoping for anything other than a lockout knowing how it would affect the 49ers trading for Kolb.  A hearing has been set for April 6 with a federal court judge to lift the lockout after ten NFL players filed an anti-trust lawsuit against NFL owners.  According to the Washington Post, “if the players’ request for a preliminary injunction is granted, the lockout would be lifted and the sport would reopen for business. The league would have to establish work rules, likely the same ones that were in place last season, which was played without a salary cap. Either side could appeal the decision to a higher court.”

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49ers should trade for Kolb

This time of year the focus for the NFL is usually on free agency and April’s college draft. With a new collective bargaining agreement being worked out between NFL players and owners, a possible lockout is getting most of the attention. Regardless of a lockout the NFL draft is scheduled as planned however newly drafted players cannot sign with their teams until a new CBA is worked out. All the draft experts, if you ask me there are too many, are in full mode with mock drafts which seem to change every day. I have read the experts say the 49ers should draft anyone from Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller, Nebraska cornerback Prince Amukamara, North Carolina defensive end Robert Quinn, Alabama defensive end Marcell Dareus to any of the top three quarterbacks left when the 49ers pick like Washington’s Jake Locker, Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert and the enigma Auburn’s Cam Newton. The 49ers three big needs are at quarterback, defensive end and cornerback. Anyone of the defensive player listed would have an immediate impact with the 49ers. In order to win a Super Bowl in today’s NFL a team needs a franchise quarterback. With new head coach, and former NFL quarterback, Jim Harbaugh you would think the logical choice for the 49ers 7th pick is at quarterback. I agree the 7th pick should be used to get a quarterback but that pick should be part of a trade brining in a quarterback already in the NFL.

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