Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco 49ers currently hold an NFL-high 15 selections in the upcoming draft in April. While they have added plenty of missing pieces through free agency and trades, there are still some holes they need to fill on offense and defense.

The NFL draft presents a great opportunity for the 49ers to upgrade at important positions with players who can contribute right away and who will, hopefully, be at their position for seasons to come. It is very unlikely the 49ers will use all 15 selections on players because they will not have enough room on their roster. What will likely happen is general manager Trent Baalke will trade some draft picks, possibly even trading up in the first round.

For the Niners to draft a player in the first round who can start right away, they will have to move up to draft the best player available at cornerback, safety or wide receiver. All three positions are areas the 49ers should focus their attention on in the first round. But what do you think the 49ers should do with their first round draft pick? Trade up? Hold onto pick No. 31? Answer below in the poll.

Here are some options available for the 49ers in the first round either to trade up or to stay put at their current selection:

Cornerback:

In the NFC Championship game against the Atlanta Falcons, wide receiver Julio Jones torched the 49ers’ secondary for seven passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns. The secondary shut down Jones in the second half, but it was clear the 49ers defense needs a bigger cornerback to be able to compete with receivers of Jones’ stature.

Arguably, Alabama’s Dee Milliner is the best available cornerback in the draft. But the 49ers would have to trade up to into the top-ten of the first round to ensure he is available when they select. With a lot of teams targeting cornerbacks, Milliner will likely be gone by pick No. 5.

The next best option is big bodied Florida State cornerback Xavier Miller, who at 6-1, 210 pounds, is the ideal size the secondary needs to stop receivers like Julio Jones. In order to get their hands on Miller, the 49ers would need to trade up into the top-15 picks of the draft.

Should the 49ers stay at pick No. 31 there could be plenty of good options still available in Johnthan Banks (Mississippi State), Jordan Poyer (Oregon State) and Desmond Trufant (Washington).

Safety:

With former safety Dashon Goldson taking his services to Tampa Bay, the 49ers are in need of a starting safety. San Francisco signed free agent Craig Dahl but they will likely use one of their picks in the first or second round to select another potential starter.

Former Texas Longhorn Kenny Vaccaro would fill a need at free safety with a player who can not only make good tackles in the open field, but is also able to effectively cover a receiver one-on-one. Vaccaro is at the top of many NFL pundits draft boards as the best safety available, so the 49ers would need to trade up somewhere between picks No. 20-25 in order to draft him. I prefer this option as opposed to trading up higher in the draft for a cornerback. The Niners would not have to give up a lot to trade up to picks No. 20-25.

Other safeties who are similar to Vaccaro include Phillip Thomas (Fresno State), Matt Elam (Florida), Eric Reid (LSU) and Duke Williams (Nevada). All of these players will likely still be available when the 49ers pick at No. 31, which means they would not have to trade up to get help at safety.

Speedy wide receiver:

Would Trent Baalke select a wide receiver in the first round two drafts in a row? After A.J. Jenkins’ bust of a rookie season, he had zero receptions, I doubt the 49ers will select a wide receiver in the first round. Still, the 49ers need a fast receiver to line up with Michael Crabtree and newly acquired Anquan Boldin. Jenkins could be that receiver, but after last season I am not holding my breath that he will contribute.

A speedy receiver would allow the offense to stretch the defense, something the team lacked last season. One good option, and someone who the 49ers will be hosting for a workout, is Cal receiver Tavon Austin. He is an explosive receiver and showed in college he has the speed to beat double coverage. But in order to selection Austin the 49ers would need to move up at least into the top-20 picks of the draft.

Other options in the first round for fast receivers include Cordarrelle Patterson (Tennessee), DeAndre Hopkins (Clemson) and Keenan Allen (Cal).

It should be noted that the 49ers have the 31^st pick in the first round and the 2^nd pick in the second round (34^th overall).

Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

During the offseason San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke made his job a little easier for the NFL draft starting on Thursday.  By taking care of most of the teams needs in free agency, Baalke could draft the best player available when the 49ers select at No. 30 in the first-round, and it would still be a value pick regardless of what position is selected.

With all 11 starters returning on defense and ten of the 11 starters on offense who finished last season on the roster returning, the 49ers have free reign with their first-round selection.  With the addition of Mario Manningham, Randy Moss, Brandon Jacobs and the re-signing of Alex Smith, the offense returns well intact with added upgrades.  Former 49ers right guard Adam Snyder, who signed with Arizona, is the only starter not returning.

This leaves the 49ers with a need at right guard which is the position I think they should go after in the first-round.  Currently, the only options at the position are Alex Boone and Daniel Kilgore who have zero starts between them.  However, my prediction in the first-round for the 49ers is they will not only draft a guard, but will trade up into the top-20 of the draft to do so.

Conventional wisdom says if a team is stacked with solid starters on both sides of the football and has only one or two needs on the roster, the team should trade down instead of up in the draft.  But for the 49ers to have a solid starter at right guard for the upcoming season, the best option is the draft at this point.  I don’t see Boone or Kilgore being capable starters in protecting Alex Smith or opening up running lanes for Frank Gore.  There is no way the 49ers find a starting right guard at pick No. 30 for the up coming season.

Baalke has a great track record of selecting first-round players who contributed successfully to the 49ers in their rookie season.  Last year Baalke went with Aldon Smith at the 7th pick and he contributed with 14 sacks, tying a rookie record.  In 2010, the 49ers had two first-round picks and selected right tackle Anthony Davis, at pick No. 11, and left guard Mike Iupati, at pick No. 17.  Both offensive linemen started every game as rookies.

The best guard available in the draft is David DeCastro from Stanford.  DeCastro will most likely be selected somewhere between the 10^th and 20^th picks in the draft.  Now, you would think the 49ers would have to sell the farm in order to move up into the top-20 but recent history shows the 49ers would not have to give up a lot to trade up.  The last team to have the 30^th pick in the draft and trade up into the top-20 was the Eagles in 2003.  The Eagles traded their 30^th and 62^nd draft picks with the Charges in exchange for their 15^th pick.  The 49ers have 61^st overall pick (second-round) in this year’s draft.  This would mean the 49ers would not pick for 77 selections in between their first draft pick (15^th) and their second draft pick (92^nd, third-round).  But it would be worth it to get a bona fide guard who played for Jim Harbaugh in his last year coaching at Stanford.  DeCastro is the best guard in the draft because he was a starter for three years in college and was the featured run blocker opening up lanes for the Cardinal running game.

There is no guarantee DeCastro will still be available at the 15^th pick and the 49ers might have to give up more than just their first- and second-round draft picks to land inside the top-20 of the draft.  But with right guard being the only true need for the 49ers and their biggest hole on the offensive line, it would be well worth the risk and price.

You always try to go through the offseason and take care of as many of the needs as possible. That’s part of free agency, addressing needs. As your team gets deeper, you hope to have fewer needs, which should allow you to concentrate on the best-player-available formula. (Trent Baalke)

Recent Niner Noise draft coverage: 2012 NFL Draft: Who Will the 49ers Pick? Nobody Has a Clue

With the NFL draft on Thursday the Niner Noise writers present what the 49ers should do with their first pick in the draft at the seventh slot.  With so many needs on both offense and defense it is tough to predict how the 49ers will draft with the first pick.  Making things more complicated is the 2011 NFL season may or may not begin on Thursday morning which would cause general manager Trent Baalke and Jim Harbaugh to reevaluate their draft strategy.   Either way here is how we think the 49ers will draft:

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