San Francisco 49ers: 5 Best, 5 Worst Draft Picks in the Trent Baalke Era

Fifth-Worst: Brandon Thomas, OL, Clemson

2014 third-round selection, No. 100 overall

Consider this slide a catch-all for all the redshirt selections which haven’t panned out.  Trent Baalke loves taking players who have suffered severe injuries in college.  It makes sense in theory—it means you’re getting a talented player lower than they “should” be drafted based on talent alone, and you can stick them on injured reserve or the non-football injury list for a year, saving yourself a roster slot.  It’s a way to stockpile more players than roster limitations would normally allow.

Eventually, however, these redshirted players need to actually take the field for the strategy to mean anything.  Players like Thomas, Marcus Lattimore, DeAndre Smelter, Kaleb Ramsey and Trey Millard have combined for a total of zero games played for the 49ers—so much for the bonus value earned by the extra roster slots.

To be fair, some of these redshirt picks have worked out—we’ll see a few of them in later slides.  Others may yet provide value.  It looks like Smelter will be ready for action in 2016, and it looks like a high-ankle sprain may be responsible for costing Thomas his 2015 season, so there’s hope for him yet.

Still, it would be nice if the 49ers could refrain from drafting injured players for a while and instead take players who could actually, you know, play football.

What could have been: Three picks after the 49ers took Thomas, the Atlanta Falcons grabbed running back Devonta Freeman out of Miami.  Last season, Freeman rushed for 1,056 yards and 11 touchdowns, adding another 578 yards through the air, and earned his first trip to the Pro Bowl.  Yes, the 49ers had already taken Carlos Hyde in that year’s draft, but a combination of Freeman and tackle Justin Britt sounds a little better than Hyde and Thomas at the moment, doesn’t it?

Next: A Late-Round Starter