Redrafting the 49ers’ questionable 2014 NFL Draft
By Peter Panacy
What if the San Francisco 49ers could go back in time and redraft the 2014 NFL Draft, which while not quite as bad as 2012 and 2013, had plenty of question marks in its own right. Well, that’s what Niner Noise does here.
A short while ago, Niner Noise took a trip back in time and redrafted the San Francisco 49ers’ 2013 NFL Draft.
Everyone knows 2012 was the worst for former Niners general manager Trent Baalke. But 2013 was almost as bad. That class did land safety Eric Reid and defensive tackle Quinton Dial. But it also brought in tight end Vance McDonald and defensive end Tank Carradine.
And those last two ended up being taken in Round 2.
Baalke’s 2014 class was nowhere near as bad as the prior two years. But it still had plenty of gaffes and question marks.
So, like we did before, let’s play a little revisionist history here and redo Baalke’s efforts from 2014.
For note, here are the players the Niners ended up selecting that year:
| Rnd | Player | Pick | Pos | College/Univ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jimmie Ward | 30 | DB | Northern Illinois |
| 2 | Carlos Hyde | 57 | RB | Ohio St. |
| 3 | Marcus Martin | 70 | C | USC |
| 3 | Chris Borland | 77 | LB | Wisconsin |
| 3 | Brandon Thomas | 100 | OL | Clemson |
| 4 | Bruce Ellington | 106 | WR | South Carolina |
| 4 | Dontae Johnson | 129 | DB | North Carolina St. |
| 5 | Aaron Lynch | 150 | DE | South Florida |
| 5 | Keith Reaser | 170 | DB | Florida Atlantic |
| 6 | Kenneth Acker | 180 | DB | SMU |
| 7 | Kaleb Ramsey | 243 | DE | Boston Col. |
| 7 | Trey Millard | 245 | FB | Oklahoma |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/30/2017.
We’ll assume other teams’ picks stay put, relatively. So no players are going to fall to the Niners who otherwise wouldn’t have.
And let’s kick this thing off at the tail end of Round 1 with a “wish we would have” pick.