What if the 49ers landed Myles Garrett in the 2017 NFL Draft?

Experts over at ESPN revisited the 2017 NFL Draft and had the San Francisco 49ers grabbing current Cleveland Browns EDGE Myles Garrett with their first pick. Niner Noise plays the “what if?” game and takes a look what would have happened.

Usually I don’t like to play around with what-if scenarios, especially in retrospect, because we can’t go back and change history.

But we can talk about the San Francisco 49ers and their actions in the 2017 NFL Draft for fun, especially since draft content is going to be pretty heavy between now and the 2018 draft.

That’s what a group of experts over at ESPN did recently, redrafting the top five selections from 2017. In their assessment, the Niners and Chicago Bears still executed that draft-day trade, which sent San Francisco’s No. 2 overall pick to the Bears for their No. 3 overall pick, plus three more selections later on.

San Francisco 49ers

The Browns, of course, went with former Texas A&M EDGE Myles Garrett at No. 1 overall. This led to the Bears taking quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, while the Niners grabbed former Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas.

But what if there was a do-over?

ESPN’s redraft has San Francisco grabbing Garrett. The reason is Cleveland, now knowing how big a difference there was between quarterbacks DeShone Kizer (Browns) and Deshaun Watson (Houston Texans), wants to grab the biggest-impact signal-caller of the draft.

Watson it is, meaning Garrett falls. And with Trubisky still going to Chicago, per the analysis, the Niners get their hands on the 2017 NFL Draft’s most talented prospect.

If this actually happened, what would have been the impact?

Projecting Myles Garrett’s Impact with the 49ers

Thomas had a so-so rookie season, eventually reaching a 53.2 overall grade, per Pro Football Focus, which doesn’t exactly constitute success from a top-five pick:

In fairness to Thomas, he missed most of the team’s offseason activities, due to school commitments, and was later asked to move around the defensive line a lot during the regular season. It’s too early to write him off as a bust.

Garrett’s 88.4 overall grade is much more indicative of a top-five pick, though. And while the context would have been entirely different in San Francisco than Cleveland, the Niners’ pass rush would have been substantially improved.

Case in point, the 49ers’ 2017 sack leader was 33-year-old EDGE Elvis Dumervil, who recorded 6.5. Garrett’s rookie numbers were slightly better, seven sacks recorded, but it’s not hard to visualize the difference. Dumervil is an aging situational pass-rusher, whereas Garrett is 22 years old and not even close to reaching his full impact.

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Both Garrett and Thomas handled run-stopping duties well enough. But Garrett’s 87.6 pass-rushing grade far surpassed the 46.5 mark Thomas posted in this same category.

Heading into 2018 now, the Niners are in need of a true edge bender. Thomas, whose prowess is best off inside the D-line, may eventually mature in an EDGE role at some point down the road.

But Garrett already has, meaning this need wouldn’t be on the table for San Francisco.

Next: 5 Round 1 NFL Draft scenarios for the 49ers in 2018

Regardless, what’s done is done, and the 49ers still have a promising player in Thomas, who might just be a bit behind in his development.