How signing Dee Ford changes 49ers’ plans in 2019 NFL Draft

The San Francisco 49ers just made a splash move, trading for Kansas City Chiefs EDGE Dee Ford and giving him a massive contract extension. How does this trade affect the Niners draft plans?

After trading a 2020 second-round NFL Draft pick to the Kansas City Chiefs, the San Francisco 49ers finally have a competent pass-rusher.

EDGE Dee Ford never quite lived up to his first-round pick status in the first four years of his pro career.

But turned it around in his contract year, earning the No. 1 pass-rush Pro Football Focus grade in the league and helping the Chiefs reach the AFC Championship game last season:

This trade is huge for the 49ers because it solves a long-term need for the team, and frees up some more opportunities for the team to make during the 2019 NFL Draft.

If the Arizona Cardinals, who own the No. 1 pick in the draft, select Ohio State EDGE Nick Bosa, that leaves the Niners with two logical options — to try to trade down in the draft, or to draft Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams or Kentucky edge rusher Josh Allen.

In this article, I discussed how taking Williams would be much more beneficial for the team than drafting Allen. Williams is a generational talent, and would make the 49ers’ defensive line that much better. Allen would fill a need (other edge rusher), but has a high bust potential and is not worth taking with the No. 2 pick.

If the 49ers end up in this position, drafting Williams now is less concerning, since the team now has a player who can rush the passer from the edge.

However, if the Cardinals skip out on Bosa to take Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray with the first pick, things get interesting. San Francisco would have both Nick Bosa and Josh Allen on the table, and I am sure that most fans would clamor for Bosa in this situation, seeing how he is generally regarded as the top talent in this position of need.

However, since the 49ers now have Ford, they don’t have as much of a pressing need at edge. So what they can do here is trade down with the New York Jets, who have the No. 3 overall pick. The Niners could get a king’s ransom from the Jets just from trading down one spot (remember when San Francisco got a nice haul from the Chicago Bears from trading down a spot  in 2017? Trading down with the Jets would get San Francisco a lot more).

The Jets would most likely take Bosa, and the 49ers would end up with Williams and a lot more picks in this year’s draft, especially since they currently only have six picks this year and desperately need more. San Francisco can either take an edge rusher with one of the extra picks or even use some of the picks to trade for an edge rusher.

Or the 49ers could just draft Bosa with the No. 2 overall pick.

The overall point is that this Ford trade gives the team a lot more flexibility in the draft, takes some pressure off general manager John Lynch and opens the window for a lot more win-win situations for the team.

If the 49ers do not draft Allen, this draft is looking very positive for San Francisco.