Niner Noise
FanSided

San Francisco 49ers: 10 worst NFL Draft picks of the decade

By Titus Briseno

Solomon Thomas of Stanford with Commissioner of the National Football League Roger Goodell after being picked #3 overall by the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
Solomon Thomas of Stanford with Commissioner of the National Football League Roger Goodell after being picked #3 overall by the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) /
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Taylor Mays, 49ers
Taylor Mays #23 of the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

No. 2: Safety Taylor Mays, Round 2, 2010 NFL Draft

This pick will forever go down as a huge “what if?” for the Faithful.

The 49ers used their third overall pick, first pick in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft, to grab defensive back Taylor Mays. Mays drew very premature comparisons to another USC alumnus, Ronnie Lott.

Needless to say, there was great disappointment when Mays didn’t live up to the hype.

Mays started just six games with the 49ers in the one year he spent with the team. He was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals for a late pick, and that was it. The 49ers invested a lot of stock for close to nothing.

Bleacher Report called Mays the “biggest draft fail of recent” in 2012, though we hardly agree because of what happened a short while later.