49ers: 7-round defense-only mock 2021 NFL Draft

49ers Round 5 Pick, No. 139 Overall: Cornerback Keith Taylor

If there’s a theme here, outside of the obvious, it’s the 49ers are very thin at cornerback heading into 2021.

Sure, free agency could shore up some of this. But in this case, with free agency still a little ways away, it makes sense to err on the side of caution and basically create a starting defensive backfield out of the draft.

This isn’t to say Keith Taylor, a fifth-round pick out of Washington, will be able to step right in and start, but he’s certainly a very interesting prospect for the 49ers to grab in the early part of day three of the draft.

Taylor looks the part of a cornerback the 49ers would covet for their defense, tall (6-foot-3) and lean (195 pounds), and he had an excellent Senior Bowl showing off his speed and ball skills. Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network went so far as to say he couldn’t “remember a better game from a corner in an all-star game” when asked about Taylor.

Drae Harris of The Draft Network notes that Taylor is a “willing tackler who uses his length to secure tackles… [has] excellent tackling efficiency in space and receivers rarely get extra yardage while he is in coverage. In the passing game, he does a good job of using his length in press coverage.”

He’d need to clean up his eye discipline to be an NFL starter, but if he’s able to immediately step in as a sub-package outside cornerback, the 49ers would have to consider that a major win.