49ers NFL Draft: 10 high-profile picks who never panned out
By Peter Panacy
Marcus Lattimore. 5. player. 850. . Running Back. Gamecocks
49ers Running Back Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina
Selected No. 131 Overall in the 2013 NFL Draft
The 2013 NFL Draft wasn’t overly kind to San Francisco. And while it made sense at the time, former general manager Trent Baalke’s attempts to grab injured players and redshirt them for their rookie seasons would come back to haunt him not long afterward.
Like Tank Carradine, South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore was a collegiate stud who should have been selected much higher if it weren’t for a devastating injury late during his college career. Only in Lattimore’s case, it wasn’t a clean ACL tear but rather a nasty injury where he tore multiple ligaments in his knee and suffered nerve damage, too.
Yet the 49ers were willing to be patient, particularly with Frank Gore still churning out yards, and the hope was a fourth-round investment in Lattimore would be a steal as he’d spend 2013 rehabilitating his knee while working towards taking over the Niners’ ground efforts after Gore eventually departed.
It would have been an exciting proposition. But the challenges of getting back into football shape proved too painful and difficult for Lattimore, and he elected to retire in November of 2014 despite his promising efforts.
It’s too bad, too, as Lattimore would have been exceptionally exciting to watch on Sundays.