49ers 7-round mock NFL Draft after trading Jimmy Garoppolo
By Peter Panacy
Cade Otton. 93. player. 818. . Tight End. Huskies
Round 3, Pick No. 93 Overall: TE Cade Otton
On the surface, using a day-two draft pick on a tight end seems like a bit of a luxury move. Yet there’s some merit to it.
For starters, San Francisco is poised to lose its No. 2 tight end in support of George Kittle, Ross Dwelley, to free agency. That’d leave soon-to-be third-year pro Charlie Woerner as the only bona fide option to support Kittle.
Additionally, Kittle carries with him a bit of an unfortunate injury history, missing three games last year and eight before that, so it would make some insurance sense to find someone who could fill a potential void.
Plus, head coach Kyle Shanahan has seemingly been searching for a high-quality No. 2 tight end for a while now.
Washington’s Cade Otton, 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, suffered a bit of a drop in production from the four-game, 18-catch, 258-yard effort he showed in an abbreviated 2020 campaign, settling for only 28 catches for 250 yards over eight games in 2021.
Still, he does have a lot of likable traits going beyond just being a good blocker, which will be important, and a complementary piece to the passing game should serve Shanahan’s offense well.