2022 Senior Bowl: 4 NFL Draft prospects 49ers will love

With the 2022 Reese’s Senior Bowl kicking off this weekend, the 49ers would be wise to absolutely fall in love with these four NFL Draft prospects.

The San Francisco 49ers don’t have a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

However, they do own picks on days two and three of the draft, and a would-be trade of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo this offseason is almost certainly going to add to the capital general manager John Lynch will have at his disposal for the draft later this April.

A big chunk of what the Niners will want to do has to include the annual Reese’s Senior Bowl, and all one needs to do is look back at how head coach Kyle Shanahan fell in love with former South Carolina wide receiver Deebo Samuel ahead of the 2019 draft.

That worked out well enough, right?

Hopefully for San Francisco, there’ll be a few more prospects worth identifying as high-level targets it should pursue heavily if they perform well at the Senior Bowl this season.

Let’s take a look at four such prospects to watch.

49ers Senior Bowl Target No. 4: Wide Receiver Christian Watson, North Dakota State

On the surface, it might not appear as if the 49ers would need another wide receiver. At least not with Samuel in the mix, along with the promising developments of fellow wideouts Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings.

That said, it’d be hard to turn down a 6-foot-5, 208-pound wideout with excellent speed and ball skills.

Especially if he played with the Niners’ soon-to-be-starting quarterback, Trey Lance, at North Dakota State.

Wide receiver Christian Watson has reportedly been tearing up Senior Bowl practices, and that kind of effort for a potential day-two pick should catch Shanahan’s eyes in spades:

https://twitter.com/jacobinfante24/status/1489325528960188416

This will come after Watson’s 800-yard, seven-touchdown campaign where he displayed the kind of small-school flash that should easily supersede the association of being “only” an FCS prospect.

Getting a big-bodied target with speed could assist Lance in a great way, and Watson has those upside traits that could make him a long-term fit in a dynamic system.

49ers Senior Bowl Target No. 3: Defensive Back Jalen Pitre, Baylor

San Francisco is going to need to infuse its secondary with both talent and youth this offseason, namely because a number of higher-profile players are potentially departing via free agency this offseason.

Defensive backs Josh Norman, Jaquiski Tartt and K’Waun Williams are all poised to be free agents, are aging and have injury histories. And while it might make some sense to retain someone like Tartt and/or Williams, it doesn’t erase the need for the 49ers to get both younger and cheaper.

At 6-foot and 197 pounds, Baylor safety Jalen Pitre might be classified as lightly undersized and might be pegged solely for nickel duties at the NFL level. But his physicality is something that surely stood out during his collegiate campaign, which was impressive enough.

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Pitre isn’t afraid to play down towards the box, and his occasional blitz efforts aren’t totally unlike what the Niners have previously done with Williams at times, too.

Read More: 5 cornerbacks 49ers must target in 2022 NFL Draft

Probably a late Round 2 pick, a strong Senior Bowl might push Pitre out of San Francisco’s draft range if he excels.

Still, the 49ers should eye Pitre closely as a fit.

49ers Senior Bowl Target No. 2: Offensive Lineman Cole Strange, UT Chattanooga

It might not seem as big a glaring issue as the secondary, but the Niners should worry considerably about their offensive line heading into 2022.

An upgrade is needed over right guard Daniel Brunskill, and last year’s second-round pick, Aaron Banks, barely sniffed the field last season. Center Alex Mack is also aging and will eventually need to be replaced, too.

So, while San Francisco might not use a Round 2 or even a Round 3 pick on an offensive lineman, it wouldn’t hurt to at least consider some long-term options to shore up the depth weaknesses.

Small-school interior offensive line prospect, Cole Strange out of the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, has been impressive during Senior Bowl workouts and earned recognition from NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein and Chase Goodbread:

"Scouts are giving Strange consistently positive reviews for his performance over the first two days of practice. He lined up at guard in college but moved to center this week. He’s played substantially stronger at the point of attack than his leaner frame might indicate and has held up reasonably well against bull rushers when tested. After getting beat by power on one rep, he came back with a quick set, which allowed him to halt the bull rush before it could even get started. He’s a rising, zone-scheme center with the talent to start in the NFL."

A player like Strange could immediately serve as a primary backup at one of the three interior positions, particularly with solid upside in both pass protection and run support, and he’d have the long-term potential of turning into Mack’s eventual replacement.

Provided Strange winds up showing up on the positive side of scouting reports as he has so far.

49ers Senior Bowl Target No. 1: Cornerback Roger McCreary, Auburn

If we’re being honest here, the 49ers would be wise to invest at least a couple of their 2022 NFL Draft picks to beef up the secondary. Perhaps more.

There’s a slim-to-none chance Auburn cornerback Roger McCreary, all 6-foot and 190 pounds of him, slips to the Niners with their original pick at the tail end of Round 2. Discussions now are placing McCreary into the fringes of being a first-round selection, perhaps going as high as the early 20s, meaning it’d be a pipe dream for him to slip into the latter half of the second round.

And even if San Francisco winds up getting another Round 2 pick in exchange for Jimmy Garoppolo, that’d still likely not be enough to land McCreary.

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But, let’s envision a scenario where the 49ers act aggressively.

If they believe quality is more important than quantity in this year’s draft, perhaps trading those two would-be second-round selections to get back into Round 1 would be a wise choice, thereby opening up the door for a player like McCreary to be a top selection.

If so, and especially if McCreary performs well during the Senior Bowl, it might be a wise move.

The 2022 Senior Bowl kicks off on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 2:30 p.m. ET from Hancock Whitney Stadium.