Did 49ers hit or reach on their last 6 top-10 NFL Draft picks?
49ers 2011 top-10 NFL Draft pick: Aldon Smith
No. 7 overall
In 2011, the first season of the Jim Harbaugh head-coaching era, San Francisco had the seventh overall selection. The team went with edge rusher Aldon Smith out of Missouri.
Smith took the league by storm in his rookie season, racking up 14 sacks, just one shy of breaking Jevon Kearse’s rookie record of 14.5 from 1999. He would finish second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting to Denver Broncos EDGE Von Miller.
In 2012, Smith got even better, getting 19.5 sacks, which was a single-season franchise best for the 49ers. In 2013, a series of substance abuse challenges and legal issues started, causing him to miss five games that season. In 2014, a suspension for violating the league’s personal-conduct policy caused him to miss nine games. Then in 2015, after his third DUI arrest, the Niners released Smith.
Legal troubles would continue to follow him over the next few years and derail what was considered one of the most promising NFL careers early on.
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Although Smith only truly played two full seasons with San Francisco, those were two of the most impressive seasons seen by an edge rusher in franchise history. The “what-ifs” are always going to be there.
Would he have been a league-best pass-rusher for years to come had the off-field troubles and suspensions not happened? Would he have eventually broken the single-season sack record?
Smith was an absolute freak of nature in his first two seasons, but is that enough to justify taking him over J.J. Watt, an eventual three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner? Watt was taken at No. 11, just four spots after Smith.
He was a great pick in 2011, but because Watt was in the same draft, Smith might’ve been a reach at No. 7.
Hit or Reach: Reach
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