49ers Draft Michigan DT Mason Graham in Lance Zierlein's 1st Mock

It's mock draft season, baby.

Blue Team defensive lineman Mason Graham (55) walks up the tunnel for halftime during the spring game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 20, 2024. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

It's mock draft season, baby.

The Senior Bowl just wrapped up and the NFL Scouting Combine is a few weeks away, and so the top draft analysts are beginning to release their first mock drafts of the year.

Today, NFL.com's lead draft analyst Lance Zierlein dropped his first mock draft of the year, and he projects the 49ers to take Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham with the 11th pick.

"The 49ers pride themselves on maintaining a high-caliber defensive front," writes Zierlein, "and cracks along the interior can be spackled with the addition of Michigan's high-energy defensive tackle."

Graham would be a great pick for the 49ers because he fills a need and might qualify as the best player available as well. Although, Zierlein projects the Cowboys to take Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen with the 12th pick, and Zierlein gave Nolen a higher draft grade than Graham, so it's unclear why Zierlein thinks the 49ers would choose Graham in this scenario.

If the 49ers would prefer to draft an edge rusher in Round 1, both Georgia's Jalon Walker and Marshall's Mike Green are still on the board in Zierlein's mock draft. So they have lots of options.

But they might have to take an offensive tackle. And that's because they haven't drafted one since 2021, Colton McKivitz isn't good and Trent Williams is old and injures his ankle seemingly every season. This season, he missed the final seven games with an ankle bruise that wouldn't heal.

Last year, John Lynch the 49ers would have liked to draft an offensive tackle but weren't picking high enough in the draft to get a quality starter. This year, they have the 11th pick. They're in prime position to take a starter. And if they don't take one this year, they could be back in the playoffs next year which would mean they'd be drafting in the 20s again.

If the 49ers want to take an offensive lineman, the highest-graded one available in Zierlein's mock draft is Missouri's Armand Membou. They also could take Ohio State's Joshua Simmons, but he tore his ACL and the 49ers can't afford to take a medical risk with such a high pick. If they want Simmons, they need to trade down.

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