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49ers Pick Penei Sewell in 2021 NFL Redraft

It's been four years since the 2021 NFL Draft and it's safe to say the 49ers picked the wrong guy.

Grant Cohn

Apr 29, 2021; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Oregon Ducks lineman Penei Sewell is displayed on the video board after being selected as the seventh pick by the Detroit Tigers during the 2021 NFL Draft at First Energy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Apr 29, 2021; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Oregon Ducks lineman Penei Sewell is displayed on the video board after being selected as the seventh pick by the Detroit Tigers during the 2021 NFL Draft at First Energy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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It's been four years since the 2021 NFL Draft and it's safe to say the 49ers picked the wrong guy.

At first, they had the 12th pick. Then, they traded up to No. 3. It seemed they wanted Mac Jones, but eventually they decided to take Trey Lance, who now is a backup on his third team -- the Chargers. Meanwhile, Jones also is a backup on his third team -- the 49ers.

If they could do it all over again, who should they have taken?

According to Pro Football Network, this answer is Penei Sewell.

"Penei Sewell has developed into arguably the best right tackle in the entire NFL," writes PFN's Jacob Infante. "Imagine what a 49ers offensive line would look like with him on one end and Trent Williams and the other. It would be a complete nightmare for opposing defenses."

I agree with this analysis. Sewell is a generational offensive tackle -- teams rarely get the opportunity to draft one as good as he is. He would have been the best pick, even better than Ja'Marr Chase.

But you have to remember that the 49ers traded three first-round picks and a third to the Dolphins to trade up to No. 3, so there was no chance the 49ers were going to take any position other than quarterback. In retrospect, they should have stayed put at No. 12 and drafted Micah Parsons who is not arguably the best defensive player in the NFL.

That's the one that hurts.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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