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49ers Select Ohio State OT Josh Simmons in Latest Mock Draft

This year, the 49ers will have their highest first-round draft pick since 2021 when they traded up for Trey Lance.
Grant Cohn|
April 13, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes offensive tackle Josh Simmons (71) competes during the first half of the LifeSports spring football game at Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
April 13, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes offensive tackle Josh Simmons (71) competes during the first half of the LifeSports spring football game at Ohio Stadium on Saturday. | Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

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San Francisco 49ers

This year, the 49ers will have their highest first-round draft pick since 2021 when they traded up for Trey Lance.

I'm guessing the 49ers won't do that again. They'll probably stay where they are or trade back.

Currently, the 49ers are slotted to draft 11th in Round 1, but they could climb the draft board with losses to the Lions and the Cardinals in the final two games of the season. For now, the 49ers sit just outside the top 10. And CBS's Ryan Wilson expects them to take Ohio State offensive tackle Josh Simmons.

"A San Diego State transfer where he played right tackle," writes Wilson, "Josh Simmons was a pleasant surprise in Columbus, Ohio, where he was not only installed at left tackle, but was playing at a high level before an October knee injury vs. Oregon ended his season. I thought he might come back to school -- he could probably use the experience -- but instead he declared for the 2025 draft. And in a draft light along the offensive line, I fully expect Simmons to draw some first-round consideration, even if he might need a year or two of seasoning."

This pick makes a ton of sense. The 49ers haven't drafted an offensive tackle since 2021 when they took Jaylon More in Round 5. And Trent Williams just missed half a season with an ankle injury. They can't count on him to hold up for entire seasons, and right tackle Colton McKivitz is nothing special. Simmons would be a major upgrade.

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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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