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The 49ers Pick Texas A&M DT Shemar Stewart in New Mock Draft

Defensive tackle arguably is the worst position on the 49ers.
Grant Cohn|
Nov 26, 2022; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies defensive lineman Shemar Stewart (4) shows off his gold grill smile after the Aggies defeat the LSU Tigers at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Nov 26, 2022; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies defensive lineman Shemar Stewart (4) shows off his gold grill smile after the Aggies defeat the LSU Tigers at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Defensive tackle arguably is the worst position on the 49ers.

Javon Hargrave has been a bust for the 49ers and they intend to release him when free agency starts in March. After him, the 49ers have a bunch of journeymen and unproven youngsters.

The 49ers simply haven't been able to replace DeForest Buckner and Arik Armstead -- two former first-round picks whom the current regime inherited. Since John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan joined the organization in 2017, here is the full list of defensive tackles they have drafted:

Solomon Thomas
D.J. Jones
Jullian Taylor
Kentavius Street
Javon Kinlaw
Kalia Davis
Drake Jackson
Robert Beal Jr.

Horrendous list.

Despite the 49ers' complete inability to draft a quality defensive tackle, USA Today projects the 49ers to take Texas A&M defensive tackle Shemar Stewart in Round 1 of the upcoming draft.

"This might feel lofty for a player who, despite being a five-star recruit, largely flew under the radar during his collegiate career and collected just 4 ½ sacks in 37 games," writes USA Today columnist Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz. "But Stewart's stock is all about what's still to be unlocked in the 6-6, 285-pounder. Niners defensive line coach Kris Kocurek has plenty of experience in equipping physically imposing defensive linemen with a formidable pass-rush plan, and Stewart could be his latest project on a line that has slowly been sapped of much of its talent beyond Nick Bosa."

With all due respect to this analyst, the 49ers drafted Drake Jackson and Robert Beal Jr. specifically because they thought Kris Kocurek could unlock their potential, but he couldn't. Kocurek arguably is the most overrated position coach in the NFL. He hasn't developed any defensive linemen the 49ers have drafted except for Nick Bosa who was developed before he joined the league.

Take the best player available.

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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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