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49ers Trade Up for an Edge Rusher in Latest Mock Draft

Nate Davis has the 49ers taking Latu with Alabama offensive tackle J.C. Latham still on the board, which would be a controversial pick.
Grant Cohn|
Feb 27, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch during the NFL
Feb 27, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch during the NFL | Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Draft experts have no clue what the 49ers intend to do with the 31st pick.

Some expect the 49ers to stand pat and take a defensive tackle. Others expect the 49ers to trade up for an offensive tackle. And now, the latest mock draft from USA Today has the 49ers trading up with the Seattle Seahawks to pick no. 16 for UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu.

"First, though they’re NFC West rivals, these front offices have swung deals on the first night the draft before," writes USA Today's Nate Davis. "Second, the Niners, who will be obligated to pay (Brock) Purdy next year, unquestionably remain all in while they can reap the benefits of loading the roster around the quarterback as he remains stuck on his seventh-round contract. San Francisco also has 10 picks but hardly needs 10 more players, whereas Seattle has a hole in Round 2 ... and holes throughout its roster."

Davis has the 49ers taking Latu with Alabama offensive tackle J.C. Latham still on the board, which would be a controversial pick, considering the 49ers' offensive tackles are Colton McKivitz, who gave up 13 sacks last season, and Trent Williams, who will be 36 in July. Offensive tackle is one of the weakest positions on the roster, while the 49ers have Nick Bosa, Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos at defensive end.

Still, the 49ers can't have enough good edge rushers, and Latu is fantastic. He had 23.5 sacks the past two seasons for UCLA. He would greatly improve the 49ers pass rush, which was subpar last season.

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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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