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NFL Mock Draft: 49ers Pick Kelvin Banks Jr. to Play Guard as a Rookie

If Banks is available, I'm fairly confident the 49ers will take him.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. (78) against the Clemson Tigers during the CFP National playoff first round at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Dec 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. (78) against the Clemson Tigers during the CFP National playoff first round at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The first round of the NFL Draft is just a few hours away. Which player will the 49ers take with the 11th pick?

Bleacher Report's Brandon Thorn projects the 49ers to take Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. and play him at guard during his rookie season before moving him to tackle in 2026.

"The 49ers let left guard Aaron Banks leave in free agency this past offseason without an obvious replacement on the roster while also having a serviceable but replaceable right tackle in Colton McKivitz," Thorn said. "Banks' selection gives the team a better option at either of those spots with the added value of having 36-year old left tackle Trent Williams' potential replacement on the roster.

"If Banks filled in at left guard for a year before replacing Williams, he'd take the same career arc as Laremy Tunsil's first two years in Miami (where current Niners' coach Chris Foerster was the offensive line coach at the time)."

That's a great point about Tunsil and Foerster. Remember, Tunsil was the 13th pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. If Foerster was willing to play such a high draft pick at guard for a season, I'm guessing he'd be willing to play Banks at guard for a season as well.

If Banks is available, I'm fairly confident the 49ers will take him. But I'm not so sure he'll be on the board when the 49ers are on the clock. He's one of the safest prospects in this year's draft and at least three teams picking in the top 10 currently need offensive tackles.

To get Banks, the 49ers might have to trade up.

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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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