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The 49ers Should Draft Kyle Pitts

Pitts is the tight-end version of Calvin "Megatron" Johnson, the Hall of Famer who was the No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft.
The 49ers Should Draft Kyle Pitts
The 49ers Should Draft Kyle Pitts

No, the 49ers probably won't draft Kyle Pitts.

He's a tight end, and they've already indicated they plan to draft a quarterback in the upcoming draft after trading three first-rounders and a third to the Miami Dolphins for the No. 3 pick. But the 49ers still have time to change their minds. 

And maybe they should.

Because Pitts clearly is the second-best prospect in the draft after quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who will be the No. 1 pick. And Pitts could be available when the 49ers pick. And he looks like a future Hall of Famer. Perhaps the best tight-end prospect of all time. He's 6'6", runs a 4.4 40-yard dash, he's a superb route runner with long arms and phenomenal hand-eye coordination, plus he's a better blocker than Travis Kelce.

To put Pitts' skillset in perspective, he could be an elite wide receiver if a team played him there. He's that good. He's the tight-end version of Calvin "Megatron" Johnson, the Hall of Famer who was the No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft. Pitts is a sure thing. The kind of player you trade up for.

As opposed to the quarterbacks the 49ers could draft with the No. 3 pick.

There's Zach Wilson, who comes with questions and lacks experience. He threw just 837 passes in college.

Then there's Justin Fields, who comes with questions and lacks experience. He threw just 618 passes in college.

There's also Mac Jones, who comes with questions and lacks experience. He threw just 556 passes in college.

And then there's Trey Lance, who comes with questions and lacks experience. He threw a measly 288 passes in college

Instead of gambling three first-round picks plus a third on one of those boom-or-bust quarterbacks, the 49ers should take Pitts. Then in Round 2, they could draft Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond, another known quantity. He threw 1,358 passes in college, which means he has experience. And experience is critical for quarterbacks.

Of course, the 49ers won't follow my advice. 

Let's see if their plan is better than mine.


Published
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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