Here is my most recent mock draft. It is CB heavy and will be until we sign one who has a halfway chance of helping the team

1. Darius Butler CB UConn - He is on our radar and has excellent coverage skills and overall athleticism. He has experience on offense too and could help out in the wildcat

2a. D.J. Moore CB Vanderbilt - Not sure he lasts this long, but it's possible. The best footwork in the draft, smooth and natural. Can play both ways if need be as he has fine receiver skills too. If we could lead off with this pair, our CB problems would be solved for a few years.

2b. Darry Beckwith ILB LSU - He is actually my favorite ILB in this draft. Concerns that he wasn't big enough for Parcells D were eased when he weighed in at 242 at the combine. Could carry 250 easy in a year. He was the real bellwhether of the LSU defense imo.

3. David Veikune OLB Hawaii - I really liked what I seen of him during the Senior Bowl, practices and game. Then he followed up with a strong combine, strength wise and in drills. I think he can be a good pass rusher for us.

4. Brandon Hughes CB Oregon St - Another speedy corner with good coverage instincts to throw into the mix.

5. Quinn Johnson FB LSU - Love this guy as a lead blocker and receiver. Can carry the rock too, a Lou Polite clone.

7a. Roy Miller NT Texas - Strong, quick natural NT was the underrated anchor of the Texas D. He displayed good movement skills in the open field and was a monster on the bench at the combine. Won defensive MVP in their bowl game win.

7b. Sammie Stroughter WR Oregon St - A fine natural receiver with good quickness, soft hands, good route runner, sneaky fast. Overcome a lot of adversity. I think he will make it in the NFL.

7c. Dallas Reynolds C/OT/OG BYU - He is a poor man's Max Unger. Experienced at C and LT, but played the other line positions too. Would be a perfect 6th OL swingman. He was All Conference as a senior at C, and allowed no sacks playing LT as a junior while playing in the pass happy MWC. Tough, hard nosed and ornery, he doesn't back down to anyone.

 

Thanks Simon. Kudos coming from you is well appreciated. Good point about Moore. TBH, I kind of prefer him at least as much as Butler. I was slotting them that way because that seems to be closer to how most overall boards have them ranked. Just love Moore's smooth natural footwork and how he is so quick in his plant and drive. Ball skills and hands to play both ways. I think if I was certain pretty much that Moore wouldn't make it to #44, I'd take him at 25 if i had to choose between the two, or flip a coin, it is that close. My backup choice at #44 would be either Jairus Byrd or Coye Francies, because I expect S Smith to also be gone there. I'd lean toward Byrd of those two with the deciding factor being high character and NFL pedigree. Francies may be equal on character too, but he was dismissed from the OSU squad before transferring, though the reason publicly given seemed trivial IMO.

 

Here is an interesting piece of trivia about Butler: "Uncle, Gene Atkins, played in the NFL from 1987-96 with the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins ... Cousin of Buffalo Bills running back Willis McGahee, an All-American at Miami in 2002."
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Francies is very intriguing, and I would not hold the gun thing against him either, other than if you have two guys who you rate basically even, and you need to break a tie and decide, then it would or could do that. Byrd and Francies run about the same and are good ball athletes...both there, I say Byrd, if he was gone too, then not quibble and take Francies.

TBH, even with the additions on the line we have made, the depth guys, other than whomever didn't start between Thomas and Satele don't give me comfort. I'm not totally sold on Berger, even though we brought him in right away and even so he was told he is competing at C/G same as Satele. Outside we have nothing proven or promising behind the starters. I was considering something like this scenario too:
1. Butler or Moore...heads it's Butler, tails it's Moore. Either way, it's tough to pass up A Smith who reminds me of Asante Samuel.
2a. Max Unger, to give us a super swingman at the very least. One guy who can cover for any starter on the short term and any but probably Long for extended stretch of games with little to no drop off like we had last year. If our first three subs on the OL were he, Satele and Berger, wouldn't you feel a lot better? The 9th OL, which is usually the last one, would come from the best of the remaining OL.
2b. Beckwith still.
3. Rather than a OLB, go for a 2nd corner here. Cap Munnerlyn, Keenan Lewis, Asher Allen, Kevin Barnes or Chris Owens for examples.
The rest of the picks, same. Right now, we probably have more OLBs on the roster than any position except WR. So, I would not feel so bad about skipping the position for now.
Do you this scenario would be better than the first one?

 

Thanks Rick. I always welcome your input. For a 3rd round corner, who would you prefer? IMO, Lewis fits us best, but it would seem overkill to have 3 OSU guys plus one UO guy in my mock draft. I would rank them next as Owens, Munnerlyn, Allen and Barnes.

Or, I could go with Francies at 56 and then pick a ILB like McKillop or Brinkley in the 3rd. I also liked your idea of Gilbert at 56 to offset losing Vonnie.
I thought too of using the #25 on Tyson Jackson, #44 for Unger, then corners at 56, in the 4th, and then a low rounder like Ellis Lankster maybe in place of a FB at the top of the 7th. With Unger at 44, then instead of Reynolds I'd add a safety like Lendy Holmes. I like Culver behind Bell, but would prefer another option behind Wilson, other than Bryan or Kilmer. That would make 4 DBs total though.

 

It's possible we have our sites set on 3 SJSU guys. I would expect it would be either/or when it comes to Francies and Owens though. Francies, if he has a good pro day 40 could vault himself back into the mid late 2nd. His 40 wasn't good at the combine, true, but many DBs ran worse than expected. They were the last group to run too, which makes me wonder if something happened over the course of event, all the other groups running first, to make the track slower. Also, it was pointed out to me that there was a greater disparity than normal between the hand helds and the electronic times. Often as much as a tenth of a second. The hand helds had Brandon Hughes at 4.4 or slightly under for example. The electronic I seen on him was 4.50. Most of the veteran scouts won't trust any electronic over their own hand held times.

One other interesting thing about Francies, even though he ran a lot slower than the top corners, other than Macho Harris, his 3 cone was better than Butler, Moore and the two Smiths. Harris had a very slow 40, but his cone time was bettered only by Jenkins and Sherrod Martin amongst all the corners. Some guys just don't have good track running technique.

 

I agree, but in the case of a guy like Harris, he's a fine corner who may get downgraded by his 40 time. The same who would downgrade him for a slow 40 could say his 3 cone and shuttle times, both among the best, even things out.

IMO, even if Francies doesn't improve his 40 time, he should not last til the 4th. If you want a SJSU corner in the 4th, better to target Owens, who is pretty good too in his own right.