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49ers Pick East Carolina CB Shavon Revel Jr. in New Mock Draft

The 49ers don't have one clear need entering this year's draft. They have needs everywhere.

Grant Cohn

Michigan wide receiver Cornelius Johnson makes a catch against East Carolina defensive back Shavon Revel during the second half of U-M's 30-3 win on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023, at Michigan Stadium.
Michigan wide receiver Cornelius Johnson makes a catch against East Carolina defensive back Shavon Revel during the second half of U-M's 30-3 win on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023, at Michigan Stadium. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The 49ers don't have one clear need entering this year's draft. They have needs everywhere.

They're 6-10 entering the final game of the season and they currently own pick no. 11. Ideally, they should take the best player available. They can't afford to miss on another blue-chip prospect considering how poorly they've drafted in Round 1 since Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch joined the organization in 2017.

That's why Pro Football Network's Sterling Xie projects the 49ers to take East Carolina cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. with pick no. 11.

"Charvarius Ward is a free agent, potentially leaving the San Francisco 49ers perilously thin on starting cornerbacks," writes Xie. "The Niners seemingly signaled Ward’s impending exit by extending Deommodore Lenoir this season, particularly with tons of impending contracts (including Brock Purdy’s) coming up on offense. However, drafting a top prospect like Shavon Revel Jr. would ease the pain that will come when Ward likely departs in free agency. Revel might not be ready to play right away after tearing his ACL in September, but he shouldn’t be out for the entirety of his rookie year. The 49ers have a history of taking big swings on injured-but-talented prospects, and Revel could be the latest in that draft pattern."

Taking a lock-down cornerback such as Revel would be smart because he would allow the defense to play man-to-man coverage and blitz, which would improve the pass rushers who already are on the team.

But the 49ers haven't spent a top-60 pick on a cornerback since 2002, and they just spent a late second-round pick on cornerback Renardo Green last year. I highly doubt they'll spend their first-round pick this year on another cornerback even if he is the best player available. For better or worse, you almost can guarantee they'll take a lineman.

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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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