Why the 49ers Were Smart to Draft Aaron Banks

Banks was the 49ers' second-round pick, and he will take over what arguably was the 49ers' weakest position on offense last season -- right guard.

Grant Cohn | May 3, 2021

Trey Lance might not start right away, but Aaron Banks will.

Banks was the 49ers' second-round pick, and he will take over what was arguably the 49ers' weakest position on offense last season -- right guard. Banks will be a major upgrade over Tom Compton and Colton McKivitz and should start for the next five to 10 years.

Here are three reasons why the pick was so smart.

1. The top six cornerbacks were gone.

Cornerback was another big need, but the best ones got taken in the top 33 selections, and the 49ers didn't pick until No. 43. They weren't really in a position to take a future starting corner. So instead of trading up to get the fifth- or sixth-best cornerback in the draft, they traded down to get the second-best guard. Makes sense.

2. The 49ers traded down five spots to get Banks.

By trading down, the 49ers picked up an extra fourth-round pick. Then the 49ers traded both their fourth rounders for a third rounder, and used that to take running back Trey Sermon. Which means Sermon is on the 49ers only because the 49ers could trade down in Round 2 for Banks. The 49ers got two for the price of one.

3. Banks is the second-best guard in the draft.

That's according to NFL.com, which gave Banks a higher draft grade (6.29) than Las Vegas Raiders first-round pick Alex Leatherwood (6.28), who plays right tackle. The Raiders took Leatherwood with the 17th pick.

Banks is better than him. Banks will be a good pass protector and a run blocker from the get go. He could make the biggest impact of all the 49ers rookies next season.

Published May 3, 2021

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.