It's almost as though Prince Amukamara out of LSU is some kind of safety net for the San Francisco 49ers. In lieu of Patrick Peterson, Von Miller or Marcell Dareus, the 49ers should be able to land Amukamara, the consensus number two corner in the draft, at the seventh pick. The biggest deterrent to this is the fact that people can't get over this perception that Amukamara is some kind of consolation pick, of that corners generally aren't taken in the top ten, so taking the second best corner at pick seven has to be some sort of taboo.
Reality check: there are teams out there who have Amukamara above Peterson on their board. Amukamara was the consensus best guy coming out this year until Peterson played well, it's not like Prince suddenly dropped or anything like that. Peterson just seriously excelled, in a kind of Dareus-esque way at the expense of Nick Fairley. The point is that Amukamara is worth every bit of the seventh overall pick, and that's why they went with him in SB Nation's latest mock draft.
7. San Francisco 49ers: Prince Amukamara, CB, Nebraska. Corner is a huge need, and Amukamara is a fantastic way for a new Niners regime to begin their rebuild.
That's the best way to put it, really, and Amukamara would be a starter in San Francisco for many, many years. He's a guy who will immediately supplant Nate Clements as the number one starter and he'll be expected to perform from the get-go against guys like Mike Williams and Larry Fitzgerald in the NFC West. He can handle that kind of burden.
This time, SB Nation went with a two-round mock, and so we've also got the 49ers making a pick in the second round, which can be found here.
45. San Francisco 49ers: Christian Ponder, QB, Florida State. Ponder has enough athletic ability, arm talent and intangibles for Jim Harbaugh to work with in his system.
It's probably not likely that Ponder actually falls this far when it all comes down to it, but if he does, the 49ers almost certainly take him, unless Jim Harbaugh is just not that high on the guy, in which case they could certainly entertain trade offers with teams like the Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars coming up - a team may want to get in ahead of them and pull the trigger on Ponder. Still, he fits the offense and is pretty close to being pro-ready.