Six years ago, the NFL Draft focused on a battle between Mario Williams and Reggie Bush for the top spot in the draft. People thought Houston made a mistake selecting Williams over Bush, but the decision has paid off well due to Bush's inconsistencies in Houston. Bush had a resurgence in 2011, but Mario Williams has been a beast for the Texans.
Mel Kiper Jr. put together a re-draft of the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft to see who might have gone where based on performance since 2006. His re-draft does not look at specific need at the time, but rather simply looks at performance by each player and ranks them accordingly. His new number one overall pick is Haloti Ngata, who previously went No. 12 to the Baltimore Ravens.
In his re-draft, Kiper has the San Francisco 49ers selecting offensive lineman Jahri Evans with the sixth pick. This would replace their previous selection of tight end Vernon Davis, who dropped to the Bills at eighth.
While Kiper was not addressing need with the picks, it is still interesting to consider where the 49ers were at the time. The 49ers signed Jonas Jennings to a sizable contract for the 2005 season and saw him deal with numerous injuries, playing in three games. He would start 13 games in 2006 but would never get back into double digits as he flamed out in a big way. The 49ers had Kwame Harris on the other side of the line and while he started 13 games, he had his share of struggles in pass protection.
The 2007 NFL Draft saw the 49ers draft Joe Staley late in the first round, so that probably would have changed had the 49ers gone with Evans in 2006.