Because the 49ers netted Rueben Foster with the No. 31 overall pick — and used just an extra third round pick to land him — pretty much every expert gave San Francisco an A in their NFL Draft grades.
NFL Films executive producer Greg Cosell called into Tolbert and Lund on Monday and agreed: The 49ers hit a home run with their new linebacker.
“I think Foster, to me, was the second best prospect in this draft behind Myles Garrett,” Cosell said. “There’s nothing not to like. In fact, I do an excel spreadsheet, and I go strengths, weaknesses, transition. I had nothing under weaknesses. I think as a player on the field — and I know there are other issues and that’s probably why he dropped. Some injury concerns, perhaps some other things.
“But I think he’s a high-level linebacker prospect. He’s got all the athletic and movement traits you look for. He’s a physical player, he’s a warrior. There’s not really a weakness, physically, athletically and competitively in his game. So to me, he was the second best prospect in this draft class.”
Cosell said he had No. 3 overall pick on Solomon Thomas ranked sixth or seventh on his own personal draft board. There has been some debating as to where he will play. A majority of prognosticators have compared the Stanford product to Michael Bennett, both in size and where he’ll line up on the field. Cosell, however, compared him to a different player in Seattle’s defensive scheme, and sees him lining up less on the outside and more in the middle.
“To me, in your base defense, I think he’s an inside player,” Cosell said. “When you go to your sub packages, I think he can line up inside or outside. If you guys can think to the way the Seahawks the last couple of years have used Frank Clark in Seattle. Obviously, that’s where the defensive coordinator (Robert Saleh) came from. So I see Thomas that way. He’s an inside player in base and a multi-position player in your sub packages.”