San Francisco 49ers: Draft plans becoming clear with QB Room settled

With Jimmy Garoppolo seemingly in place as the San Francisco 49ers’ long-term quarterback, their likely plans in the draft are becoming clear.

For the past few seasons, the biggest issue on the San Francisco 49ers roster has been seen as the lack of a long-term answer at quarterback. With the trade for Jimmy Garoppolo that issue appears to have been resolved, and the combination of his arrival and poor play at certain positions has brought clarity to their likely draft plans.

Though Garoppolo is a free agent at the end of the season and has yet to be handed a contract by the Niners, it is generally accepted — and has been publicly acknowledged by general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan — that he will be the guy going forward, with rookie C.J. Beathard having shown enough to suggest he can at least be a capable backup.

Lynch declared, per ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, that the 49ers are happy with the quarterback room and, though he has not acknowledged what San Francisco’s biggest holes are, the play produced by certain position groups has provided a clue as to which areas the Niners will be targeting come draft time.

It has not been difficult to decipher where San Francisco has struggled in 2017. The Niners have found it difficult to keep the quarterback upright and have not been great at getting opposing signal-callers on the ground.

Indeed, the 49ers have given up 32 sacks this season while recording just 20 sacks of their own, good enough for 26th in the league. San Francisco’s worst games in terms of protecting the quarterback have come when one of the 49ers’ starting tackles, Joe Staley and Trent Brown, has not been available.

Beathard was hit 16 times on six occasions with Staley out of the lineup against the Arizona Cardinals and was pressured on 46.5 percent of his dropbacks in the Week 12 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks with Brown unavailable at right tackle.

Those performances highlight the value of Staley and Brown but, even when that duo have been healthy, the Niners have struggled to protect Beathard, with center Daniel Kilgore and guard Laken Tomlinson both struggling significantly on the interior. Kilgore’s Pro Football Focus grade of 43.8 sees him ranked 32nd among all centers, while Tomlinson is rated 43rd among guards with 46.9 grade.

Adding to the interior of the trenches in the offseason should be a definitive priority for the 49ers, particularly with highly touted talent such as Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson and centers Billy Price, Frank Ragnow and Mason Cole set to be available in the draft.

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The Niners’ struggles in rushing the passer may be somewhat surprising given that they have invested a first-round pick in a defensive lineman in each of the last three years. However, that they are relying primarily on an ageing Elvis Dumervil on the outside speaks to a lack of edge talent, with the 49ers often unable to take advantage of the interior disruption that Buckner in particular has been able to generate.

Therefore look for Louisville’s Bradley Chubb and Boston College’s Harold Landry to be names linked with the 49ers throughout the pre-draft process. Though a successful pass rush can make defensive backs look good, there is a strong case that the secondary should be an offseason point of emphasis for a team for whom rookie Ahkhello Witherspoon has quickly developed into their best cornerback.

With Garoppolo set to throw to Marquise Goodwin, Aldrick Robinson, Louis Murphy and rookies Trent Taylor, George Kittle and Kendrick Bourne in his debut against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, it is clear that the 49ers need more game-changing talent among their pass-catchers.

The good news for San Francisco is that, with the quarterback in place and a top-five pick likely at his disposal, Lynch is in position to shop that selection and stockpile the capital needed to address multiple holes with a trade down. Lynch pulled off such a move in the 2017 draft and the smart money says he will be looking to repeat the feat in 2018.

Regardless of how many picks the 49ers end up with, the poor play on the interior of the O-Line an on the edge has made it clear that those areas are the teams most pressing needs. Garoppolo has the look of a quarterback who can deliver with a less talented core of receivers and he is more likely to do so with consistent time to throw.

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On the other side of the ball, a greater amount of quality players on the edge would take the strain off Buckner in the trenches and Witherspoon and Co. in the secondary.

The quickest path for the 49ers to have some degree of success next season is to address those concerns. Lynch is smart enough to know that and should have the likes of Nelson, Chubb and Landry near the top of his board come draft day.