National Football League

49ers Select ILB Reuben Foster in Chat Sports' Mock NFL Draft

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:28 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Peter Panacy/FanSided via Niner Noise

Chat Sports invited Niner Noise to partake in their Facebook Live 2017 NFL Draft mock. With the No. 2 overall pick, the San Francisco 49ers selected Reuben Foster, inside linebacker, Alabama.

Chat Sports was kind enough to invite Niner Noise to play the role of general manager of the San Francisco 49ers in the 2017 NFL Draft.

The sports site held a mock draft, featured on Facebook Live, and had various analysts and pundits from around the league make picks in Round 1 of the draft for their respective teams.

For San Francisco, Niner Noise selected Alabama inside linebacker Reuben Foster.

You can see the selection right around the 13:07 mark of the video.

Those who aren’t totally familiar with the Niners might think a quarterback would be the most pressing need here. After all, it doesn’t take too much to look around at various mocks to see a quarterback, like North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, is mocked to the 49ers at No. 2 overall.

Here’s the problem — there aren’t any signal-callers in this year’s draft class worthy of a top-five pick. Even one in the top 10 is a bit of a stretch.

Oct 3, 2015; Athens, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs running back Sony Michel (1) is tackled by Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker Reuben Foster (10) during the second quarter at Sanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Instead, San Francisco needs to shore up its primary weakness from a year ago, which was the running game. Remember, the Niners allowed more yards than anyone else in the league on the ground last year (2,654), which was almost 400 yards more than the second-most defense, the Cleveland Browns.

Foster will help with this, as his CBS Sports draft profile indicates.

More from Niner Noise

Another thought here would have been Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams. Yet there are number of second-round wideout prospects, like Washington’s John Ross or Western Michigan’s Corey Davis, who might be nearly as enticing.

If anything, Foster’s pick gives Niners fans the chance to see what a dynamic inside linebacker corps looks like again.

The last time San Francisco had this was in the days of NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis.

The 49ers were pretty good on defense when this was the case.

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