by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–The draft is over the 49ers first round pick Jimmie Ward who was selected at number 30 he’s listed as a safety and that was a bit of a surprise when he was picked. The more we learned about him he was not going to be a safety. Maybe three or four years down the road for Ward but for right now he’s going to be playing nickle corner, slot corner and if you watch the tape of Ward he’s a physical very capable coverage corner.

Ward can play in that tight slot and he will be very good and a good number of draft analysts who talked about this over this weekend have talked about the 49ers selections and have given it sneaky A plus grades and Ward was someone that no one was talking about and the Niners took him.

In the second round at 25th pick another good pick the 49ers selected running back Carolos Hyde out of Ohio State and no one suspected that the 49ers were going to select a running back but that’s what they did and everybody thought the 49ers were set at running back with Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter, Marcus Lattimore, LaMichael James. Anthony Dixon left via free agency this off season so they were a little bit short and there has always been questions about James.

Drafting Hyde really makes it obvious that James won’t be around much longer for the 49ers, Hyde is a big bruising back he’s one of these guys at 6’1 at 220 pounds he’s a short yardage back that the 49ers haven’t had in several years. The Niners have had trouble in short yardage situations and Hyde is coming in to address that particular weakness.

In the third round the 49ers selected offensive center Marcus Martin at number six, Martin from the Pac 12 out of USC and a lot of the analysts said this was the best center out of the entire draft and getting Martin out of the third round a lot of them say this was a steal and it doesn’t matter Martin is the guy to have.

It’s a position out of need for the 49ers Jonathan Goodwin who left the 49ers via free agency so Martin can definitely fill that void. You might see him competing with Daniel Kilgore who the Niners drafted a few years ago. Kilgore is suppose to be the starting center and Martin was the starting center for USC for several years.

The Niners in the third round selected inside linebacker Chris Borland out of Wisconsin at number 13 he’s there so the 49ers have a little breathing room for Novarro Bowman he suffered that horrific injury in that playoff game against Seattle. You can expect Novarro to be back sometime in the middle of the season.

With the kind of injury he had its no telling how long his recovery is going to take, he could be back by the middle of the season and he might not be. The 49ers don’t have a crystal ball and their protecting themselves by selecting Borland at the linebacker position.

Borland plays on instinct and he’s not super duper fast the way that Patrick Willis is, Borland has great instincts for the ball he’s always around, he’s a tackling machine he was the Big Ten defensive player of the year. We’re not sure if you’ll see Borland at starter you might see more of him on special teams.

Brandon Thomas an offensive tackle at number 36 in the third round out of Clemson he was also hurt and he was selected at the end of the third round. Thomas is not going to play for the Niners next season he’s going to be on the injured reserve list. He’s a guy with what they did for Lattimore and tackle Tank Carridine last year.

Their essentially red shirting Thomas and their picking guys who are really, really good, and would have picked guys who would have been high draft picks if they weren’t injured and their letting them recover and learn the offense at a much more reasonable pace. Thomas is a guy who’s going to be a long term solution.

In the fourth round the Niners took wide receiver Bruce Ellington out of South Carolina at number six, he’s very fast, at SC he did a lot of kick returning and a little bit of punt returning but he’s comfortable fielding punts. So the 49ers picked him more as a special teamer a guy who returns punts and kicks.

Ellington has great speed and the Niners definitely need that, they don’t have that with their current guys. Speaking of wide receiver the 49ers made a trade that might be more impacting than any of these draft picks they traded their fourth round pick next year in 2015 for Stevie Johnson from the Buffalo Bills.

Johnson is a guy who’s had over 1000 yards receiving for three out of the last four seasons and he was dinged up last year and didn’t get many reps and the Bills went and drafted Sandy Watkins with the third overall pick so they gave away Johnson to the 49ers. Johnson is a San Francisco native so this is homecoming for Johnson.

The 49ers drafted a handful of cornerbacks and the 49ers in the fourth round picked Dontae Johnson a defensive corner out of NC State at number 29. He’s probably the most prominent one, the one thing you look at with the Niners with the corners they picked they went with bigger guys and the 49ers went with bigger and more physical cornerbacks.

The rest of the 49ers selections in the fifth round at number ten defensive end Aaron Lynch was selected out of South Florida, at number 30 Keith Reaser defensive corner out Florida Atlantic University, in the sixth round at number four defensive corner Kenneth Acker out of SMU, in the seventh round at number 28 defensive tackle Kaleb Ramsey out of Boston College.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com