By: Joe Lami

With the 17th pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the San Francisco 49ers select defensive end Arik Armstead.  The 6’7’’ Oregon Junior had been speculated to go to the Niners for a long time by the ESPN experts and they were right.

Armstead helped Oregon advance to the National Championship game where they were eventually defeated by Ohio State.  He was named a 2014 All-Pac 12 honorable mention.  He had ten tackles for loss with four of them being sacks during his 39 game career at Oregon.

Armstead fits a much needed hole on the 49ers, as they had major losses on the defensive side of the ball, with the play of Justin Smith next season still up in the air.  The only real drawback and criticism of Armsted is his consistency hasn’t been there.  He shows amazing potential, but hasn’t been consistent.  If he had been a consistent colligate player, there is no doubt that Armsted would’ve been a top ten selection.

The 49ers were supposed to select 15th overall, but right before they were on the clock they made a trade.  The trade dealt the 15th pick to the San Diego Chargers to fall back to 17th overall.  While doing so, San Francisco picks up an extra 4th round pick on Saturday and a 5th round pick in 2016.  San Diego picked Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon with the pick.

Draft Grade: B