3 days and almost there...

How excited am I and how tired of waiting? For the NFL draft, of course! This lockout is really messing things up, but forge on we must. With so much more in the air, at least it is making things that much more interesting. Free agent signings will just have to fill in the holes in the roster instead of vice versa.

As always, my opinions may be in a particular direction but my faith will go with whatever the 49ers brass decides is best. Especially with the blank slate we have now - we don't know what the new coaching staff is all about yet. But for now and from what I've read, the expected players on the Niners draft board (and still available when they pick) would have to be: Patrick Peterson and Prince Amukamara at cornerback and Robert Quinn as a prospective outside/rushing linebacker. To be honest, I would be more excited about drafting a later round quarterback than one of the two projected best quarterbacks, Cam Newton and Blaine Gabbert, either of whom could also be available when the 49ers pick. The Niners may have to move up from where they pick in the 2nd round to be able to draft one of the so-called second-tier quarterbacks; from what I've been able to gather, I am most interested in getting either Christian Ponder, Andy Dalton, or Colin Kaepernick.

But we'll see how the draft goes. In spite of the sound decisions that teams will be trying to make, there could be a certain vibe that takes over the proceedings. A domino effect. If one team drafts a quarterback sooner than expected, then there could be rush of quarterbacks taken and who knows what will happen then? Fortunately, the 49ers have plenty of picks to work with if they need to trade to move up in order to get their guy (and as I mentioned in my previous post, hopefully they will have a handful of guys/quarterbacks they would be more than happy to draft).

Another thing to keep in mind is how the draft is broken up into three days, as was started with last year's draft. That means that all the teams will have a night to go over what just happened with Thursday evening's first round and prepare for the second and third rounds to take place on Friday. More time to analyze and strategize... and second guess too! Calls will be made and trades discussed. By Thursday night, each team will have (on average) one first round pick; did the 49ers trade up? Trade down? What about Friday and Saturday? Saturday should be fun because the Niners have so many picks this time around. Such intrigue!

And do I hope that Alex Smith returns for another year as well? I don't know, I just don't know...