With the 49ers being a relatively young and well balanced team it will be hard to pin-point what their "biggest need" is going into the draft in 2013. I got to thinking this week about that and have come up with an interesting suggestion.
Sure the Niners could draft at positions to help with depth and possible free-agent vacancies like S, DL, OL, QB, RB, and TE, but what about a kicker? Many Niner fans can remember laughing when the Raiders took Sebastian Janikowski in the first round (17th overall) out of Florida State in the 2000 NFL draft, but he has gone on to show that he has the strongest leg in the NFL despite his occasional mishaps. The top rated kicker this year happens to be Dustin Hopkins out of... you guessed it, Florida State. I'm not saying he's going to have a dominate leg like Janikowski, or that the Niners should be taking him in the 1st round, but I am saying that the Niners could use some new blood at that position. The Niners have been so good at evaluating talent that I would imagine if Hopkins or another kicker was worth it then they would (and should) pull the trigger.
David Akers has actually been pretty awesome for us but we can't afford to keep a guy around if he's not playing up to par in the clutch. The last thing we need is for a missed kick when it really hurts, like in the play-offs. Let's also face the fact that cutting Akers and going with a younger, cheaper kicker out of college would give us an opportunity to save a little dough to spend on some of those impending free-agents.
So, what do you say? 4th? 5th round pick? Guess we'll have to see how Akers finishes right? I mean this guy did nail a 63 yard field goal this year.
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