It may seem too early to start thinking about the 2013 NFL draft, but the San Francisco 49ers were thinking ahead during this year’s draft, and that will pay off a year from now.
Thanks to three trades made during last week’s draft as well as last year’s trade of safety Taylor Mays, the 49ers have the Panthers’ third-round pick, the Colts’ fifth-round pick, the Dolphins’ sixth-round pick and the Bengals’ seventh-round pick in 2013. Peter King reports that the 49ers are also likely to get two compensatory picks next year, and they have all seven of their own picks, so they can currently be penciled in for a whopping 13 draft picks in 2013.
San Francisco is the only team in the NFL that has more than one extra pick in the 2013 draft: A few other teams have acquired two extra picks for next year, but those teams have also traded at least one 2013 pick away.
Other teams that have to feel good about their standing heading into the 2013 draft include the Rams, who have all their own picks and the Redskins’ first-round pick as part of the Robert Griffin III trade, and the Bengals, who have the Raiders’ second-round pick as part of the Carson Palmer trade (and that becomes a first-round pick if the Raiders reach the AFC Championship Game), and the Patriots’ sixth-round pick as part of the Chad Ochocinco trade.
In addition to the Palmer trade, the Raiders also sent a pick in next year’s draft to Seattle in exchange for Aaron Curry, with that pick going in either the fourth or fifth round, depending on Curry’s playing time. For Raiders General Manager Reggie McKenzie, one of the first orders of business was making clear that there was going to be no more trading away of future draft picks. But he’ll have to wait another year before he can start to build up a draft pick surplus like the other team in the Bay Area.