San Francisco 49ers Ignore Bigger Names, Draft Illinois WR A.J. Jenkins

No one who's ever had the pleasure of meeting San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Jim Harbaugh has ever come away with the notion that either man lacks for confidence. We were treated to another example of their collective chutzpah on Thursday night when the 49ers took Illinois receiver A.J. Jenkins with their first-round pick, 30th overall. 

Now please understand, we have no ill will toward Jenkins whatsoever and wish him nothing but the best. However, with that disclaimer out of the way, it has to be said he was not the top receiver left on the board. That would be either LSU's Rueben Randle or Georgia Tech's Stephen Hill.

Jenkins also wasn't the best player on last season's wholly uninspired Fighting Illini squad. End Whitney Mercilus is a beast and will make Texans fans forget all about Mario Williams.

Heck, the newest 49er wasn't even the best Jenkins available. That would be Janoris Jenkins, the talented, but troubled corner from North Alabama that a couple of mocks out there had going to the 49ers at 30.

Those at ESPN Scouts Inc. had Jenkins as the seventh-rated receiver prospect and 62nd-best overall in this draft class, meaning they see him as a late second-round talent. All 31 other players picked in the first round were ranked higher, meaning Jenkins is seen as the biggest "reach" so far.

Lest you think the ESPN people are just know-nothing haters, CBSSports.com also had Jenkins as the seventh-best wideout and the 58th-ranked overall prospect, NFL.com's in-house rankings had him as the 82nd-best and National Football Post ranked him 170th.

Even Jenkins himself admitted afterward he didn't expect to be drafted in the first round.

Now, all of the above information is based on subjective opinion. Which draft analyst's opinions do Harbaugh and Baalke respect?

No-o-o-o-bodies!

Here's what we do know for sure about Jenkins: He's not especially tall (6'0"), he's not sturdily built (190 pounds), and he only had the one eye-popping season, statistically, catching 90 passes for 1,276 yards and eight touchdowns as a senior for the Fighting Illini. His frame suggests he will spend quite a bit of time in the slot.

Jenkins was never considered a true burner by the scouts, but he did post a 4.31 40-yard dash time during the scouting combine, which Baalke insisted played no factor in his decision to draft him.

Baalke and Harbaugh have projected a united front from day one, and it was no different after the pick, with Harbaugh saying they were in agreement on Jenkins on the eve of the draft and that Baalke had given him an envelope with the receiver's name in it, telling him he was going to be theirs.

Certainly the 49ers brass deserves the benefit of the doubt. Two of Baalke's top four picks from the 2010 draft, guard Mike Iupati and linebacker NaVorro Bowman, are among the very best in the league at their respective positions, while another, tackle Anthony Davis, continues to show promise.

Last year Baalke surprised the experts by selecting linebacker Aldon Smith with the seventh pick when the draftniks had Smith going in the late teens or early 20's, and Smith had 14 sacks in his rookie season as a part-time player.

Two more picks from the 2011 draft that looked like major reaches, corner Chris Culliver and fullback Bruce Miller, were solid contributors as well. Miller, a fellow who had more sacks in his collegiate career at UCF than Smith did at Missouri, had never played fullback in his life. That didn't dissuade Baalke from projecting him in that role and he was proved correct.

Still, that doesn't mean that Baalke doesn't have a blind spot when it comes to receivers. The 49ers' one real miss in last year's draft was USC's Ronald Johnson, whom they chose over Doug Baldwin, a guy Harbaugh was well familiar with, having coached him at Stanford.

Also, Baalke was a part of the team's front office when the 49ers drafted Michael Crabtree over receivers like Hakeem Nicks, Jeremy Maclin and Kenny Britt. How's that gone?

What makes this pick particularly sticky for the 49ers is that plenty of other prospects who had been linked to them—such as Hill, Randle, Midwestern State guard Amini Silatolu and Stanford tight end Coby Fleener—were all available for the taking, with no trade machinations required.

Certainly it's foolish to suggest any of us know better than Baalke and his scouts about this stuff, but it's just hard to imagine Jenkins wouldn't have been available a wee bit down the road, perhaps in the late 30s or early 40s.

Couldn't the 49ers have addressed another need and then perhaps traded up midway in the second round to nab Jenkins?

Or, even better, why not trade down out of the first round entirely to the late 30s, pick up an extra second- or third-round pick and use that to trade back up from the 61st pick to somewhere in the late 40s?

Baalke suggested he didn't think Jenkins would be around too much longer, and his track record in knowing what his peers are thinking has been good. If he's certain the Rams or the Browns had their eyes on Jenkins, then he did what he had to do.

Heaven help him, though, if Fleener, Hill or Randle turns into a stud while Jenkins has a middling career.

Harbaugh and Baalke have shown a tendency of not just being the smartest guys in the room but of wanting you to know they're the smartest. To me, this feels like a "too clever by half" kind of pick.

Only six more rounds to go.

Michael Erler is a writer and editor for San Francisco Illustrated and is a Correspondent for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.