The 49ers selected CB Chris Culliver out of South Carolina with the 80th overall pick (3rd round) of the 2011 NFL Draft.  Culliver is 6’0″, 199 pounds and he runs a 4.37 40 as he is a pretty good athlete.  His future might be at safety though in an effort to keep him healthy as he’s pretty injury prone.  He played in 7 games for South Carolina last year and he had 34 tackles, broke up 2 passes, had 2.5 tackles for a loss, 1 sack and he forced 1 fumble.  He also returned 12 kickoffs for 261 yards (21.8 avg) last year.  Culliver played in 43 games in his four years with the Gamecocks and he had 156 tackles, broke up 14 passes, had 3 interceptions, 9.5 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks and he forced 3 fumbles.  Culliver also returned 106 kickoffs for 2,476 yards (23.4 avg) for South Carolina.  Culliver wasn’t expected to get drafted by a lot of experts, so the Niners reached big time here to try to fill a need.

The 49ers traded up to select 23-year old QB Colin Kaepernick out of Nevada with the 36th overall pick (2nd round) of the 2011 NFL Draft.  Kaepernick is a outstanding athlete at 6’4″, 225 pounds and he runs a 4.53 40.  He doesn’t hesitate to take off running when a play breaks down.  He also has a rifle attached to his right shoulder as he can make all the throws.  He played in a very wide open offense in college, so it might take him a little while to adjust to the NFL style of play.  Kaepernick played in 14 games (all starts) for Nevada last year and he completed 233 of 359 passes (64.9%) for 3,022 yards with 21 TD passes and 8 INTs.  He played in 51 games (47 starts) in his four years with the Wolfpack and he completed 740 of 1,271 passes (58.2%) for 10,098 yards with 56 TD passes and 31 INTs.  Kaepernick will likely get to battle for the starting job at QB in 2011, even if Alex Smith is brought back.  I really like this pick for the 49ers, as QB was a huge need for them.