If the first Butkus Award-winning SEC inside linebacker you draft in the first round doesn’t work, try, try again?
That could be just what the 49ers do given the legal issues surrounding Reuben Foster, last year’s 31st overall pick from Alabama whose future with the team is uncertain after he recently was charged with three felonies.
The situation has made Georgia inside linebacker Roquan Smith a logical target for the 49ers with the ninth pick in the NFL draft Thursday. Like Foster, Smith will enter the NFL after winning the Butkus, which is given to the nation’s top linebacker.