POD Community Mock Draft: Pick No. 10

Rd. # Player Pos. College 1 10 Aaron Maybin DE Penn State General Manager: Goose21

With the tenth pick of the 2009 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft, the San Francisco 49ers select Penn State defensive end Aaron Maybin.

Here is Goose21's reasoning for the pick:

The last five years has seen the Niners blunder on their first round picks, with the exception of 07 where they managed to swipe both P. Willis and Joe Staley. Nonetheless, this year's draft has largely unfolded as Niners brass has expected...Yes things are going smoothly in Frisco; so good in fact Coach Singletary has managed to keep his pants on throughout the first ten picks. With the tenth in this year's draft the Niners pass on Mark Sanchez and welcome Big Ten stand-out DE/OLB Aaron Maybin; with the quickest first step in this year's draft class the Niners hope he can get some much needed pressure on the opposing QB. Maybin also gives Singletary's defense, which ran both the 3-4 and the 4-3 last year, a versatile player who can play off the ball as well as stick his hand in the ground. The coaching staff also hopes the former Nittany Lion can set the edge in order to funnel more runners up the middle. The Niners ranked number one in yards allowed up the gut in 08, but struggled to stop runners from gashing them outside the hash-marks.

Sanchez was tempting at number ten, but the Niners are looking to emulate the Titans of last year, by winning with defense and a solid two pronged rushing attack; so a rookie QB doesn't fit the current direction the team is going in.

Andre Smith was also maybe worth a swing as the departure of J. Jennings leaves the RT spot wide-open, even with the arrival Marvel Smith. Frisco is thin at offensive line, but Coach Singletary doesn't want another headache to go along with Vernon Davis, so the team will probably address this position in later rounds to come.

At the end of the day it's defense, defense, and more defense for Singletary, and Maybin gives the head ball coach another weapon in his developing hybrid 3-4 scheme.