How we choose to resign Albert is the real rub I’d say. If we select a top-flight LT with our first pick between now and then, that means we’ll be carrying 2 expensive OL until Albert resigns. What’s more he should be able to command LT money somewhere else if we’re not willing to pony up for the kind of money he might rightly ask for. Very likely scenario I’d say.

Ideal scenario: We pick up 2 top-name defenders in FA (DE & LB) and a veteran QB, we select Crabtree or Curry with our first pick, Unger (who can play any of 4 OL positions) with our 2nd round pick, and Josh Freeman (as a development project) with our 3rd round pick. Then in ’10, we use our 1st round pick on a QB if we need to – there should be several good ones available. This year’s day one QB options are either not going to be ready to start in the NFL or just plain suck.

dbk – back to you, upon further review . . . it looks to me like there may be at least one RT (Eben Britton) and a couple of G’s (Robinson & Johnson) that might go mid-to-late first round.

I say we need to take off the board whoever we think the best player available is. As far as I’m concerned, that’s got to be either Michael Crabtree or Aaron Curry – either one looks to be a big get for our team.

I also believe that a team like Oakland would pay very handsomely for our #3 spot because of their 2 biggest impact needs (WR, SLB) and the strong likelihood that neither position will provide adequate talent for them at the #7 pick. Al Davis is crazy about going for impact players so I look for it to get pretty interesting for us this go round.