2017 NFL Mock Draft: NFL Conference Championship Edition

Regardless of who winds up taking over as the head coach and GM for the San Francisco 49ers, the new management is going to want to make a splash with its first-round pick. Taking a quarterback would be the best way to do that, and probably the right move considering how Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick played this season.

There is no consensus as to who the top quarterback prospect is in this class, but in my opinion, it has to be Clemson’s Deshaun Watson. Taking the Tigers to back-to-back national championships was no small feat, but actually taking down the Alabama Crimson Tide this year speaks volumes about the young quarterback.

Watson isn’t a perfect QB prospect, but there is a lot to like about his game. The Clemson quarterback has a great arm with some relatively consistent ball placement, but he also has the mobility to extend plays with his legs and avoid pressure.

The biggest problem with Watson is his tendency to stare down his No. 1 option, rarely going through his progressions and instead forcing a throw or taking off if the first guy isn’t open. That is something that the right coaching staff should be able to fix, but it could be a bad habit for Watson as a rookie.

He might not be an elite playmaker right away, but Watson is the kind of quarterback a new regime in San Francisco could build around.