Based on most mock drafts, Virginia pass-rusher Eli Harold was likely to go at some point in the mid second-round at the latest and possibly even find a way to sneak into the first.
Unfortunately for Harold, he wound up falling all the way to the third-round. Now a member of the San Francisco 49ers, Harold seems to have an uphill battle to some semblance of significant snaps during his rookie NFL season.
With veterans like Aldon Smith, Aaron Lynch and Ahmad Brooks ahead of him on the depth chart, Harold's path is littered with talented players not likely to give way easily to a talented upstart.
Despite the already-in-place impediments to his hypothetical progress, the 6-foot-3, 247-pound Harold may prove to be in a good long-term position in San Fran.
"Playing on the other side from Smith would also provide Harold a lot of one-on-ones as teams focus extra attention on Smith," writes Charlie Campbell of WalterFootball.com. "The 49ers have also been skilled at developing and getting good play out of their front-seven defenders. If Harold can earn playing time, that should be a sign that San Francisco is developing him into being a good player."
After Harold finally came off the board in the third-round of the 2015 NFL Draft, a clearly surprised Mike Mayock, NFL Network's senior draft analyst, expressed optimism over Harold's fit with Niners defensive coordinator Eric Mangini and thus his future in San Fran.
"I'm surprised he lasted this long. Harold fits with what Eric Mangini wants to do. This is a perfect fit," Mayock said at the time, via NFL.com.
According to Campbell, while some teams did have the big Cavaliers pass-rusher in the second, Harold's fall may not have been as unexpected as Mayock suggested.
"Sources indicated that they had second-day grades on Harold," writes Campbell. "One team said they had a second-round grade on him, but didn't have a need at the position and there was a player with a first-round grade available at a position they were inclined to address. Another team said the same thing about a first-round grade being available at position of need, except that team had a third-round grade on Harold. They felt that his tape wasn't that great and he was a little stiff for being an undersized player. Another team said they had a second-day grade on him."
Harold led Virginia with 14.5 tackles for loss in 2014 and added 7.0 sacks, en route to a second-team All-ACC selection. In 2013, as a full-time defensive end, he again led the team with 15.0 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks.
Of course, now that the draft has ended and Harold, like all the other NFL rookies, is hard at work in his new football home, draft pedigree has ceased to matter.
If he can prove to Mangini and new Niners head coach Jim Tomsula that he deserves playing time through his efforts in training camp he could very well find himself eating into the starting snaps of Smith, Lynch and Brooks at some point this year.
And considering the legal issues Smith and Lynch have faced in recent years, it really wouldn't be all that surprising for Harold to end up as a starter on the outside for the new-look Niners sooner, rather than later.
