The San Francisco 49ers might still be thinking about what could have been in Super Bowl 58, but we're now firmly in the offseason, and that means mock draft season.

Love it or hate it, it's the time of the year where mock drafts are produced almost daily as analysts try to project what teams could do in this year's annual selection meeting in Detroit.

NFL Media's Daniel Jeremiah published his second mock of this draft season this week, projecting a pick that would see the 49ers do something they have not done during the Kyle Shanahan era.

Jeremiah has the 49ers using the 31st overall pick in the first round on Duke's Graham Barton, an offensive tackle who is projected as a guard at the next level, with some believing he could also play center.

There is absolutely no doubt the 49ers need help on the interior offensive line, and specifically at a right guard position that was part of their undoing in the overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

But guard is not a position Shanahan, who essentially runs personnel on the offensive side of the ball, has ever valued highly.

The 49ers have not drafted a guard in the first round since the final year with Trent Baalke as their general manager in 2016, when they traded back into the first round for Joshua Garnett.

In the Shanahan-John Lynch era, the highest they have taken a guard is the second round, doing so in 2021 when they selected now starting left guard Aaron Banks.

Having rotated 2022 fourth-rounder Spencer Burford with Daniel Brunskill in Burford's rookie season and then with Jon Feliciano in 2023, the 49ers need a more concrete solution at a problem area. However, with a question-mark at the right tackle spot as well, a guard in the first round would seem an unlikelihood for the Niners.

Nothing is impossible, but history suggests Barton should not expect to hear his name called when San Francisco is on the clock if he still on the board at 31.

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