Kawakami: No more drama. The 49ers have an obvious path at pick No. 11

It’s time for the 49ers to turn down the drama a bit, starting with the 11th pick in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday.

Yes, it’s possible. And absolutely, a calm period would be good for everybody after the days and weeks of high theater and low-budget antics the 49ers staged during the recent free-agent cycle.

It’s time for the 49ers to make an obvious pick to fill a very obvious need. It’s time to be a little boring. It’s also probably exactly what John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan are planning to do.

I believe the 49ers should and will take the best defensive lineman who gets to them at pick No. 11 — whether Michigan’s Mason Graham surprisingly slips out of the top 10, Georgia’s Mykel Williams strikes the 49ers’ schematic fancy, Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart’s eye-popping athleticism catches their eye, or somebody else such as Oregon’s Derrick Harmon or Ole Miss’ Walter Nolen leaps to the top of their defensive line wish list.

Though this isn’t a draft loaded with stars, especially after the first seven or eight players, there’s a cluster of talented defensive linemen capable of walking into starting jobs as rookies. Maybe they won’t turn into Pro Bowlers. But they will be capable. They won’t get embarrassed. They will help any team that selects them. And the 49ers will have choice among three or four of them. They just have to take one and believe that their evaluation process — and defensive line coach Kris Kocurek — can produce the best one.

Or as Lynch said at his pre-draft presser on Tuesday when asked if he has a player in mind for the pick: “We’ve got a few guys, yeah.”

It’s simple. It’s sensible. There probably will be sexier options, like Penn State tight end Tyler Warren or Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, sitting there for the 49ers. There might be an opportunity to trade down with a team looking to get, say, Warren, and still end up with one of the 49ers’ favored defensive linemen. But a trade down doesn’t seem likely in the muddled middle of the draft.

The 49ers will likely stay at 11. And at this early point of the 49ers’ reset, there wouldn’t be much value in selecting an offensive playmaker with a top-12 pick. They discarded Deebo Samuel during the purge a few months ago, but they kept Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, Jauan Jennings, and last year’s first-round pick, Ricky Pearsall.

If the 49ers were one big-play guy away from winning a Super Bowl, sure, they could logically take a swing for an exotic offensive talent. But after the 6-11 descent last season and the ensuing payroll cleansing, the 49ers are assuredly not just one playmaker away from a championship. They’re probably two or three defensive linemen away from fielding a respectable run defense.

A reminder: After releasing Leonard Floyd, Javon Hargrave, and Maliek Collins, they currently have no proven starting-level linemen other than Nick Bosa and Yetur Gross-Matos. This from a team that, a few years back, used to brag about having seven or eight guys who could start on most other teams and used that depth to keep their best guys as fresh as possible. Well, not so much of that now, I’d say.

So the 49ers need quality defensive ends, defensive tackles, edge rushers, run-stuffers, three-technique savants, and whatever other defensive line specialty or technique you can list.

I’m guessing that the best match at 11 is Stewart, who has the athleticism and size of an All-Pro defensive end but had replacement-level statistics in college. If Kocurek and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh can raise Stewart’s level, this might be a home-run pick — somebody who can rush the passer and set the outside edge of the 49ers’ run defense. And if Stewart is only mediocre, the 49ers still probably have a multiple-year Bosa bookend.

“You’ve got to have the ability to set a firm edge,” Lynch said when asked what the 49ers are looking for in a defensive end. “When we’re playing that Wide 9 technique (with the ends spread out several yards more than in other schemes), setting an edge, there’s space. And so, you have to be able to take that space away that is initially there. And so that’s something we covet.”

If it’s not Stewart, it might be Williams, who fits the same run-pass model as Stewart with a bit more college production. It might be somebody else. But the 49ers should take a defensive end at No. 11, a defensive tackle in the second round, another defensive end with one of their third-round picks, another defensive tackle with another pick, and they should take two offensive linemen in there, too.

They have to restart this thing on the line of scrimmage, just like Shanahan and Lynch tried to do when they inherited one of the worst rosters in the league in 2017 and drafted defensive lineman Solomon Thomas third overall. That didn’t turn out well. But the philosophy was set, and it was a good one. When all else is in question, focus on the defensive line.

And there’s a ton in question about the 49ers’ roster right now.

Of course, dramatic things surround all facets of the organization, continuing into this week’s start of the voluntary offseason program — Brock Purdy showed up on Tuesday and George Kittle didn’t, while negotiations continue for their presumed new deals. It’s very early, so no big deal yet. But last April we all said the same things about Aiyuk’s early negotiations, and we didn’t even know that there would be a major Trent Williams contractual issue. And by July and August: big, big, big deals.

At the very least, though, Purdy’s presence probably signaled that he’s comfortable about the progress of the talks. And Lynch’s comments about the situation on Tuesday, while predictably vague, were free of the cautionary words he’s used recently.

Everything I’ve heard for months now is that the 49ers and Purdy’s camp both feel that there’s a clear path to a deal. But the clock is ticking. Will Purdy participate when the 11-on-11 drills start up next month if he doesn’t have a new deal? How about a mandatory minicamp in June? Or the start of training camp?

Back at locker-room cleanout day after last season, Purdy said: “I want to get it done quick. Just so we can get back for Phase 1, get after it with our receivers and our team. I’m not the kind of guy that wants to have any kind of drama associated with anything.”

Phase 1 started Tuesday. Oh well. After everything the 49ers have gone through — or, really, put themselves through — this offseason, QB1 is still looking for a new deal with months to go before training camp isn’t very dramatic. This should be a peaceful and practical time for the 49ers. And they have a chance to keep it that way starting on Thursday.