Dear Mike Shanahan, From Mike Mayock.

Locker with our first pick – 10, 14 or 17.

Mayock isn’t the only draftnik worth listening to. Wes Bunting knows his stuff, and there are others. Second, it totally depends on your view of Dick Cheney, doesn’t it? ;-) Third, Locker doesn’t fit anyone’s system that expects accuracy (which is all of them) and will need one to three years of learning before he does, IF he does. Fourth, if Shanahan is listening to people like Mayock or Bunting over the people he actually employs to make decisions, he really ought to be fired. I hear Bill Cowher isn’t coaching right now.

Taking him at #10 is a very tough decision. Depends how much you want him. Because it you definitely want him over any other QB, you’re going to have to pay. I’d like to think that trading down would give us the best of all worlds – an extra pick or two, and the QB we wanted, maybe even Locker, but it could royally backfire, too. So – agree with Smutsboy and MagicHat above – just hope Shanahan decision works out.

That implies that Cerrato had a clue.

Given the sorry state of our roster (as in few real impact players and very little depth) I’m hoping that we build up the team and then get a QB.

And to fuel the fires of argument, here’s some quotes from this article:
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Taking-a-hog-early-is-the-way-to-go.html

“The first is there is an abundance of blockers with high round grades this year. It’s one of the better years for offensive linemen from a depth perspective that the draft has seen in a long time.”

“Any team looking to make a safe pick should look at an offensive lineman. The bust rate is considerably lower for blockers than it is for most positions. Over the past five drafts, 31 offensive linemen have been chosen in the first round. Of those, the only one I would classify as a full-fledged bust is Andre Smith, chosen by the Bengals with the sixth pick in the 2009 draft. You might make an argument for Chris Williams of the Bears, and, while he has been a disappointment, at least he has been a starter for two years.”

“Even if a team takes a tackle and the player struggles at the position, they can always kick them inside to guard, like the Raiders did with Robert Gallery, the second overall pick in 2004.”

“Not only do offensive linemen picked in the early rounds seldom turn into busts, they often become impact rookies.” – sounds familiar, can you say Trent Williams?

So do we draft Locker and watch him get pummeled for several years? I hope not.

If they draft Locker then they’d also better grab 3-4 OL (either through the draft or FA) too.

the most interesting thing mayock said in that interview was that flacco and ryan found success early because their teams had a good defense and a running game in place before they were drafted.
….
now i would not pass up a sam bradford just because we are missing either. but you want it to be that easy of a decision- little doubt you are getting a good qb. and there are no obvious sam bradfords in this draft.