Reuben Foster’s shoulder didn’t bother the 49ers or Saints. The 49ers took him with the 31st pick in the draft while he was on the phone with the Saints, who would have picked the Alabama inside linebacker at No. 32.
If it weren’t for that shoulder, however, Foster would have been drafted a lot earlier in the first round. He had surgery on his right rotator cuff before the scouting combine and some teams thought he might need another surgery.
“The surgery didn’t take,” a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The 49ers, however, were so convinced that Foster’s shoulder was a non-issue that they would have taken him with the No. 3 pick if the Bears had chosen Solomon Thomas at No. 2.
Foster won the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker, leading Alabama with 115 tackles including 13 for loss. His draft stock also might have suffered because he was thrown out of the combine after a confrontation with a medical worker and also tested positive for a dilute drug sample.
Depending on how well Foster does in the NFL, there could be some teams that re-evaluate their medical evaluations.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
