Blaine Gabbert? Prince Amukamara? Robert Quinn?

How about none of the above.

With the first draft pick of the Jim Harbaugh era, the 49ers made a pick few (no one?) projected as they grabbed Missouri’s Aldon Smith with the No. 7 overall selection.

Smith, 21, played defensive end in college, but will transition to outside linebacker in San Francisco, which has been seeking an explosive pass-rusher to employ in its 3-4 defense for years. Since switching to a 3-4 in 2005, the Niners haven’t had an outside linebacker post more than eight sacks in a season.

Of course, they’re hoping the 6-foot-4, 263-pound Smith, who left Missouri after his sophomore season, is the long-awaited answer.

Smith set a school record with 11.5 sacks as a freshman and set a Big 12 freshman record with 19 tackles for loss. He missed three games as a sophomore with a broken right fibula and wasn’t fully healthy when he returned. He still finished with 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss in 10 games.

In his GM Jr. Draft Guide, Sporting News draft analyst and former NFL scout Russ Lande terms Smith one of the best athletes in the draft.

“He is a tall and muscular DE who looks thin, but has elite athleticism and has shown the ability to be a dynamic pass-rusher and big play-maker,” Lande wrote. “He really showed excellent toughness battling through a bad leg injury in 2010 … came back and battled on, playing on basically one leg and was still very disruptive and productive.”

Is it draft day already?

Just kidding. Our first draft-related blog was 99 days ago, before the Super Bowl, before the lockout and before it became clear that Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller wouldn’t be around when the Niners were on the clock with the No. 7 pick.

Miller will surely be snapped up within the first six picks tonight.

But what about Patrick Peterson? If the LSU cornerback is on the board it will likely take the 49ers about 4.32 seconds – Peterson’s 40-yard-dash time – to make their selection.

But what if Peterson is gone, too? And Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, Marcell Dareus and A.J. Green are also sporting the NFL-hat-with-blazer look. Anything can happen, of course, but it’s an entirely reasonable scenario.

If the Niners don’t want to trade down – or can’t find a willing trade partner – the most logical candidates at No. 7 would appear to be North Carolina defensive end Robert Quinn and Nebraska cornerback Prince Amakumara.

CBS Sports draft analyst Rob Rang favors pass rushers over cornerbacks, all things being equal, but he said he’d select Amukamara if he were the 49ers.

“I would take Prince Amukamara. I think that he is a safer player,” Rang said. “I really believe the 49ers could use a pass-rusher more than they could use another corner. And the depth at the cornerback position is better than at outside linebacker as far as pass rushers … At the same time, I am that much higher on Prince. It’s not a huge disparity. It’s just that I believe Prince is the better, safer player. If you’re more concerned about taking the best available player rather than filling a need, then, to me, the choice is Prince.”

Why Prince? Rang believes Quinn is best suited to being a 4-3 defensive end in the NFL – an opinion shared by North Carolina coach Butch Davis. The Niners, presumably, would want the 6-foot-4, 265-pound Quinn to become a 3-4 outside linebacker.

“I agree with Butch Davis wholeheartedly that Quinn is at his best as defensive end in a 4-3 alignment and that’s what we’ve seen him do,” Rang said. “And that’s what his build is best suited for. He’s a very good athlete, but I don’t know if he’s an elite athlete in terms of the fluidity really needed to drop into coverage. And, of course, you’re not going to ask a 3-4 rush linebacker to necessarily be dropping into coverage that often. Their job is to get after the quarterback.

“But you see the same type of explosiveness in Quinn whether he’s standing up or he’s in a three-point stance. It’s rarer to have that type of explosiveness from the three-point stance so he’s a rarer commodity as a 4-3 defensive end. I do believe that he can be a good, or perhaps even very good, 3-4 rush linebacker. But I believe I believe he could be a Pro Bowl defensive end.”

Surprise! General manager Trent Baalke didn’t reveal what player will be behind draft door No. 7 in eight days during his 30-minute pre-draft meeting with the media today.

But he did say the 49ers could trade up in the first round … or they could stay put … or they could trade back. You get the idea. Baalke, unsurprisingly, was tight-lipped regarding his draft plans, but he did offer a few insights.

I’ll hit them quickly before heading to the field for the 49ers’ local pro day:

• Want another surprise? There were a few questions regarding free-agent quarterback Alex Smith. Baalke has been far more reserved than coach Jim Harbaugh when it comes to discussing Smith publicly. Your up-to-the-minute feelings on Alex, Mr. Baalke?

“I have confidence in Alex,” he said. “And once again we’ve been through this and I don’t want to keep beating this Alex Smith thing up. It’s up to Alex to make the decision on whether he wants to be a 49er again. I think Jim’s made it clear. We’ve made it clear through the process that the olive branch has been extended.”

The olive branch, of course, is a one-year contract the Niners offered Smith prior to the lockout, as reported by the Sacramento Bee. What’s the benefit to bringing Smith back, Baalke was asked. After all, he’ll have yet another offensive coordinator and a new offense to learn – factors that are often cited for his largely disappointing six-year career.

“I think there are a lot of reasons,” Baalke said. “He understands this building. He understands the system that coach is interested in running from a dynamic standpoint. They obviously hit it off in their discussions. I think there’s a lot of comfort in having someone, especially when we’re in the situation that we’re in where there are so many unknowns.

“… Coach is very comfortable with him. I’m very comfortable with him. Will Alex choose to come back here? You’re going to have to get him on the phone and ask him that question. But he’s certainly a guy that we would like to throw into the mix.”

As opposed to Harbaugh, who has praised Smith’s physical ability, Baalke, obviously, didn’t mention Smith’s quarterback skills.

• Baalke, a Bill Parcells disciple from his days as a scout with the Jets, still values big and physical when it comes to evaluating draft prospects.

“Will you make exceptions at times? Certainly you will,” Baalke said. “… The littler the player, the more special they have to be. They have to have a special trait to overcome their lack of size.”

• Baalke said this draft class is probably the most scrutinized in a long time due to the lockout, “There’s nothing else going on. It’s allowed the coaches to really focus in on the draft whereas in the past they were multi-tasking at this time of year,” he said.

• Harbaugh, who has sat in on draft meetings, knows the Pac-10 prospects well, but didn’t recruit as many of the draft prospects as, perhaps, other college coaches might have, Baalke said. The reason? Stanford’s stringent admission requirements.

“It’s a little different if you’re at Alabama and you’re dealing with all the five-star players coming out of the high school ranks,” Baalke said. “It’s a little bit different, but he certainly knows the Pac-10 players very well.”

• Baalke hasn’t spoken with running back Frank Gore due to the lockout, but has heard Gore is progressing well in his recovery from a fractured hip. He termed Gore’s outlook “good.”

• Baalke said the 49ers’ draft board is nearly set. He expects it be finalized this weekend.