3 players the 49ers May Have Drafted In Round 1 if They were Available

The 49ers might not have traded down if they could have taken one of these players.

Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The San Francisco 49ers traded down twice in the 2026 NFL draft. John Lynch noted that the team had plans to select a couple of players, but the board did not break their way and the players that they planned on selecting were already gone. Who were the players that San Francisco likely would have taken if they were on the board?

Malachi Lawrence, Edge, UCF

Lawrence was available at pick 23, so the 49ers certainly could have had plans of him falling. Lawrence is exactly what the team needed in an edge rusher, and they brought him to the team facility for one of their 30 pre-draft visits. Lawrence was the most explosive edge rusher left and the best speed rusher available at that point. He was the purest, and cleanest fit to replace Bryce Huff. With him gone, they felt it was smart to wait and not reach for an edge rusher who does not fit as well. 

KC Concepcion, WR, Texas A&M

The 49ers brought in Concepcion, Denzel Boston and Omar Cooper to see which of the top options likely to be available at pick 27 that they liked the most. We know that they traded off on taking Boston and Cooper twice. However, we will never know what the team would have done if Concepcion was on the board. Concepcion may have been the best fit for the Kyle Shanahan offense. He was also clearly the top receiver of this group league-wide, because Cooper did not get taken for another six picks after Concepcion, and Boston is still on the board. So, was it that they were not going to take a first-round wide receiver, or was it that their preferred option was gone and they did not want to settle for the other two?

Keylan Rutledge, OG, Georgia Tech

San Francisco had reportedly been interested in taking a guard high. Reports were that Keylan Rutledge would slide into round 1, although no one knew for sure which teams were interested. Well, one pick before San Francisco had a chance to take Rutledge, the Texans jumped up and nabbed him. Was Houston jumping another team with a guard need just a random decision, or did they know that San Francisco was likely to take him, and they knew they needed to jump? The latter seems obvious. 

At picks 23, 24, and 26, major positions of need saw players that San Francisco was interested fly off of the board. It is not a surprise the team had to move down after that run of players.