How the 49ers Can Improve Their Results in the Draft

The 49ers need to admit to themselves that they're no better than other teams at projecting which college players will be good in the NFL and that most of their best picks involved a high degree of luck.

The 49ers' draft results the past two seasons have been abysmal.

With the exception of Brock Purdy and Ji'Ayir Brown, the 49ers have done nothing but whiff. Look at some of the players they've taken since 2022: Drake Jackson, Ty Davis-Price, Danny Gray, Samuel Womack, Nick Zakelj, Tariq Castro-Fields, Jake Moody, Cameron Latu, Robert Beal Jr.

Yikes.

Their best pick by far the past two years -- Purdy -- was their luckiest one. And Brown is far from proven. He has played just half a season.

The 49ers need to admit to themselves that they're no better than other teams at projecting which college players will be good in the NFL and that most of their best picks involved a high degree of luck. Fred Warner in Round 3. George Kittle in Round 5. If the 49ers really knew those two would be All Pros, they would have drafted them in Round 1.

So the more picks the 49ers get, the better. Trading down or trading for future picks always is preferable to trading up. Because trading up is expensive, and doing so presumes you know for sure that player will be good.

Look at the players the 49ers have traded up for since John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan joined the team in 2017: Trey Lance, Dante Pettis, Reuben Foster, Trey Sermon, Joe Williams, Brandon Aiyuk and Ji'Ayir Brown. With the exception of Aiyuk and Brown, those are some of the biggest whiffs in franchise history.

So instead of whiffing again in Round 1 this year, which they do most years, they should just trade down and accumulate picks.