Why the 49ers Need to Consolidate Their Day 3 Draft Picks and Move Up

The talent pool for the draft is getting thinner and thinner every year.

The 49ers used to dominate Day 3 of the NFL Draft.

That's where they got George Kittle, Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, Deommodore Lenoir, Jauan Jennings and Colton McKivitz. But the past two years, with the exception of Brock Purdy, the 49ers have completely struck out on Day 3. And that's because the talent pool for the draft is getting thinner and thinner every year.

"The number of underclassmen declaring this year was incredibly low—just 58," writes Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. "That’s three years after the number hit an all-time high (130), and capped a five-year run where the number was in triple digits annually. The NIL era in college sports began in 2021, and changed everything about major college football. At a baseline, the combination of NIL and the portal has set off bidding wars for players and, in turn, created options for guys looking to get paid for their services. No longer does the prospective sixth-round pick have to leave the college game to get his money. So in a lot of cases, those guys are returning to school, collecting as much cash as they can for the extra year, and getting another season of tape for the NFL in the process...it’s not helping the depth of this year’s draft class. Day 3 will be barren with talent, relative to what it was a few years ago, which will impact the earlier rounds by making it more difficult to use those picks to trade up or down."

This year, the 49ers have a whopping seven draft picks on Day 3. That's seven picks on players who might not be good enough to make the 53-man roster. The 49ers need to find a way to package those picks together and trade into Day 2 so they can get some actually impact players for a change.