Championship-minded 49ers return to NFL Draft's first-round festivities

For the first time since Lynch came aboard as Shanahan’s hand-picked general manager, the 49ers will draft without Lynch’s right-hand man, Adam Peters, who is now the Washington Commanders’ general manager and tasked with presumably drafting a quarterback No. 2 overall.

“I love the draft process,” Lynch added. “Free agency is fun but free agency is crazy. It seems frenetic and very fluid. I like the process of the draft and the way we do it.”

Overall, the 49ers have done it well with this regime. Their history of first-round picks, however, has yielded more woes than winners.

In 2017: They traded out of the No. 2 spot, drafted defensive tackle Solomon Thomas at No. 3 (instead of Stanford teammate Christian McCaffrey, who went No. 8 to Carolina, or future Super Bowl nemesis Patrick Mahomes, who went 10th to Kansas City). The 49ers traded up to the No. 31 spot to select linebacker Reuben Foster, only to cut him 19 months later for off-field issues.

In 2018: The No. 9 overall pick brought in right tackle Mike McGlinchey, an entrenched starter for five seasons but one deemed expendable in 2023 free agency, where he cashed out for the Denver Broncos’ riches.

In 2019: Defensive end Nick Bosa was gifted to them at No. 2 overall, once NFC West cohort Arizona used the No. 1 selection on former Oakland A’s draft pick Kyler Murray. Bosa won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, overcame a torn ACL from the 2020 season, won NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022, and signed a massive contract before last season (five years, $170 million) en route to another Super Bowl appearance.

In 2020: After trading DeForest Buckner for the Indianapolis Colts’ first-round pick, the 49ers unsuccessfully attempted to replace him with Javon Kinlaw at pick No. 14. But that first round also brought them Aiyuk once they traded up to the No. 25 spot, just ahead of NFC rival Green Bay. That move cost them the No. 31 pick and a fourth-rounder (to the Vikings).

In 2021: They shipped first-round picks in 2021, ’22 and ’23 (plus a third-rounder) to the Miami Dolphins so they could take a cost-efficient quarterback who could replace an injury-cursed Jimmy Garoppolo. Once Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars) and Zach Wilson (Jets) were taken, the 49ers spent the No. 3 pick on Lance. The North Dakota State product went 1-1 as a fill-in starter as a rookie, sustained a fractured ankle in the 2022 home opener, helped tutor Brock Purdy’s late-season emergence, then, during the 2023 preseason, Lance was dealt to the Dallas Cowboys for a fourth-round pick and spent last season as their No. 3 QB.

“Before we (traded up in 2021), we felt pretty good where our team was,” Shanahan recalled last month. “We knew it was risky. Where our team was at, we didn’t feel we absolutely had to have those (2022 and ‘23) picks.”

Because they weren’t picking in the first round, the past two drafts saw the 49ers scour for later-round gems. Only Purdy, the 262nd and final pick in 2022, has emerged as a full-time starter, though guard Spencer Burford (2022 fourth round), safety Ji’Ayir Brown (2023 third round) and kicker Jake Moody (2023 third round) have played key roles.

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