Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers may have missed the first round of the NFL Draft last Thursday, but according to their head coach, that was exactly the plan all along.

In a strategic move that has become a hallmark of modern NFL roster building, the 49ers traded down—not once, but twice—ultimately sliding out of the first round entirely. Their first selection came at No. 33 overall, where they grabbed wide receiver De'Zhaun Stribling. While some critics raised eyebrows at taking Stribling that high, Shanahan made it clear on The Rich Eisen Show that the team's draft philosophy paid off exactly as envisioned.

"That's kind of what we were hoping for," Shanahan explained. "Our first goal was that the guy we wanted would fall to 27, but we got our second goal, and that was to trade back twice, accumulate some more picks, and still get the guy."

The 49ers entered draft night with six selections and left with eight, adding valuable capital for both the present and the future—including a sixth-round pick in next year's draft, a slot they previously didn't have. Shanahan emphasized that the team would have taken Stribling at No. 30 if necessary, but landing him at 33 while stockpiling extra picks was "ideal."

"I think we added eight players who all have a very good chance of making our team," Shanahan said. "And on top of that, we added a sixth-round pick for next year, which I think's huge because we didn't have one."

Part of the 49ers' draft-day calculus was their assessment that the sweet spot of this year's class ran from the second round through the end of the third. However, San Francisco entered the draft with only one pick in that critical range after trading their third-rounder for defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa—a move that left Shanahan uneasy heading into draft weekend.

"I was really concerned going into it, because I also felt we needed to add more than six players—not necessarily for this year, but also for next year," Shanahan admitted. "All the stuff's tied together on how many free agents you lose and things like that. So I was worried that if we were going to go get players that we were targeting, we were going to end up using some of our fourth-round picks to come up."

Instead, the 49ers managed to address roster depth, add future draft capital, and still land their top target—a textbook example of how a patient, value-driven approach can turn a potential draft-day disappointment into a long-term win.