The San Francisco 49ers traded back from the No. 27 overall pick with the Miami Dolphins, then completely traded out of the first round with the New York Jets on Thursday night.
General manager John Lynch said the 49ers started laying the groundwork for a potential trade back last week. That included securing a deal with Miami. Lynch mentioned that the second deal with the Jets wasn’t secured, but both sides had been in contact.
Lynch believes the 49ers are still open for business. Head coach Kyle Shanahan explained why he thought the Niners moving out of the first round was a likely option:
When you look at the guys that we really thought had a chance to be there at 27 and guys we wouldn’t move for, I think what happened probably would’ve been, if I was a betting man, probably the second thing I would’ve thought could have happened. Like we had the guys we really wanted, and we knew there was a good chance, but when they weren’t there, we moved back to 30, and the guys that we would’ve had to take at 30 are still there. So, I look at it as a huge success to move back to 33 when you would’ve still taken those guys at 30. Now 27, we were hoping for a couple things, and we missed those, but we kind of had an idea we might. And to be able to move back two spots or two different times and get all those picks and still take who you would’ve taken of those spots who weren’t your first choice right away. But we knew that would be a challenge, and we were hoping that we could do that if those guys fell.
The fun part, at least on our end, is trying to figure out which players the 49ers were hoping fell to them.
When the 49ers were on the clock, popular names like Caleb Lomu, Omar Cooper Jr., and Keldric Faulk were all available. The fact that the team traded back — twice, in Cooper’s case — speaks volumes about their level of interest in those players.
San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson went No. 27 overall. Jermod McCoy, Avieon Terrell, Colton Hood, Brandon Cisse, and D’Angelo Ponds all being available point to the 49ers’ lack of interest at the position. Shanahan gave Renardo Green his stamp of approval at the NFL Meetings in March. The Niners could still select a cornerback, but as of now, their actions say cornerback wasn’t a pressing need.
One player the Niners likely identified as their kind of receiver was KC Concepcion. Lynch said, “We liked KC a lot. Tremendous young man. He has a great ability with the ball in his hands—fun player to scout, fun player to watch, fun player to be around. I think Kyle and I, we tag-team a lot of these visits when we’re with the kids. Really just can’t say enough about that young man. I think he’s going to have a nice future ahead of him.”
Safety Dillon Thieneman out of Oregon, EDGE Malachi Lawrence from UCF, and offensive tackle Max Iheanachor were all off the board in the early 20s. They may have been prospects the Niners were eyeing.
Lynch said their first-round grades ran out “a couple picks before we picked. Now, there were some guys earlier that we would’ve been thrilled to have, but we had a really good idea that they were going to be gone.”
Shanahan had a hypothetical that was a follow-up to Lynch’s answer: “And then some guys go there that we didn’t think would. There’s a couple that, I’ll make something up, let’s say we had 22 of them, but. There was a couple that went in those 22 that weren’t those guys, which is why I feel really good about some of the choices still at 33.”
That’s what the 49ers were hoping for. If the team didn’t identify guard as a need, Keylan Rutledge going ahead of them is a plus. The same is true for 90-year-old Akheem Mesidor. Based on their reactions, Shanahan and Lynch weren’t expecting the Rams to go quarterback at No. 13. Deep down, Lawrence is more of a designated pass rusher than an every-down player, making him a player who helped the Niners get value at 33.
We’ll talk about the best player available later today, but the Niners sound like they are comfortable selecting a player available.