SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers sat out the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night, making two trades down after the players they targeted went off the board earlier.
“It’s the way the board fell,” general manager John Lynch said. “There were a couple or a few players that we would have taken had they been there. That didn’t happen.”
The Niners came into the night with the 27th pick but traded down twice to accumulate extra picks later in the draft. San Francisco first moved from No. 27 to 30 in a deal with Miami, getting the 90th overall pick in the third round, while giving up pick No. 138 in the fourth round.
The 49ers moved down three spots again later in the draft, swapping the 30th pick with the New York Jets for the 33rd pick and the 179th near the end of the fifth round.
This is the third time in the last 30 drafts that San Francisco didn't make a first-round pick with it also happening in 2022 and '23 after the team had traded those first-rounders to move up for quarterback Trey Lance in 2021.
“We had the guys we really wanted, there was a good chance they weren’t there,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We moved back to 30 and the guys that we would have taken at 30 are still there. So I think it’s a huge success.”
Lynch said the first deal with Miami had been agreed to before the draft if the 49ers didn’t have a player they wanted to take at 27 and the deal with the Jets came together on draft night.
The Niners were happy to come out of the night with the top pick on Friday so his staff can take plenty of time to go over the board to make a selection or possibly make another trade down if some other team is interested.
“I think the cool thing about the 33rd pick, we can kind of reconvene, reset our board, reset our thoughts,” Lynch said. "I think it’s also a coveted pick because a lot of teams are doing that themselves.
Lynch said he didn't consider moving up in the draft to try to get one of the players the team targeted because San Francisco came into the draft with only six picks.
“We were comfortable with enough of the players that were there,” he said. “There were a few we said we were going to be patient and if they got there, we’d turn the card in. Those guys went and we stuck to our plan.”
San Francisco also has the 58th overall pick in the second round and three other fourth-round picks on the final two days of the draft.