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Best, Worst Picks by 49ers in the 2016 NFL Draft

By Bryan Knowles

Dec 5, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Oregon Ducks defensive end DeForest Buckner (44) celebrates after a sack in the second quarter against the Arizona Wildcats in the Pac-12 Championship at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 5, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Oregon Ducks defensive end DeForest Buckner (44) celebrates after a sack in the second quarter against the Arizona Wildcats in the Pac-12 Championship at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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The San Francisco 49ers had something of a polarizing NFL Draft. How did they really do?

May 2, 2015; Eugene, OR, USA; Oregon Ducks defensive lineman DeForest Buckner (44) walks onto the field at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports
May 2, 2015; Eugene, OR, USA; Oregon Ducks defensive lineman DeForest Buckner (44) walks onto the field at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports /

The San Francisco 49ers made 11 picks in the 2016 NFL Draft, and the response to them around the internet has been mixed, to say the least. Doug Farrar of Sports Illustrated gave the 49ers’ draft haul an A-, praising nearly every pick and move Trent Baalke and company made over the three days of the draft. Evan Silva of Rotoworld, on the other hand, slammed them with a D+ grade, noting that while DeForest Buckner represented good value, most of the mid-round picks were reaches or required the team to overpay.

The truth, of course, is likely somewhere in the middle, but the 49ers definitely sparked very polarizing reactions around the league. According to Football Outsiders’ draft report card report, the 49ers had not only the fifth-lowest graded draft class, but also the fourth-most polarizing one among professional draft graders.

Now, honestly, you can’t really judge a draft class until three to five years after the fact. In 2011, the 49ers mostly got B- and C+ grades, with graders wondering if Aldon Smith would really fit into an NFL defense and pondering if Kendall Hunter was, indeed, the most talented player taken. Five years later, we have a much clearer picture of exactly what did and did not work—grades given before players ever hit the field are really more for entertainment purposes than actual in-depth analysis of a draft class.

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I feel a more useful exercise is to look at the individual picks and determine how well they were made, rather than trying to sum up an entire class with one grade. Did the selections fill a need? Was there a clear strategy involved? Was that strategy a good one? Were there other players that they could have considered at the slot? Obviously, any rankings will have to contain at least a little bit of “this is how good/bad this player will turn out to be,” but it’s still an interesting exercise to do.

With that in mind, here are my rankings of the best (and worst!) picks the 49ers made in the 2016 draft. This isn’t a ranking of the best players, mind you—that would essentially just be a ranking of the picks in the order they were selected, at least through the first three rounds or so—but the best selections, taking into account value and fit and need and all that good stuff. It’s not always right—in 2014, I thought Marcus Martin was the 49ers’ best pick, which so far, uh, oops—but it’s a good snapshot to take now, and to revisit in a few years to see how things developed.

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