John Lynch: One year later, 49ers GM aced his first NFL Draft

Almost a year later, Niner Noise looks back at San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch’s first NFL Draft back in 2017 and comes to a simple conclusion: he aced it.

General manager John Lynch and the San Francisco 49ers are gearing up for the regime’s second run at the NFL Draft, which will be held in Dallas this April.

And based off Lynch’s first draft efforts nearly a year ago, it’s safe to say the Niners are in good hands.

Simply put, Lynch aced his first draft class, hauling in a stockpile of performers — many of whom immediately offered notable contributions to a team in complete rebuild mode.

Not bad for a first-year executive who had never held a front-office position prior to 2017.

To recap, here’s a list of the picks:

2017 49ers Drafted Players Table

Rnd	Player	Pick	Pos	College/Univ
1	Solomon Thomas	3	DE	Stanford
1	Reuben Foster	31	LB	Alabama
3	Ahkello Witherspoon	66	CB	Colorado
3	C.J. Beathard	104	QB	Iowa
4	Joe Williams	121	RB	Utah
5	George Kittle	146	TE	Iowa
5	Trent Taylor	177	WR	Louisiana Tech
6	D.J. Jones	198	DT	Mississippi
6	Pita Taumoepenu	202	OLB	Utah
7	Adrian Colbert	229	DB	Miami (FL)

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/30/2018.

Lynch pulled off one of the biggest heists of the draft, moving down from No. 2 to No. 3, via a trade with the Chicago Bears, pulling in three additional picks and getting the player the Niners wanted all along — former Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas.

Thomas’ rookie season was a bit of a disappointment. He posted a mere 53.2 overall grade, per Pro Football Focus, which ranked 92nd out of 106 qualifying edge defenders.

But as we broke down earlier, fans should be plenty excited about Thomas’ long-term prognosis and likely impact for 2018 and beyond.

That trade-down afforded Lynch the piece to move up and grab linebacker Reuben Foster at the tail end of Round 1.

All Foster did was finish as PFF’s fourth-highest graded linebacker (90.7) last season.

San Francisco 49ers /

San Francisco 49ers

John Lynch Struck Gold in the Later Rounds

Thomas and Foster were clearly the two biggest high-profile picks. And cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, despite a sluggish start, came on strong over the final two-thirds of the regular season, finishing with an 81.1 overall PFF grade — best among Niners corners.

But where Lynch made good was by hitting on prospects in the later rounds. Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee went deeper:

"Lynch’s predecessor, Trent Baalke, fancied himself as a no-frills talent evaluator. Baalke, however, too often tried to hit grand slams with his middle-round picks, opting for injured players (Marcus Lattimore, Brandon Thomas and a host of other ACL-tear patients) or players with character concerns (Aaron Lynch, Rashard Robinson).The vast majority of those at-bats ended in strikeouts. As a result, the 49ers largely were missing rank-and-file members by the end of Baalke’s regime. They had some potential young stars in Buckner and some plucky bottom-of-the-roster players. But they lacked a middle.That area seems much more promising under Lynch."

San Francisco’s two fifth-round picks, wide receiver Trent Taylor and tight end George Kittle, made immediate impacts. Kittle actually ended up having more receiving yards (515) than any other rookie TE, drafted in Round 5 or later, in the modern NFL era, as Niner Noise’s Chris Wilson pointed out.

SANTA CLARA, CA – DECEMBER 24: Trent Taylor #81 and George Kittle #85 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates after Taylor caught a touchdown pass against the Jacksonville Jaguars during their NFL football game at Levi’s Stadium on December 24, 2017 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /

Nose tackle D.J. Jones (Round 6) looks promising. And defensive back Adrian Colbert, Lynch’s final pick of the draft, ended up securing a starting free safety job.

He doesn’t look like he’ll give it up anytime soon either.

An Easy Assessment for the 49ers

Lynch’s first draft class wasn’t perfection. Quarterback C.J. Beathard (Round 3) was a reach, as numerous draft boards had him projected as a fifth- or sixth-round pick.

But at least the Niners have their backup QB situation figured out for the long run.

Running back Joe Williams (Round 4) didn’t see the field at all, recovering from an ankle injury after a troublesome preseason, where fumbles and inconsistency were the norm.

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Consider this, though. Most general managers would be more than happy with two or three draftees emerging as plug-and-play starters in year one. Go back and look at the class again.

Thomas? Starting. Foster? Starting. Witherspoon? Starting. Kittle? Starting. Taylor? Starting. Colbert? Starting.

And the others are at least promising, if nothing else. Factor in five of those picks being major contributors, and that’s a pretty high hit rate.

Sure, John Lynch had plenty of help making this happen. But he’s ultimately the one making the final call on San Francisco’s draft classes and 90-man rosters. Pair that with what we saw out of his first NFL Draft class, it’s safe to say Lynch got this challenge right.

Next: 5 sleeper picks the 49ers could consider in the NFL Draft

Well done, Mr. Lynch. Well done.