Regrading the 49ers’ 2018 NFL Draft class after one year

Niner Noise takes a look back at the San Francisco 49ers’ 2018 NFL Draft class and reissues grades with one year under the players’ collective belt.

Typically, one needs three years to truly gauge whether or not a player from the NFL Draft met or exceeded expectations.

For the San Francisco 49ers, who hope their latest cast of players from the 2019 NFL Draft wind up providing some immediate impact in year three of the rebuild under head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, they can also look back at the 2018 draft class to see which players are at least meeting those expectations early on.

Niner Noise issued out grades on the 2018 draft a little over a year ago. Just over a year later, however, it’s worth going back and taking a look at how each of San Francisco’s nine players graded after their first year at the pro level.

In case you forgot the Niners’ class from last year, here you go:

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/11/2019.

There’s some different criteria when looking at the 2018 additions than what was used during the draft itself. We’ll take into consideration the player’s on-field stats, rankings, availability and see how it matches up with expected levels with regards to where he was drafted.

Simply put, a first- or second-round selection would have a much tougher curve than a player selected in Round 6 or 7, simply based on the notion more should be expected from the former group.

Let’s start this off with a plug-and-play starter, offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey.