San Francisco 49ers: Ranking 5 worst first-round NFL Draft picks since 2010
By Peter Panacy
No. 4: Offensive Guard Joshua Garnett
Drafted by 49ers 28th overall in the 2016 NFL Draft
In some ways, former Stanford offensive guard Joshua Garnett was poised to fail right away after being selected by San Francisco via a trade up late in Round 1 of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Garnett, the previous year’s Outland Trophy recipient, given to the top interior lineman in college, had plenty of promise. Although it’s not likely he would have slipped much further, some pundits didn’t have him anywhere near the first two rounds on their big boards.
The Niners were running a zone-heavy offense that year under one-and-done head coach Chip Kelly, whereas Garnett was more of a power-man blocker. And when head coach Kyle Shanahan took over in 2017, it was more of the same zone-blocking system.
Garnett didn’t help his cause by suffering injuries that first season under Shanahan, leading to some choice words from the head coach. And while Garnett managed to hang around with the 49ers over seven games in 2018, it was clear Shanahan wanted to move on from the underwhelming first-round draft pick as soon as possible.
San Francisco was done with Garnett at the conclusion of training camp in 2019.