SF 49ers: 5 trades John Lynch should explore during 2021 offseason
By Peter Panacy
No. 2: SF 49ers aggressively move up in 2021 NFL Draft
This trade would likely be contingent upon the previous San Francisco deal to send Jimmy Garoppolo to New England, which would at least give John Lynch another decent pick early on day two of the draft.
With the No. 12 selection in the draft, the Niners are all but guaranteed to miss out on one of the top-quality prospective quarterbacks in this year’s class, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields or BYU’s Zach Wilson, as all three could end up going within the top five selections.
San Francisco now has a friend, of sorts, with the Jets in Robert Saleh. And while Saleh and Co. will look to guard against giving in too easily to the new head coach’s former employer, at least the discussions for the No. 2 overall pick would be much more civil. And considering the Jets are a long, long way away from contending, they could use all the help they could get in terms of a team rebuild.
A trade up from No. 12 to No. 2 overall won’t come cheap. It’ll likely involve multiple first-round selections, and other teams’ interest could drive the asking price up to include multiple Round 2 picks, too.
The SF 49ers can hopefully bank on the idea they’ll be selecting late in the rounds for the 2022 NFL Draft, so perhaps those selections a little over a year from now won’t be quite as valuable.
Instead, this would be an all-in move on a player like Fields or Wilson, who could easily be the No. 2 player selected this April.