Ranking SF 49ers 10 worst NFL Draft picks by John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan

No. 1: SF Defensive End Solomon Thomas

Selected No. 3 Overall in the 2017 NFL Draft

There’s an argument the first pick of the John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan regime, Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas, wasn’t exactly placed into a situation where he could thrive and live up to the accolade of being the No. 3 overall player selected.

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After all, the SF 49ers did Thomas no favors by playing him extensively on the outside his rookie season instead of his more-natural inside position. Despite this, Thomas was still regarded as one of the safest picks from the 2017 NFL Draft, and the thinking was the SF 49ers would get a prolific pass-rusher who’d dominate opposing offensive linemen for years en route to being a cornerstone piece around which the franchise would rebuild.

That never materialized, of course, and the Niners would instead use subsequent first-round selections on other defensive linemen like Nick Bosa and Javon Kinlaw.

If there’s some solace with the pick, Thomas emerged as a good rotational player for San Francisco’s D-line, and those are important to have. In 2019, with Bosa the featured pass-rusher, Thomas still made enough of an impact to help bolster the depth. But after four seasons, including missing all but two games with an ACL tear in 2019, Thomas has just six sacks and never came close to reaching the expectation level associated with top-five picks.

Making it worse, and the No. 1 overall bad pick by Lynch and Shanahan, was the fact the SF 49ers could have had the elite NFL quarterback of their choice, Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson, instead.