With one full year in the books, Niner Noise looks at the 49ers’ 2021 NFL Draft class and dishes out year-end grades for each of the selections.
Hindsight and retrospect are always fun things, especially when it comes to evaluating any team’s actions in the NFL Draft.
The San Francisco 49ers finished up their 2021 draft class with eight total selections, highlighted by the bold move to get up to No. 3 overall and selecting quarterback Trey Lance, who’ll be poised to be the team’s franchise signal-caller for the foreseeable future.
Lance saw scant field time during the regular season, though, as the Niners still intended to let their veteran quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, handle the bulk of those duties.
As such, grading Lance is a bit more difficult, yet there’s the evidence behind his performances.
Grading the performances from Lance and the other San Francisco draftees is still important, though, to see just what the team got out of its eight picks. To assess the year-end grades, Niner Noise will take a look at both the traditional stats and other analytical metrics to see how the 49ers’ 2021 rookie class panned out in year one with special attention given to where the rookie was drafted and in which round.
Round 1, Pick No. 3 Overall: 49ers quarterback Trey Lance
This shouldn’t be too big a surprise to put Lance into a C-grade category.
Widely viewed as 2021’s first-round quarterbacking prospect with potentially the biggest upside but lowest floor, Lance was going to need time to develop after seeing just one full year as a starter at North Dakota State, 2019, and attempting only 318 collegiate passes during his tenure there.
Top-five draft picks are expected to be game-changing players right away in most cases, and Lance obviously didn’t have the chance to become that in year one.
Instead, amid limited duty and over just six games played (two of them starts), Lance completed 57.7 percent of his passes with five touchdowns thrown against two interceptions, also rushing for an additional touchdown.
One might relegate Lance’s rookie-year grade to the category of being incomplete, given the context. But, from what we saw on the field with regards to the good and bad, a C-grade seems fair.
Round 2, Pick No. 48 Overall: 49ers offensive guard Aaron Banks
The selection of former Notre Dame guard Aaron Banks at No. 48 overall, which followed a Niners’ trade-down from their original pick at No. 43 overall, suggested head coach Kyle Shanahan might employ some more power schemes instead of his traditional zone-style system.
That paralleled a question about fit, though, and it became quite evident early on Banks would have some issues transitioning into this kind of system.
Things didn’t start off well for Banks, who struggled to beat out veteran lineman Daniel Brunskill for the starting right guard spot before suffering a shoulder injury in San Francisco’s preseason opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, which further hindered his development.
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Banks, regularly a member of the 49ers’ weekly inactive list after recovering from the injury, only saw five offensive snaps over the course of 2021 and spent his time serving on special teams when he was able to see the field.
There’s surely room for Banks to emerge as a quality option for the offensive line in the future.
As far as his rookie-year impact, though, this pick didn’t work out well at all.
Round 3, Pick No. 88 Overall: 49ers running back Trey Sermon
It might not have been totally surprising for the Niners to use a third-round pick on a running back, especially to help guard against the likelihood of starting runner Raheem Mostert’s injury history and the lack of proven depth behind him on the roster entering 2021.
Still, former Ohio State running back Trey Sermon was nevertheless a questionable selection, particularly after San Francisco traded up to grab him in Round 3.
While nowhere near as vital to perform as a second-round pick, Round 3 picks are nevertheless expected to be modest contributors, either in a starter’s role or at least as a high-caliber backup with eyes on the future.
Sermon could still fit into that latter category. However, especially early in the year, it was clear Kyle Shanahan favored other options on the roster, relegating Sermon to scant usage on offense when injuries hadn’t piled up and often placing Sermon on the weekly inactive list.
Sermon’s 2021 totals? A mere 167 rush yards and a touchdown over nine games played, two of them starts.
Pretty disappointing in terms of what the 49ers were likely expecting.
Round 3, Pick No. 102 Overall: 49ers cornerback Ambry Thomas
If rookie cornerback Ambry Thomas didn’t turn things on late during the regular season, finishing the year with five regular-season starts and starting two of the Niners’ three postseason games, this particular selection at No. 102 overall would have also been a notable flop.
Perhaps one that would have been expected, though, as Thomas opted out of his 2020 campaign at Michigan because of the pandemic, putting him into a category like Trey Lance where it was going to take time to shake some of the proverbial “rust.”
Thomas’ early start wasn’t good. Rarely given the chance of seeing the field after shaky performances in the preseason and in Week 1, San Francisco was left to scramble for other options at his position when injuries began to pile up.
Even then, Thomas was forced into the fray in Week 14 against the Cincinnati Bengals and was targeted with great success by Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
However, Thomas slowly and steadily improved with each passing week thereafter. And while his 118.0 passer rating allowed on the year and 47.1 Pro Football Focus pass-coverage grade aren’t good, the trajectory over the back half of his rookie campaign is what matters here.
Round 5, Pick No. 155 Overall: 49ers offensive tackle Jaylon Moore
Getting into Round 5 of the draft, it’s important to note the expectation level for prospects selected here is exceptionally lower than those taken on the first two days of the draft.
As such, one shouldn’t read too much into the grading of rookie offensive lineman Jaylon Moore, who was brought it in Round 5 at No. 155 overall to both compete with other potential swing-tackle candidates like Justin Skule, Colton McKivitz and Tom Compton and to provide some depth to an O-line that lacked it behind the starters.
In some regards, Moore succeeded, ultimately forcing the 49ers to waive McKivitz, their second-year pro, but also emerging out of necessity after Skule suffered a season-ending injury during training camp.
Moore started three games his rookie season, playing seven as a whole, yet his 59.0 Pro Football Focus grade on the year indicates he wasn’t exactly a “hidden gem” discovered on day three of the draft.
Perhaps the biggest indictment, though, is he ultimately lost the battle to relieve injured starting right tackle Mike McGlinchey during the second half of the season, as the Niners elected to rely on the not-so-impressive Compton instead.
Round 5, Pick No. 172 Overall: 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir
Rookie cornerback Deommodore Lenoir is in a similar position as Jaylon Moore, a late-round pickup who flashed some promising moments during the preseason and seemed poised to take on a bigger role when injuries started to mount up at his position.
Early in the regular season, it looked as if this could potentially be the case, particularly after San Francisco lost cornerbacks Emmanuel Moseley to an ankle sprain and Jason Verrett to a season-ending ACL tear.
But Lenoir, after two starts to open the year, was subsequently relegated to backup and special teams duties. And despite the 49ers having issues with their cornerback depth chart for much of the year, Lenoir scantly saw the field on defense, only getting more than 10 defensive snaps just once (25 in Week 13) after Week 3.
Lenoir, who lacked the quick-twitch ability to handle nickel duties in the middle of the field, surrendered a passer rating of 125.4 on the year with two touchdowns allowed.
Coupled with his Pro Football Focus 57.1 overall grade, and the fact he lost his opportunity to take a prime role on the defense, means Lenoir can’t be graded favorably after year one.
Here’s to year two.
Round 5, Pick No. 180 Overall: 49ers safety Talanoa Hufanga
The Niners’ final pick in Round 5 of last year’s draft, safety Talanoa Hufanga, might never be solid enough to assume the starting role at strong safety if the veteran, Jaquiski Tartt, departs via free agency this offseason.
At the same time, though, Hufanga frequently was able to overcome his shortcomings on the field — most notably his straight-line speed — by making the occasional splash play here and there.
None more notable than scoring that incredible touchdown after San Francisco’s special teams blocked punt against the Green Bay Packers in the 2022 divisional round of the playoffs.
Hufanga is likely going to develop as a quality special teams contributor with the ability to play in big-nickel packages where he’d pair with two other safeties with better speed. Additionally, his three starts over the year suggest he can serve as a decent backup, too, but that’ll likely appear to be his ceiling.
As far as coverage went, Hufanga still allowed a 114.1 passer rating with two touchdowns allowed, but him breaking up two passes during the year helped matters to a small degree.
Not bad for a day-three pick.
Round 6, Pick No. 194 Overall: 49ers running back Elijah Mitchell
It’s strange to think the 49ers’ most impactful rookie from their 2021 NFL Draft class wasn’t Trey Lance or one of the other day-two picks selected.
No, it was sixth-round rookie running back Elijah Mitchell. And it wasn’t even close.
About the only knock on Mitchell was the fact it was hard for him to stay healthy, as injuries limited him to just 11 games played. Still, his efforts over those 11 games helped negate the draft miss on Trey Sermon, and what Mitchell was able to accomplish over the course of the year should stand the test of time in the Niners’ collective archives.
Mitchell, whose speed and elusiveness made him such a commodity, set a multitude of rookie records in franchise history. Most notably, Mitchell set a new team record for a first-year player with 963 rush yards, and he also recorded the most 100-yard rushing games for a rookie San Francisco player with five.
One can only wonder what a full season’s worth of numbers would have been like if he stayed healthy.
That’ll be Mitchell’s focal point heading into 2022, and he easily shaped up to be the 49ers’ most recent late-round draft gem.