4 trades 49ers could make that would shake up 2022 NFL Draft

49ers NFL Draft trade No. 1: John Lynch gets back into Round 1

Round 1-caliber players aren’t always the ones who are selected in the first round. Sometimes, teams target second-round targets at the tail end of Round 1, if for no other reason than to have the luxury of getting a fifth-year option available on their rookie contracts.

Again, the 49ers shouldn’t be focused on sheer quantity of players in this year’s draft, rather better-quality players anyway, so the idea of John Lynch trying to work some magic to get up from No. 61 overall into the tail end of Round 1 wouldn’t be a bad move in itself.

The Detroit Lions own the Los Angeles Rams’ first-round pick this year, thanks to last offseason’s move for quarterback Matthew Stafford. Yet the Lions already own the No. 2 overall pick, too, and they’ll nevertheless not hurt for additional draft assets over the next couple of years to help stockpile a rebuild.

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Especially with quarterback Aaron Rodgers returning to the Green Bay Packers, thereby putting a ceiling on contending within the NFC North.

While there’s no perfect mathematical equation to determine this, Pro Football Talk’s NFL Draft pick value trade chart helps dice up the numbers for what the value is on each selection, and Lynch moving the Niners’ first two picks in this year’s draft, plus a Round 2 selection next year, in exchange for No. 32 overall and a fifth-rounder from Detroit would make the math add up enough.

In doing so, San Francisco gets that key-impact player along with a critical fifth-year option, while the Lions add more assets to help stage their rebuild.