49ers score massively good grades from 2022 NFL Draft selections

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With the 2022 NFL Draft now officially in the books, we break down every single 49ers pick and see how they did with their draft haul for this season.

I love the San Francisco 49ers, and I love the NFL Draft. And now, with the 2022 NFL Draft in the books, we have to wait until the beginnings of training camp until we get to hear much about the team again.

But in the meantime, we still have the fallout from the draft as we analyze what the Niners did over the three days of the 2022 draft and the class they came away with as they try to improve the roster without a first-round pick.

San Francisco came into the draft primarily needing to find help at safety and on the interior of the offensive line. Some depth at wide receiver was needed even if All-Pro Deebo Samuel wasn’t moved (he wasn’t, as the New York Jets gave a poor offer the 49ers rejected out of hand) while picks for the future were needed at EDGE, tackle and cornerback.

If there’s one certainty, however, it’s that the Niners always do things just a little differently than expected, and we certainly saw general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan do that with the relatively early selection of a running back, as well as doubling down in key positions. Safety wasn’t considered at all, although we’ll get to that in due course.

In such a weak draft, San Francisco strategized. It filled a need with its first pick before finding some weapons for quarterback Trey Lance with two third-round selections. The 49ers then proceeded to use Day 3 to find players in positions of need for the most part before using a “Mr. Irrelevant” pick on a wild card.

This year provided one of the more interesting draft weekends we’ve seen in quite some time, and it’s now time to take a look at how the 49ers did, grading out each one of their moves over the three-day event.