The San Francisco 49ers did not pick a safety in the 2026 NFL Draft despite a lot of speculation they would do so. It was a bit of a surprise move, considering the Niners have three young safeties on the roster in Malik Mustapha, Ji’Ayir Brown, and Marques Sigle, whose play last season could at best be described as middling.
General manager John Lynch was asked about this decision, and this was the answer he gave:
"Um, you know, as for not drafting a safety, um, you know, there were some guys that came off (the board). We’ve got a group that we really do like, but kind of the way the board fell, it just didn’t work out and … the work’s not over."
There's been some speculation the 49ers had interest in safety Dillon Thieneman out of Oregon, but he ended up going at No. 25 overall to the Chicago Bears.
The Niners did end up signing undrafted free agent Jalen Stroman out of Notre Dame, and they also signed veteran Patrick McMorris.
However, Lynch could rectify the oversight of not drafting a safety by signing another safety out of Notre Dame who has had a great career.
Safety Harrison Smith has played 14 seasons in the NFL, all of them with the Minnesota Vikings. He was released by the Vikings back in March and is currently mulling retirement, but maybe Lynch could get him to play another season.
After all, Lynch is a Hall of Fame safety in his own right. Smith has a pretty good case to end up in Canton one day himself as he’s made the Pro Bowl six times, and at the height of his powers, he was considered one of the best safeties in the game.
Even though he’s age 37 now and is far from the player he once was, he still had a solid season last year for the Vikings. He played in 15 games and had two interceptions, including a forced fumble. He had 54 tackles on the year, including three tackles for loss and two quarterback hits.
He can still play, but he would really provide value by serving as a mentor figure to the young safeties on the roster. Imagine how much wisdom he could pass on to a player like Mustapha who clearly has a lot of potential but is still just a bit unrefined.
The Niners had success with a veteran safety a few years ago when they signed Tashaun Gipson. He had a great year and had five interceptions for San Francisco in 2022. While he wasn’t 37 years old like Smith is, it shows that rolling the dice on a veteran can pay off.
Smith may decide to retire or that he doesn’t want to play for any other team than Minnesota, but if Lynch can talk him into coming to the Bay Area, then he’d be addressing a key position San Francisco overlooked in the draft.
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