The 49ers just parted ways with Tyrion Davis-Price, one of their higher picks of the 2022 NFL Draft, and almost all of the class isn't looking good.
On Tuesday, the San Francisco 49ers pulled the plug on running back Tyrion Davis-Price, one of two Round 3 picks they made in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Davis-Price, who was waived so the Niners could make room for veteran safety Logan Ryan, was the second of third-round running backs taken in back-to-back years, the other being Trey Sermon in 2021, and neither of which made it through their second seasons with San Francisco.
If anything, Davis-Price's failure to make much of a dent with the 49ers highlights what's otherwise turning into a (mostly) disappointing 2022 draft class.
Keyword: mostly.
Yes, of course, the Niners selected quarterback Brock Purdy with their final pick, which happened to be the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft anyway. In revisionist history, knowing what we know now, Purdy would have likely been the No. 1 overall pick in 2022 instead of the final one.
So, if anything bad is to be said about San Francisco's 2022 draft class, Purdy saves it in its entirety.
Still, the rest of the class isn't looking too good. Let's take a dive into where everyone is now.
Reevaluating 49ers 2022 NFL Draft class after Tyrion Davis-Price gets waived
Remember, the 49ers didn't have a first-round pick in the 2022 draft because it was part of the trade to land quarterback Trey Lance at No. 3 overall the year before, and that failure is another story for another time.
Here is the full list of picks the Niners made in 2022, kicking off in Round 2:
- EDGE Drake Jackson, USC (Round 2, No. 61 overall)
- RB Tyrion Davis-Price, LSU (Round 3, No. 93 overall)
- WR Danny Gray, SMU (Round 3, No. 105 overall)
- OL Spencer Burford, UTSA (Round 4, No. 134 overall)
- CB Samuel Womack, Toledo (Round 5, No. 172 overall)
- OL Nick Zakelj, Fordham (Round 6, No. 187 overall)
- DT Kalia Davis, UCF (Round 6, No. 220 overall)
- CB Tariq Castro-Fields, Penn State (Round 6, No. 221 overall)
- QB Brock Purdy, Iowa State (Round 7, No. 262 overall)
Castro-Fields and now Davis-Price are no longer with San Francisco, the former failing to make the 53-man roster his rookie season out of training camp.
Jackson, the 49ers' top pick, started off strong in each of his two seasons, recording three sacks in each. But he became a regular healthy scratch down the stretch during his rookie year, and he fell out of favor midway through 2023, too, which led to the Niners trading for edge rushers, Randy Gregory and Chase Young.
The former USC defender is now on injured reserve and unlikely to make a dent for the rest of the season. The same goes for Zakelj, who was almost exclusively a special teams player this year.
Wide receiver Danny Gray, the speedster who was drafted to pair with Lance's strong arm, is also on injured reserve but scantly has a role in the wake of Lance's departure and an otherwise stacked wide receiver room that is led by Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk.
Womack and Davis are both depth options, the latter making his NFL debut in Week 13 against the Philadelphia Eagles and even recording a sack after redshirting his rookie season and spending the first half-plus of 2023 as a healthy inactive.
Outside of Purdy, Burford is the only player who's made a substantial dent, and even he might be viewed as a short-term starting option at right guard.
Did 49ers wholly fail in the 2022 NFL Draft?
Yes, Brock Purdy's success late his rookie year and throughout 2023 thus far essentially save whatever doubts fans and analysts have about San Francisco's efforts in the 2022 draft.
If a team finds a franchise quarterback but fails to hit with any other picks in a draft class, that class is nevertheless a massive success.
And it's fair to recognize something else about NFL Draft classes, too. Most players are going to fail long before reaching whatever expectations are placed upon them. It's why the average career lifespan of an NFL player is approximately 3.3 years now, right?
The fact that Purdy and the 49ers are a powerhouse Super Bowl contender makes whatever misses like Tyrion Davis-Price in the 2022 irrelevant, especially considering the Niners landed one starter in Spencer Burford, potentially two decent backups in Samuel Womack and Kalia Davis, and a franchise signal-caller in Purdy.
Any other failures hardly matter at that point, and most general managers across the league would be perfectly happy with similar results.