With Trey Lance available at No. 3 overall in 2021, the San Francisco 49ers are set to make their first Round 1 selection since the disastrous deal.
The quarterback started just four games in two seasons for the Niners before being traded to Dallas for a fourth-round pick, so the trade for Lance didn’t work out.
Luckily for head coach Kyle Shanahan, general manager John Lynch, and the 49ers’ executive team, they lucked onto Brock Purdy the following season with the 262nd overall choice—the last pick in the 2022 draft.
The Niners might have a problem under center if it weren’t for Purdy’s discovery, but Lynch isn’t letting Lance’s draft failure deter him from making any more moves. It merely informs their experience, instead.
But thank God for Mr. Irrelevant [Purdy]. He helped us.”
The general manager observed that the Niners letting go of Lance showed the organization’s resilience.
“I always am careful of this because Trey Lance’s story hasn’t been written yet,” Lynch stated. “I still believe Trey has a lot of football left in him, and he’s currently in Dallas. Let’s see. That will come to pass. However, I also believe that when you feel that after doing something, maybe it would help us go on, you have the choice to not feel pressured to remain with it because, after all, we drafted the person.
We are free to pursue our interests. And in my opinion, it has been very helpful to us. People are free to discuss the reasoning behind it.
We thoroughly examine it, pointing out what worked and what didn’t, and we do this with each selection. However, I believe that as a football club and an organization, we’re in a really good spot, and we just need to figure out how to improve a little more. And this entire offseason is centered around that. And what a fantastic opportunity this draft is to do precisely that.”
Lynch and Shanahan have more leeway to assemble a team that has highly compensated players like Nick Bosa, Deebo Samuel, Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey, Jayvon Hargrave, Fred Warner, and others because of Purdy’s transformation from Mr. Irrelevant to Super Bowl starter. Whether Brandon Aiyuk will join those ranks during the offseason is one of the main questions.
The Niners will no longer be able to pay Purdy a pittance in comparison to starters at his position, as the quarterback will be available for an extension the following offseason. Lynch rejected the notion that the 10 selections they must spend on Thursday’s first rounder are more important because of reality.
“I think you’re always thinking about that position and to know we have an answer there and a really good one, that’s comforting,” Lynch stated. It enables us to simply move forward and strengthen our team by constructing around him. And I have nothing but the highest regard for our roster. I believe it will be difficult for these young children to enter and leave their mark.
However, there are good players, and it is our responsibility to locate them since you need them. Reliance on rookie contracts is necessary, given the number of players we’ve paid. Because those players will be playing next year and into the future, we need to include everything I mentioned earlier and select a few players from this draft. And it is an opportunity.”
