Don't count on the San Francisco 49ers addressing their biggest need in first round of the 2024 NFL Draft

You don't have to follow the San Francisco 49ers religiously to have an idea of their most significant need in the 2024 NFL Draft. You just need to have paid even passing attention to the Super Bowl.

San Francisco consistently struggled to protect Brock Purdy during their Super Bowl 58 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and it is to Purdy's continuing credit that he consistently evaded pressure and found receivers to keep the offense on schedule in crunch time of an overtime thriller.

But the deficiencies on right side of the O-Line eventually cost San Francisco, a missed assignment allowing the Chiefs to get a key redzone pressure that forced Purdy into a third-down overthrow, leading the Niners to settle for a field goal on their first overtime possession that was promptly followed by a game-winning touchdown for Kansas City.

Surely then, with right tackle Colton McKivitz an average starter at best and the 49ers having no viable long-term option at right guard behind veteran Jon Feliciano, whose injury in the Super Bowl led to the missed assignment by backup Spencer Burford, San Francisco will make a concerted effort to address those needs early in the draft?

Even with a stacked tackle class, don't count on it.

There are still plenty of mock drafts suggesting the Niners may take a tackle and ESPN insider Field Yates, in a mock that had San Francisco taking Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry, floated the possibility of the 49ers trading up for a tackle.

The problem with that idea, is that general manager John Lynch didn't sound like a man committed to taking a tackle when asked about the possibility in his pre-draft press conference on Monday.

Said Lynch:

"I think it’s good tackles. It’s good linemen. The interesting thing with those linemen in this draft, we think a lot of them have flexibility to be tackles and or guards. So that’s nice that you take somebody with some versatility. I think there are some options and part of the draft is not always for this, you’re not always drafting for the immediate. Sometimes it’s drafting for future needs. So we have to be cognizant of that. We’ve got to be smart with that in terms of how we allocate our resources. We have 10 picks. You start asking yourself how many of those can make our team and how do we want to approach that? That’s part of what makes this whole thing so fun and enjoyable. I do think a strength of this Draft, to me, a lot of premium positions are strong. So that’s exciting."

Lynch's comments about versatility would appear to point to Washington's Troy Fautanu, Graham Barton of Duke and Oregon State's Taliese Fuaga all being potential trade-up targets. Fautanu and Barton each have five-position versatility up front while Fuaga could play tackle or guard in a zone scheme.

But there's the issue of price point. The 49ers may need to give up multiple day-two picks to get up to a spot to draft one of that trio and, while Lynch is correct in indicating that 10 rookies are unlikely to make their team, the Niners need to refresh an expensive roster that is one of the oldest in the league with a strong draft class. 

With Lynch himself commenting that the later-round talent in the draft is not as strong due to the impact of players staying in college because of NIL money, those day-two picks figure to be very important to the 49ers' hopes of this class being a successful one.

Addd Lynch:

"I think it’s an interesting draft class. I was just looking at my notes and like one interesting thing to me, dynamic in the way of the world right now, we put a grade on players in the fall if we think there’s a more than 50-percent chance that they’re going to be in this draft. So 83 players from this year’s class that we put grades on. So thinking there’s more than a 50-percent chance, thinking they’re entering the draft are back in college because of NIL and things like that. There’s now a different route these kids can take and 35 of those are with starter grades. So that’s a significant amount. And how that affects this Draft, it’s gonna be interesting. I think the later rounds probably are going to be lacking."

Extra motivation not to trade up comes from the prospective fall of defensive talent because of the likely run on offensive players in the first round. NFL Network's Peter Schrager posted recently on X (formerly Twitter) that he only has six 'surefire' first-rounders on defense.

In addition to McKinstry, Schrager added that Iowa cornerback Cooper DeJean, Penn State edge Chop Robinson, Missouri defensive lineman Darius Robinson and Clemson corner Nate Wiggins could all fall to the late first or early second round, giving the 49ers the chance to build on strengths by adding a premium player to either their defensive front or the secondary with pick 31.

That potential opportunity, combined with the fact the 49ers have done a lot of homework on day-two offensive linemen, visiting with tackles such as Roger Rosengarten of Washington, Notre Dame's Blake Fisher and Caedan Wallace of Penn State, raises the possibility of eschewing a first-round offensive lineman in favor of drafting a potential long-term starter on defense.

That scenario likely would not go down well with much of the 49er fanbase, but that won't be of any concern to Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan. In short, if you're a 49ers fan pinning your hopes on them taking an offensive lineman in the first round, you should at least be ready to be disappointed.