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The San Francisco 49ers didn’t make a pick in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft, opting to trade back twice to stockpile selections in what amounted to a relatively anticlimactic night.
Not exactly the most riveting night for a team trying to end a three-decade Super Bowl drought.
As long as the 49ers don’t continue moving down the board, the strategy looks sound. San Francisco — like every other franchise — is well aware of the formula to build a winner.
Championship teams, across all sports, are formed through amateur drafts. Free agency is critical, and player-for-player trades help too, but there’s no mechanism that’s more important to creating a winner than the ability to identify and develop rising stars out of high school and college.
How did Bill Walsh turn the 49ers into a dynasty in the 1980s? He drafted five Hall of Famers — Joe Montana (1979), Ronnie Lott (1981), Roger Craig (1983), Jerry Rice (1985), and Charles Haley (1986) — in a seven-year span.
Selecting the right players isn’t the only effective way to use the draft to build out a roster. Four days before the 1987 NFL Draft, Walsh traded a pair of picks to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Steve Young, a perceived bust who won two MVP awards and led the 49ers to a Super Bowl title.
The Warriors’ dynasty started with a draft pick too. Stephen Curry, the No. 7 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, is a generational talent who emerged as the face of the franchise when Golden State surrounded him with Klay Thompson, the No. 11 selection in 2011, and Draymond Green, the No. 35 pick in 2012.
The Warriors couldn’t have won four championships without outside help — yes, Kevin Durant turned out to be important — but Golden State’s nucleus was formed with smart draft picks.
The San Francisco Giants’ rise, and subsequent fall, can easily be traced through the draft too. Brian Sabean used first-round selections on Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Madison Bumgarner, and by the time the club won its third title in five seasons, every member of the infield was a homegrown player. Some picks, like Buster Posey, were no-brainers, but Brandon Crawford was a fourth-round pick, and Brandon Belt wasn’t taken until the fifth round.
Since the Giants selected Joe Panik in 2011, Heliot Ramos (2017) has been their only first-rounder to make an All-Star team.
That’s why building up draft capital, and consistently selecting players who fit a coach’s system, is so important.
John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan drafted future Hall of Famers in George Kittle (fifth round, 2017) and Fred Warner (third round, 2018), while Brock Purdy (seventh round, 2022) has starred in one of the most remarkable underdog stories in league history. The team traded draft picks to add stars Trent Williams and Christian McCaffrey, but the 49ers need a new wave of talent to supplement the roster.
If Lynch and Shanahan ever bring the franchise a title, there’s a good chance this year’s draft class will play a pivotal role.
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