Five NFL draft decisions the San Francisco 49ers’ brain trust would like to take back
As the saying goes, talent evaluators in the NFL draft are like hitters in baseball. Nailing 30% of your picks, or hitting .300, is good enough to be considered elite.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch this week will orchestrate their fifth draft since taking over the 49ers in 2017. The successes of their picks are all over the spectrum. The roster is considered one of the strongest in the NFC and it will likely be adding a quarterback with the No. 3 overall pick Thursday.
They’ve found surefire keepers such as George Kittle (Round 5, 2017), Fred Warner (Round 3, 2018), Nick Bosa (Round 1, 2019), Dre Greenlaw (Round 5, 2019) and Brandon Aiyuk (Round 1, 2020).
Looking back through their four drafts, they’ve found nine players that are projected starters in 2021 out of their 32 picks, which equates to a .281 batting average, not including the players expected make the roster with depth roles (or punter Mitch Wishnowsky, a fourth-round pick 2019).
But they’ve also had their share of high-profile misses. Will they miss on their next quarterback Thursday night? We’ll have to wait a few years to find out.
For now, let’s count down Shanahan and Lynch’s biggest whiffs to date.
5. Joe Williams, RB (Round 4, 2017)
Here’s a shocker, this won’t be the first time the 2017 draft class is mentioned. Williams impressed the 49ers by wearing a suit and tie to his pre-draft visit and again when he was introduced to the local media for the first time.
But Williams’ commitment to dressing the part didn’t match his commitment to football. Williams never played a snap for the 49ers after getting hurt during his first two training camps and waived before suiting up (in pads and a helmet) in a regular season game. Which isn’t entirely a surprise.
Williams initially wasn’t on the 49ers’ draft board because of commitment concerns and a college credit card scandal which led to transferring from UConn to Utah. It took Shanahan persuading Lynch to take a chance given Williams’ talent. He was a blazing, one-cut runner with 4.41 speed who averaged 6.7 yards per carry and scored 10 touchdowns in his final nine college games.
That included a 222-yard performance against Indiana at the Foster Farms Bowl played in Levi’s Stadium late Dec. 2016. Shanahan thought Williams could provide a Tevin Coleman-like weapon to his running game. Coleman, after all, was a Shanahan favorite he helped draft with the Falcons in 2015 who averaged 981 yards from scrimmage over three seasons.
But Shanahan had to sign Coleman in free agency in 2019, in part, because Williams was released before the start of his second season. Williams is the only running back the 49ers have drafted since Shanahan took over amid the rise of Raheem Mostert and the success of undrafted players such as Matt Breida, Jeff Wilson Jr. and potentially JaMycal Hasty.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Shanahan decided to draft a running back this week to provide insurance and depth to the position behind Mostert, who dealt with nagging high-ankle sprains last season.
4. C.J. Beathard, QB (Round 3, 2017)
Missing on a third-round quarterback isn’t the most egregious error. Quarterback is arguably the toughest position to evaluate in the sport. But the reason why Beathard lands on this list is because of where the team currently finds itself.
Beathard was drafted to provide stability at the backup quarterback spot. Shanahan said he hoped the Iowa alum would have a Kirk Cousins-like career (Beathard was the 104th pick in his class, Cousins was 102). But Beathard had multiple chances to seize the starting job in light of the team’s issues with their starting quarterbacks and he never developed the way Cousins did. Beathard lost the backup job to Nick Mullens, who went undrafted and remained the third stringer.
Cousins, of course, landed a pair of big contracts with the Minnesota Vikings after getting the franchise tag twice with Washington. The two-time Pro Bowler helped Minnesota to the 2019 playoffs in which they lost to San Francisco in the Divisional Round.
The 49ers did not make bringing Beathard back a priority when his contract ran out this spring despite being a well-liked player and proving to be tough as nails. He went through immeasurable tragedy with the fatal stabbing of his brother late in the 2019 season. His victory as the starter over the Arizona Cardinals Week 15 was one of the few bright spots in the dreary 2020 campaign. Now he’s a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, signed by former 49ers general manager Trent Baalke to two-year, $5 million contract.
Missing on Beathard has played a role in the 49ers needing a quarterback in the upcoming draft to the point where they traded three first-round picks to the Miami Dolphins to find one.
3. Dante Pettis, WR (Round 2, 2018)
Here’s how you know Pettis was a big whiff. The 49ers drafted immensely physical receivers, unlike Pettis, in the two drafts after it was clear Pettis wasn’t going to work out (Deebo Samuel, Jalen Hurd and Brandon Aiyuk).
Pettis had the movement skills and route running technique Shanahan values in wideouts. It’s his former position and one he scouts the most closely outside of quarterback.
But Pettis was too easily manhandled by physical cornerbacks and rarely made catches in traffic. His lack of connection with Jimmy Garoppolo was apparent during his three training camps, and Pettis, a record-holding punt returner in college, never assumed that role in the pros. He set the mark with nine punt return touchdowns with Washington. He struggled to find his way out of Shanahan’s doghouse.
Pettis’ 49ers career finished with 38 catches on 70 targets in 28 games. He was waived last November, midway through his third season, and signed with the New York Giants. He was active for just two contests with New York, making four catches on five targets for 76 yards. The highlight of his 49ers stretch came late in his rookie season when he caught 12 passes for 255 yards and four touchdowns in three games. But he was never able to replicate that production consistently.
Making the Pettis selection worse was the fact San Francisco traded up 15 spots by sending their second- and third-round picks to Washington to take Pettis with pick No. 44 in Round 2 while also getting a fifth-round pick.
The good news? That pick turned out to be D.J. Reed, a productive defensive back who was a helpful depth player. But then Reed was waived and ended up with the Seahawks after suffering a chest injury last summer.
Reed had an interception against the 49ers in November and figures to be a core member of their secondary. To quote Pete Campbell, “Not great, Bob!”
2. Reuben Foster, LB (Round 1, 2017)
The 49ers said Foster was a top-five player on their draft board after trading back into Round 1 to take him 31st overall during Shanahan and Lynch’s first draft. He had character and injury concerns causing his stock to drop. And those issues hampered Foster’s career in a big way.
Foster, of course, was a natural tackling machine. He flew around the field and, at times, showed potential to become the team’s next great linebacker behind NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis. But Foster’s decision-making off the field led to his release before the end of his second season. His continued shoulder issues didn’t help, either.
Foster was cut the morning before a November 2018 game in Tampa Bay after being arrested at the team hotel the night before for an alleged altercation with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, whom the team ordered him to stay away from following his high-profile domestic violence case the previous offseason. He hasn’t played since and tore his ACL in May of 2019 after signing with the Washington Football Team.
Foster was likable but extremely immature. His legal troubles spoke to that and the 49ers set a clear precedent that they wouldn’t put up with his mistakes after giving him an opportunity when charges from the first case against him were dropped. His release led to the signing of pricey free agent Kwon Alexander (four years, $54 million), who was traded away from the 49ers midway through 2020 because he was too costly and dealt with too many injuries.
Fortunately for San Francisco, the 49ers remedied their issues at linebacker by finding Dre Greenlaw in the fifth-round of 2019. Greenlaw made arguably the tackle of the year in the season finale against the Seahawks and is expected to be a high-level starter alongside Fred Warner for seasons to come.
1. Solomon Thomas, DT (Round 1, 2017)
Yep, four of the team’s biggest misses all came in 2017, Shanahan and Lynch’s first draft at the helm.
Thomas came to the 49ers with the third overall pick after an impressive final season at Stanford. The team snookered the Chicago Bears into trading up one spot, to No. 2, to take Mitchell Trubisky for reasons that remain unclear. It’s been reported there were no other teams looking to trade to the second spot and clearly the 49ers weren’t going to take the North Carolina quarterback.
Thomas was initially expected to be a versatile lineman that could play all four spots. But he proved to be an ineffective edge rusher and not good enough on the inside to displace fellow first-round picks DeForest Buckner and Arik Armstead. Thomas proved to be a more effective rusher on the inside than out, but he never had more than a rotational role.
Off the field, Thomas struggled to recover from the tragic death of his younger sister, Ella, by suicide at 24 in January of 2018. It’s led to him championing mental health and bringing awareness to depression while encouraging people to seek help. Thomas and his parents in 2019 were given the Survivors of Loss Award by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for sharing their story and trying to create change.
On the field, the 49ers allowed Thomas to sign a one-year deal the Las Vegas Raiders last month despite needing depth along the interior. San Francisco instead signed veteran defensive tackle Zach Kerr and this week added former Raider, Maurice Hurst, to back up Armstead, 2020 first-round pick Javon Kinlaw and nose tackle D.J. Jones.
Thomas had six sacks in 48 games for the 49ers before tearing his ACL Week 2 against the Jets during the same drive Nick Bosa suffered the same injury on the MetLife Stadium turf.
Missing on Thomas with the third pick has a ripple effect on San Francisco’s team-building effort over the last four years. They took Thomas and passed on quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, who have starred with the Chiefs and Texans, respectively, which has the team in the market for Garoppolo’s long-term replacement Thursday night.
Perhaps Mahomes is the biggest what-if in 49ers history, particularly after beating San Francisco in Super Bowl LIV and subsequently becoming one of the most talented signal callers the NFL has ever seen.
Will there be another after this week? If so, Shanahan and Lynch might not be around to find another quarterback if the No. 3 pick doesn’t pan out.
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This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 7:14 AM.
