The San Francisco 49ers entered the 2026 NFL Draft with the No. 27 overall pick but did not make a selection on Thursday night, ultimately trading out of the first round. They now hold the No. 33 overall pick—the first selection on Day 2.
To get there, the 49ers executed two trades. First, they sent the No. 27 pick and No. 138 (fourth-round compensatory) to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for the No. 30 overall pick and No. 90 (third round).
San Francisco then flipped the No. 30 pick to the New York Jets for the No. 33 overall pick (first in Round 2) and No. 179 (fifth round), completing their move out of Round 1 while adding valuable draft capital.
General manager John Lynch addressed reporters after the first round, shedding light on the strategy behind the trades.
"I think it's the way the board fell," Lynch shared. "There were a couple of—a few—players that we would've taken, had they been there. That didn't happen. We had done our due diligence. Probably about this time last week, we started making calls, 'Hey, if we were to get back...'
"And I think the reason why, I think this was a draft where a lot of people were trying to move back. And so, you wanted to get ahead. We had a couple of deals secured. The second deal was from a team we didn't have secured, but we had made contact with. We were able to swap a fourth for a third in one deal. We were able to pick up some things to move back three spots."
Lynch also highlighted the value of holding the first pick on Day 2.
"And I think the cool thing about the 33rd pick, it puts you in a really nice [position]," he added. "We can kind of reconvene, reset our board, reset our thoughts. And I think it's also a coveted pick, as a lot of teams are doing that themselves."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan added that they were hoping to trade back to gain some draft capital.
"We had the guys we wanted, and we thought there was a good chance, but when they weren't there, we moved back to 30," Shanahan said. "And the guys that we would have had to take at 30 are still there. So I look at it as a huge success to move back to 33 when you would have still taken those guys at 30.
"Now, 27, we were hoping for a couple of things, and we missed those, but we kind of had an idea we might. To be able to move back two different times and get all those picks, and still take who you would have taken at those spots ... we knew that would be a challenge, and we were hoping that we could do that if those guys fell."
Lynch noted that the team has a strong sense of whom it may select at No. 33 overall—if it stays put at that spot.
"We've got a good idea of some names," Lynch said. "We're always open for business. I think that would be foolish not to listen, and so we will do that. But we have a good idea of where we're going, and looking forward to that."
Updated 49ers selections in the 2026 NFL Draft:
- Round 2, pick 1 (33 overall)
- Round 2, pick 26 (58)
- Round 3, pick 26 (90)
- Round 4, pick 27 (127)
- Round 4, pick 33 (133)
- Round 4, pick 39 (139)
- Round 5, pick 39 (179)
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