Grade the 2026 49er NFL Draft

Originally posted by Niners99:
You can't grade a draft right after it happens. Its always funny how 95% of NFL fans know very little past the basics, but then act like 30 year scouting and development experts after the draft, as if you know anything about these players.

I don't think that's quite fair as blanket statement. Its a draft. Its not rocket science or heart surgery. Give me a scalpel and I'll botch the surgery. A draft is a draft.

Its not like someone is clamoring for WR Deion Burks at pick 27. I'm sure many people wanted us to take Omar Cooper. And you can say, you are not an exec with 30 years of experience. You dont know anything about Omar Cooper. OK sure, but then Omar Cooper goes 3 picks later. So clearly, some very highly paid exec with 30 years of experience came to the same conclusion that I did that Cooper was a draftable last first/early second round talent. Many people thought Malachi Lawrence was a fast riser. Turns out he was. We though Concepcion would be good value at 27. The Browns agreed. Maybe you thought Boston or Bisontis or McDonald or Howell or Mason Thomas or Jacob Rodriguez would have been good picks at 33. The league agreed.

And sure, theres going to be value misses. EMW went later. Pregnon went way later. And I'm under no delusion that I smarter or better than Lynch. But its not like we are building the Golden Gate bridge here. Put me in charge of the design of the bridge and its going to be disaster and unlike any actual bridge engineer would build. Hell, ask me to make a souffle in a 5 star restaurant and its going to be an absolute disaster. Ask me to coach the DBs and its going to be a disaster. Ask me to paint the lines on the field and you wont like the results. Put me in charge of the draft and I will draft players that other GMs would have also drafted.

Put me on Is It Cake with 31 other professional pastry chefs and I think my work would stick out like a sore thumb. Let me draft for one random team and I'm not sure people could spot the amateur based on draft results.

Originally posted by scooterhd:
I don't think that's quite fair as blanket statement. Its a draft. Its not rocket science or heart surgery. Give me a scalpel and I'll botch the surgery. A draft is a draft.

Its not like someone is clamoring for WR Deion Burks at pick 27. I'm sure many people wanted us to take Omar Cooper. And you can say, you are not an exec with 30 years of experience. You dont know anything about Omar Cooper. OK sure, but then Omar Cooper goes 3 picks later. So clearly, some very highly paid exec with 30 years of experience came to the same conclusion that I did that Cooper was a draftable last first/early second round talent. Many people thought Malachi Lawrence was a fast riser. Turns out he was. We though Concepcion would be good value at 27. The Browns agreed. Maybe you thought Boston or Bisontis or McDonald or Howell or Mason Thomas or Jacob Rodriguez would have been good picks at 33. The league agreed.

And sure, theres going to be value misses. EMW went later. Pregnon went way later. And I'm under no delusion that I smarter or better than Lynch. But its not like we are building the Golden Gate bridge here. Put me in charge of the design of the bridge and its going to be disaster and unlike any actual bridge engineer would build. Hell, ask me to make a souffle in a 5 star restaurant and its going to be an absolute disaster. Ask me to coach the DBs and its going to be a disaster. Ask me to paint the lines on the field and you wont like the results. Put me in charge of the draft and I will draft players that other GMs would have also drafted.

Put me on Is It Cake with 31 other professional pastry chefs and I think my work would stick out like a sore thumb. Let me draft for one random team and I'm not sure people could spot the amateur based on draft results.

slight counter arguement

it would be intresting if you can do that without using the media and scouting reports provided by the internet though. Teams don't even look at media scouting reports because they have their own scouting department and they rank players to that criteria

Originally posted by scooterhd:

Originally posted by Niners99:
You can't grade a draft right after it happens. Its always funny how 95% of NFL fans know very little past the basics, but then act like 30 year scouting and development experts after the draft, as if you know anything about these players.

I don't think that's quite fair as blanket statement. Its a draft. Its not rocket science or heart surgery. Give me a scalpel and I'll botch the surgery. A draft is a draft.

Its not like someone is clamoring for WR Deion Burks at pick 27. I'm sure many people wanted us to take Omar Cooper. And you can say, you are not an exec with 30 years of experience. You dont know anything about Omar Cooper. OK sure, but then Omar Cooper goes 3 picks later. So clearly, some very highly paid exec with 30 years of experience came to the same conclusion that I did that Cooper was a draftable last first/early second round talent. Many people thought Malachi Lawrence was a fast riser. Turns out he was. We though Concepcion would be good value at 27. The Browns agreed. Maybe you thought Boston or Bisontis or McDonald or Howell or Mason Thomas or Jacob Rodriguez would have been good picks at 33. The league agreed.

And sure, theres going to be value misses. EMW went later. Pregnon went way later. And I'm under no delusion that I smarter or better than Lynch. But its not like we are building the Golden Gate bridge here. Put me in charge of the design of the bridge and its going to be disaster and unlike any actual bridge engineer would build. Hell, ask me to make a souffle in a 5 star restaurant and its going to be an absolute disaster. Ask me to coach the DBs and its going to be a disaster. Ask me to paint the lines on the field and you wont like the results. Put me in charge of the draft and I will draft players that other GMs would have also drafted.

Put me on Is It Cake with 31 other professional pastry chefs and I think my work would stick out like a sore thumb. Let me draft for one random team and I'm not sure people could spot the amateur based on draft results.

Consensus falls off a cliff the further down a draft you go. Of course consensus will largely follow a first round somewhat closely. These are players who are under a microscope. When you have a guy like Cosell gushing over Stribling, but consensus puts him in the 4th round, you have a problem with consensus, imo. Draft boards will only take you so far. It takes bringing a guy in for a visit. Watching the all-22 of every snap a guy takes over a career. Watching film of senior bowl practices. Reviewing medical data. Etc. There's just so much information you, I, and the rest of the knucklheads who put up mock drafts simply do not have access to. And it shows, there is no correlation to teams who more closely follow consensus and success VS teams that deviate widely. That is all to say, the draft is a crapshoot, and the further you go down the picks, it's only scouting departments that have the suite of information worthy of judging these players as accurately as a crapshoot can provide.

Originally posted by ritz126:
slight counter arguement

it would be intresting if you can do that without using the media and scouting reports provided by the internet though. Teams don't even look at media scouting reports because they have their own scouting department and they rank players to that criteria

Yes. I agree with that.

If I reverse the Halton and Black picks I feel a little better about the draft.

The more and more comes out aboit Stribling and his fast late rise in the draft and that he likely wasn't going to last until 58 or even to 40-50 makes me good with this selection as I like Stribling. I would not have picked him there over other players but I prefer him over Boston.

So the only selections I def dont like are Carver Willis and Jaden Dugger. There is zero chance in hell Dugger was better than the 30 players chosen after him and I bet he would have gone undrafted. The concerning thing is Shanahan admitted that they were going to take Dugger at 133 before they traded back to where they took him in the 150s. That is horrendous. Willis was a 7th rounder who got way overdrafted and does not solve our problem with SEA's DL.

In the end I like Stribling, Height, and Halton. And if those players hit we will be good with this draft. As good as we have been in the 4th-5th rds there is very little chance we got a gem in any of Willis, Prysock, or Dugger. Cruz has the best chance of being a legit starter in the future.

Final grade: C (mainly due to Willis, Prysock, and Dugger picks. Halton good value at 107 Black bad value at 90 so just reverse the order)

Can't believe we passed on guys like Jalon Kilgore and Kendrick Law with our last two picks.... what could have been...to extract way better value.

33. Stribling WR
70. Height EDGE
90. Halton DT
107. Black RB
133. Willis G
139. Prysock CB
152. Kilgore S
179. Law WR

UDFA: Cruz OT, Dugger LB

As it is every year:

F+.

At least they tried.

Originally posted by Ezekiel38:
If I reverse the Halton and Black picks I feel a little better about the draft.

The more and more comes out aboit Stribling and his fast late rise in the draft and that he likely wasn't going to last until 58 or even to 40-50 makes me good with this selection as I like Stribling. I would not have picked him there over other players but I prefer him over Boston.

So the only selections I def dont like are Carver Willis and Jaden Dugger. There is zero chance in hell Dugger was better than the 30 players chosen after him and I bet he would have gone undrafted. The concerning thing is Shanahan admitted that they were going to take Dugger at 133 before they traded back to where they took him in the 150s. That is horrendous. Willis was a 7th rounder who got way overdrafted and does not solve our problem with SEA's DL.

In the end I like Stribling, Height, and Halton. And if those players hit we will be good with this draft. As good as we have been in the 4th-5th rds there is very little chance we got a gem in any of Willis, Prysock, or Dugger. Cruz has the best chance of being a legit starter in the future.

Final grade: C (mainly due to Willis, Prysock, and Dugger picks. Halton good value at 107 Black bad value at 90 so just reverse the order)

Can't believe we passed on guys like Jalon Kilgore and Kendrick Law with our last two picks.... what could have been...to extract way better value.

33. Stribling WR
70. Height EDGE
90. Halton DT
107. Black RB
133. Willis G
139. Prysock CB
152. Kilgore S
179. Law WR

UDFA: Cruz OT, Dugger LB

Zero shot Cruz goes undrafted. Highly doubtable for Dugger as well.

Prysock is a good player. Better than his teammate Tacario who went earlier, imo.

I like Kilgore, but he seems to be the WZ darling this year. Not sure why.

I really like Stribling. Posted him as one of "my guys" well in advance of the draft. But it was still a pretty egregious misappropriation of resources imo. Same with Black. Good player. But our problem wasn't a lack of RBs. It was a lack of holes to run between.

I'd probably give the 2026 draft a B- / C+ right now.

A+++

Why not?! Everyone else is just throwing sh*t against the wall and hoping it sticks.