© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
One common denominator of every championship team is its ability to draft well over several years. The 49ers’ lack of recent draft success helps explain their ongoing 16-year run featuring just three winning seasons, all of which came in consecutive years, from 2011 to 2013.
From 2005 to 2011, the 49ers drafted nine Pro Bowlers, including many of their franchise cornerstones — Alex Smith, Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Patrick Willis, and Joe Staley. Over the greater part of the past decade, however, San Francisco’s draft efforts have been futile. The 49ers have drafted six Pro Bowlers in the past 10 drafts and two in the past five years. The solid Scot McCloughan years transitioned into the inconsistent Trent Baalke era. The verdict is still out on John Lynch, who enters his third year as the 49ers general manager.
The draft struggles have something to do with a lack of identity. Throughout the past 10 years, the organization has cycled through five different head coaches. Mike Singletary is evidently not Chip Kelly, and Jim Tomsula is basically the antithesis of Kyle Shanahan.
After Lynch and Shanahan signed six-year contracts prior to the 2017 season, they retained minimal pieces and moved on from the vast majority of the roster. As of today, the 49ers employ just seven players from the 2016 team.
The only constant recently surrounding the 49ers organization has been change, and, well, losing. So, with exception to a couple positive drafts, the majority of the organization’s draft classes throughout the past decade has underperformed.
In honor of the 2019 NFL Draft starting later this month, let’s rank the 49ers’ draft classes of the past decade.
Last place — 2012
Harbaugh’s second draft started badly and never recovered. The 49ers drafted Illinois receiver A.J. Jenkins with their first pick at No. 30 overall. He did not record a catch for the team. Sixteen months later, he was traded. Alshon Jeffery and T.Y. Hilton — two Pro Bowl receivers still producing — were drafted after Jenkins.
In the second round, the 49ers selected another playmaker, Oregon running back LaMichael James. He, too, did very little. Mainly a return specialist, he rushed for 193 rushing yards throughout a five-year career filled with injuries. The most memorable play of his career was fumbling in the second quarter of Super Bowl XLVII. Pro Bowl running backs Lamar Miller and Alfred Morris were drafted after James.
In the third round, the 49ers drafted guard Joe Looney, who never really broke into the rotation. Fourth-round pick Darius Fleming battled knee injuries during a two-year stint. None of the team’s final three picks — Trenton Robinson, Jason Slowey, and Cam Johnson — played for the 49ers for more than one year.
Forget the past 10 years — 2012 may be the organization’s worst draft ever.
9th place — 2009
Michael Crabtree, drafted No. 10 overall, played six solid years with the 49ers. He averaged 854.8 yards in the four seasons he played in all 16 games with the 49ers. He never emerged as the Pro Bowler many expected, but he was an important contributor during the team’s successful three-year stretch. He recorded three 100-yard playoff games in 2012 and 2013.
The team’s second-round pick, Glen Coffee, was drafted to be Frank Gore’s eventual successor. After just one season, Coffee retired to become a pastor. Third-round pick Scott McKillop served in a linebacker backup role for two years. Quarterback Nate Davis was a backup and practice-squad participant throughout his three-year career.
The sneaky value pick of this draft is Ricky Jean Francois, who is currently playing for the Detroit Lions, his sixth team in 10 years. His 14 career sacks are obviously nothing to brag about, but longevity counts for something.
With exception to Crabtree, who you could argue underperformed for a high first-rounder, there aren’t any memorable names from 2009.
8th place — 2014
The 2014 draft was a monster. The 49ers had 12 selections, the result of a series of trades — one including Smith — and compensatory picks. But the 49ers had little to show for the influx of picks.
There are some recognizable names here — Jimmie Ward (first round), Carlos Hyde (second round), Chris Borland, Dontae Johnson, and Aaron Lynch. All of these players were starter-quality at some point, but none sustained multiple excellent seasons with the 49ers. Borland, who compiled 108 tackles as a rookie, was the most promising of the group, but he famously retired after one NFL season due to concerns over head trauma.
Ward continues to linger around. The 49ers made him their highest-paid defensive player in 2018 after exercising his fifth-round option. He battled injuries, as he has throughout his five-year career, yet he was re-signed to a one-year, prove-it deal for the upcoming season.
Hyde, Johnson, Lynch, and Marcus Martin are elsewhere in the league. This draft had potential that was never really realized.
7th place — 2016
The 49ers had 11 picks in 2016, and only one has truly panned out: DeForest Buckner. He has blossomed in a big way — Buckner was named to his first Pro Bowl in 2018 after compiling a career-high 12 sacks and 17 tackles for loss. He is arguably the 49ers’ best current player. With his contract expiring after the upcoming season, Buckner will demand a massive contract, potentially in the neighborhood of $18 million-to-$20 million per year.
Fellow first-round pick Joshua Garnett, conversely, has done very little. The 49ers have stuck by him amid various injuries. Mike Person, a journeyman who signed for the league minimum last year, beat out Garnett for the starting right guard spot in 2018. 49ers coaches maintain that Garnett will have the opportunity to compete for the job in 2019, though it feels like a now-or-never situation.
Ronald Blair is the third current 49er drafted in 2016. He was a solid rotational EDGE presence in 2018. He will vie for that role again in 2019.
Aside from those players, there is little to remember from the rest of the 2016 class. Rashard Robinson started 13 games at cornerback. Sixth-round pick Jeff Driskel is the Cincinnati Bengals’ backup quarterback. Aaron Burbridge, another sixth-rounder, bounced from the injured reserve to the practice squad in three years with the team.
49ers fans will remember this draft for Buckner — and not much else.
6th place — 2013
Similar to the 2016 draft, the 49ers’ 2013 class starts and ends with the first-round pick: Eric Reid. He inherited the starting free safety role and turned in a Pro-Bowl campaign as a rookie after recording 91 tackles and four interceptions. Reid started in all but 11 games in his five years with the 49ers. He was a consistent, hard-hitting, ball-hawking presence anchoring the 49ers secondary.
Tank Carradine, the team’s second-round pick, tallied 5.5 sacks in four seasons. Vance McDonald’s best years weren’t achieved until after he left the 49ers. Fifth-round pick Quinton Dial appeared in all but five games throughout the 2014-2016 seasons at nose tackle. Marcus Lattimore, a decorated college running back, never lived out his NFL career due to a gruesome knee injury.
5th place — 2017
Though early, this draft class has been accentuated with extreme hits and misses, in the form of a first-round disaster and fifth-round prize.
The 49ers drafted Solomon Thomas with the No. 3 overall pick. No, he has not come close to living up to expectations, but difficult personal circumstances and perhaps playing out of position have contributed. Let’s wait at least one more year before assessing Thomas’ 49ers tenure.
The real first-round swing-and-miss was Reuben Foster, whose status as a prospect was clouded with character concerns. Shortly after a fantastic rookie season, Foster was arrested for domestic violence charges, which were ultimately dropped. Then, later in the 2018 season, he was charged with the same crime, involving the same victim. The 49ers released him the following morning.
The rousing success has been the team’s fifth-round selection, George Kittle. In his second NFL season, Kittle set the single-season yardage record for a tight end, with 1,377 yards, in 2018. He is also an excellent run-blocker. The only question is whether Kittle, who was named a second-team All-Pro last season, is now the best tight in the league.
The rest of the 2017 class is still being determined. Ahkello Witherspoon enters 2019 fighting for the starting right cornerback spot that was once his. Trent Taylor and Adrian Colbert eye bounce-back years after their 2018 seasons were limited due to injuries. Third-rounder C.J. Beathard will compete for the backup quarterback role with Nick Mullens, a 2017 undrafted free agent who has statistically performed better than Beathard with similar workloads.
The Foster and Kittle picks offset. The 2017 class deserves a middling rank.
4th place — 2015
If we’re judging these draft classes based on players’ careers with the 49ers, the 2015 class likely isn’t in the top-four of the past decade. Since we have based these rankings on overall NFL production, the 2015 class is actually well-rounded, thanks to a 6-foot-8, 380-pound tackle somehow falling to the 49ers in the seventh round.
That would be Trent Brown. He became the 49ers’ full-time starter in his second season and quickly earned respect around the league. Von Miller dubbed Brown as the best right tackle in the NFL. But the 49ers deemed him expendable when they drafted Mike McGlinchey with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2018 draft. The next morning, the team traded Brown and a fifth-round pick to the New England Patriots for a third-round pick, which was ultimately used on Tarvarius Moore. The following year, Brown earned the starting right tackle job, won the Super Bowl with the Patriots, and signed the richest contract for an offensive lineman in NFL history with the Oakland Raiders.
Brown may not fit the 49ers’ current scheme, but he has enjoyed quite the turnaround.
As for the other 2015 draftees — first-round pick Arik Armstead overcame three injury-filled seasons to enjoy the best season of his career in 2018. He played every game and emerged as one of the top run-stoppers at defensive end in the NFL. Safety Jaquiski Tartt, the team’s second-round pick, has flashed elite talent, but he, too, has struggled to stay on the field. He enters 2019 battling for the starting strong safety job.
Third-rounder Eli Harold and fifth-rounder Bradley Pinion lasted three and four years with the team. They now play elsewhere.
The rest of the class did not pan out. But Brown represents one of the organization’s best value picks of the past decade — even if his 49ers tenure ended sourly.
3rd place — 2018
It’s unfair to assess a draft class after one season, so much of these rankings have to do with projections. Remember, the 2017 class looked promising after one year, but the majority of the class regressed as sophomores. Let’s give the 2018 draftees the benefit and expect them to steadily progress in their second years.
For the first time in a long time, the 49ers may have hit on their first three choices from the 2018 draft.
McGlinchey looked every bit like a veteran starting right tackle as a rookie. Pettis flashed No. 1-receiver potential in the second half of the season, though his rookie year was limited due to knee injuries. Third-round pick Fred Warner anchored the 49ers defense as the team’s middle linebacker. His 124 tackles were 57 more than the next-closest 49ers player.
The rest of the class enters 2019 in similar situations, with everyone fighting for a role. Sixth-round pick Marcell Harris will compete for the starting strong safety spot. D.J. Reed could be in the mix at free safety, though he has played better at nickel corner. Richie James was a standout kick returner in his rookie season, which included the first kickoff return touchdown for a 49ers player since 2011.
The early returns are positive.
2nd place — 2011
With their top-two picks of the 2011 draft, the 49ers selected two stars of the Harbaugh years: Aldon Smith and Colin Kaepernick. The highs were tremendous, while the lows were abrupt — for different reasons.
Smith immediately validated his first-round standing. He compiled 14 sacks as rookie. One year later, in 2012, he amassed 19.5 sacks, the most in a single season in franchise history and tied for 13th all-time. But Smith’s 49ers tenure ended four years in, after his third DUI. The rest of his career flamed out due to legal run-ins, including a domestic violence charge.
Before Kaepernick evolved into a transcendent cultural figure, he elevated the 49ers offense upon being named the starting quarterback about midway through the 2012 season. He led the team to a 21-6 record, playoffs included, in his first two seasons as the starter. He starred in the 2012 playoffs, amassing 1,062 total yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. His 181 rushing yards against the Green Bay Packers in the 2012 NFC Divisional Playoff are the most ever for a quarterback in a single game.
One year later, Kaepernick led the 49ers to a 12-4 record in his first full season as the starter. He piled up 819 total yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions during the 2013 playoff run that ended in a six-point Super Bowl loss.
Things steadily regressed from there. Kaepernick went 8-8 the following year, though he had 19 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and a career-high 639 rushing yards in the 2014 season. In 2015, he went 2-6 before being benched for Blaine Gabbert midway through the season. One year later, having reassumed the starting role, Kaepernick led the 49ers to one win in 11 starts. His season will forever be remembered for his kneeling during the national anthem, which jumpstarted a movement that swept the league and has since proven tremendous cultural value. He became a driving force for protesting police brutality and racial injustice. Kaepernick has not been re-signed since the 2016 season. He has sued the NFL for collusion, a case that was resolved last month.
As for the rest of the class, the 49ers drafted nickel corner Chris Culliver and running back Kendall Hunter in the third and fourth rounds. Both produced some solid years, though Culliver’s reputation was tainted with anti-gay slurs and a hit-and-run incident that led to his 49ers’ downfall. Hunter averaged 4.6 yards per carry in a backup role in three full seasons with San Francisco.
Fifth-round pick Daniel Kilgore was the team’s full-time starting center for four of seven seasons. Oddly enough, the lone 2011 draftee who remains a 49er is Person, who made six stops before returning to the team in the 2018 offseason. Person put together a solid season as the team’s starting right guard and enters 2019 as the frontrunner for the job.
The 49ers’ 2011 class was probably the most complete of the past decade. It featured top-end talent and solid, durable pros.
1st place — 2010
Your top 49ers draft of the decade belongs to the 2010 class for one key reason: it featured two first-team All-Pros.
Four-time Pro Bowl left guard Mike Iupati was drafted with the team’s second first-round pick. Iupati anchored the left side of the offensive line beside Staley at left tackle. Both players made every Pro Bowl from 2012 to 2015.
Four-time first-team All-Pro linebacker NaVorro Bowman was drafted in the third round, one of the team’s most valuable picks in recent history. Bowman and teammate Patrick Willis were named first-team All-Pros together in both 2010 and 2011. At the height of their careers, they formed one of the top linebacker duos in NFL history.
The 49ers’ top overall pick in 2010 was offensive tackle Anthony Davis. In his first four seasons, he started every game at right tackle, and, for the most part, played well. Davis retired twice and ultimately hung his cleats up after the 2016 season, as Brown asserted himself as the superior option.
The majority of the rest of the draft class is forgettable, including Anthony Dixon, Taylor Mays, Nate Byham, and Phillip Adams. Who could forget Kyle Williams, whose career is synonymous with two muffed punts that played a huge part in San Francisco’s 20-17 loss in the 2012 NFC Championship Game.
Iupati and Bowman headline the 49ers’ best draft of the past decade. In a few weeks, the 49ers will welcome their newest class.