The San Francisco 49ers had a huge opportunity presented to them on Saturday. The Cleveland Browns beat the San Diego Chargers to improve to 1-14. The 49ers were facing the Los Angeles Rams, and a loss meant they would have dropped to 1-14 as well. They hold the strength of schedule tiebreaker, and so they would have been in line for the top pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. Instead, the 49ers beat the Rams on a last second touchdown, and they remain second in the draft order.
That was incredibly frustrating given that this is a lost season, but there are some other ways to look at the 49ers draft position. Oscar Aparicio had a good point to sort of pull some folks back from the ledge.
If we need the first pick to not screw up the selection then I wouldn't trust us to get the first pick right anyway.
— Oscar (@BetterRivals) December 25, 2016
Let’s get one thing out of the way. I would rather have the No. 1 pick over the No. 2 pick any day. It provides the potential for greater trade value, and with Myles Garrett getting a lot of love from some folks, maybe the 49ers could have gotten a huge haul.
However, even with No. 2 and even without a big trade down, the 49ers need to hit on the pick. They need to hit on a large chunk of their 2017 draft picks, and particularly the day one and day two picks. This might be partly just to move past losing out on the top pick, but I think it is worth factoring in as we wait and see what is next for the San Francisco 49ers this offseason. The number one pick would be nice, but wherever they end up this offseason, it is a critical draft with a big need for hits.