San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch doesn’t want the ninth overall pick. That is to say, he doesn’t want the 49ers in a position where that’s where they have to pick there because they didn’t compete for the playoffs. He’ll gladly take the ninth pick this year after the 49ers won Friday’s coin toss against the Oakland Raiders, but in 2019, he wants no part of it.
“We don’t want to be picking high in the draft anymore,” Lynch said in an interview with 49ers Studios. “It’s fun during the draft, but it’s reflective of something that happened before.”
Lynch did note, however, that having the ninth pick gives the 49ers a lot of flexibility. He suggested that the team is open to trading down or even trading up if the deal is right, which accounts for his own flexibility.
“We don’t want to be in this position again, but while you are, you have to take advantage,” Lynch said. “A lot of people want what you have. We’re going to have a lot of people interested, but if there’s a guy we want and we feel strongly (about), we’ll stay right there.”
In regards to moving up, Lynch said that the team is “not afraid to do that,” and that his approach is to “not be closed-minded to any opportunity.”
Personally, I think there are more than 10 players that could immediately help the 49ers that would be worth taking at No. 9 overall. There are a couple players — Minkah Fitzpatrick, mostly — that I think are worth trading up a couple spots to get. But a trade up seems unlikely, either way. It all really depends on the quarterbacks.
The 49ers don’t need one. A lot of teams do. This class is as good as any, and unless five happen to go in the top eight, there could still be a team or two trying to deal to move up and get one. Other players could be traded up for, of course, but quarterbacks always dominate the discussion.
One thing to note is that the Raiders are not a risk to take a quarterback, same as the 49ers, so if a team in need of one feels like another team isn’t going to jump in front of them, they can wait a couple more picks to move up and get that fourth or fifth quarterback on the board.
In fact, there’s a run of quarterback-needy teams just after the Raiders, so the Raiders might actually be the logical trading-up point for one of the final “high end” quarterbacks. Or maybe they’ll all already be gone. Or maybe we’re all overestimating the quarterback class. The draft is weird, but it sounds like Lynch and Co. are looking forward to seeing what kind of deals they can make.