Ultimately, the 49ers ended up selecting Mykel Williams. John Lynch confirmed that he was trying to trade up, but wouldn’t say for which prospect.
After the NFL Draft, San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan joked about how they attempted to trade up with a team to jump ahead of the organization they believed would select Mykel Williams.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote a draft notebook, and he talked to a few teams who wondered whether the Niners were moving up for a player who wasn’t Williams:
Whispers of trading up persisted closer to and around the draft. The 49ers discussed trade options with Carolina at No. 8 that ultimately didn’t materialize. I talked to a few teams picking high who wondered whether San Francisco would move up for a playmaker such as Tetairoa McMillan or Colston Loveland. And the Saints (No. 9) had been linked to Mykel Williams, San Francisco’s pick at No. 11, so a trade with Carolina would have allowed the Niners to get ahead of New Orleans, to be safe. But staying put worked out. And No. 5 pick Mason Graham considered the 49ers a potential landing spot if for some reason he slid into the back half of the top 10.
Williams had top-10 buzz early in the draft process. Then, some teams tried to knock his modest production (14 sacks in 40 college games) and 4.76 40 time. But things always regress to the mean closer to the draft, when athletic traits win out, so Williams went in somewhere close to his proper range. And his length and bend is among the best in the draft, perfect for the 49ers’ defense.
Fowler also said Kris Kocurek and Alfred Collins formed a connection pre-draft. Collins played his high school ball in Bastrop, Texas, less than an hour from Kocurek’s hometown of Rockdale.
If the Cleveland Browns had passed on Graham at No. 5, Lynch might have been tempted to move up for him. Then again, it would have likely caused Williams to fall.
The interest in an offensive weapon like McMillan or Loveland would have been more plausible had the Niners picked a tight end or wide receiver in the second or third rounds, but that never seemed realistic. They needed to replace multiple starters along the defensive line and approached the draft like that was the case.
Are you buying that the Niners considered trading up for McMillan or Loveland, or are these teams simply guessing and being way off base?