Man, the 49ers sure can pick ’em. Yet another first round pick, Javon Kinlaw, is getting his knee examined yet again, and is likely to go under the knife and miss the rest of this shit-show of a season. Lynch and Shanny sure have a knack for finding lousy 1st round picks in their tenure as the brain trust to rebuild the team. Using my handy dandy right side menu, out 1st round picks under this regime are:

2021: Trey Lance
2020: Javon Kinlaw, Brandon Aiyuk
2019: Nick Bosa
2018: Mike McGlinchey
2017: Solomon Thomas, Reuben Foster

Of the 7 first round picks, 2 are gone (Solly, Reuben), 2 have missed significant time (Kinlaw, Bosa), 1 has underwhelmed (McGlinchey), 1 is in the doghouse (Aiyuk), and one is coming off an injury after playing ONE game. Lance of course. His injury is more in the way he was grossly misused in his game.

Of the seven, one, namely Nick Bosa, has lived up to the spot he was drafted. Yes, the book is not written on Lance, but that is for another day. It is about the impact picks they made that have yielded squat. Then there is 2nd rounder Dante Pettis, 3rd rounder Jalen Hurd, both contributed little to nothing. Current draft 3rd round guys Ambry Thomas and Trey Sermon are iffy at best.

Funny thing is, they’ve hit paydirt lower in the draft all over the place:

Jaylon Moore, our 5th round LT looks very tough and has stepped in for Trent Williams to the point of Williams not being missed.
Talanoa Hufanga looks solid. As does starting RB Elijah Mitchell. Both 5th rounders.
Backup TE and WR Woerner and Jennings are 6th and 7th rounders. Not that Jennings has done much.
Dre Greenlaw, 5th round LB is a huge find and is playing at the highest level. He will hopefully be back soon.
Justin Skule, 6th round pick in 2018 is solid enough.
D.J. Reed was a 5th round pick that we let slip away.
And of course George Kittle, and D.J. Jones in the 2017 draft.

The middling guys are all pretty much gone, so there’s a wide disparity in these drafts. If they had hit on the high picks, you have to wonder how much better this team could be.

But, hey, Khalil Mack is out for the Bears. So there’s that.