John Lynch's Worst Mistake as the 49ers General Manager

With the 49ers constantly being one piece away from a Super Bowl, every decision is like a move in a game of chess, and the 49ers are still handicapped by a particular mistake in 2020.

The 49ers have been one of the most competitive teams in the NFL since the 2019-2020 season but are consistently not good enough to win a Super Bowl.

Every miscalculation by the regime seems even more magnified each year they fall short of their ultimate goal. There have been a few along the way. Drafting Solomon Thomas with the No. 3 pick when Patrick Mahomes was on the board, sticking with Jimmy Garoppolo instead of bringing in Tom Brady, the Jerick McKinnon contract, etc.

However, there is one mistake that John Lynch and the 49ers made that still cripples them to this day. That mistake was, unfortunately, selecting Javon Kinlaw in the 2020 NFL Draft.

To even be able to draft Javon Kinlaw, San Francisco had to trade away their star defensive tackle, DeForest Buckner. Trading Buckner was understandable regardless if people agreed with the move or not. It is fair to see the financial side of the decision-making process and understand why the move was made.

But let's take a look at how the draft went that offseason. The 49ers received the No. 13 pick from the Colts in exchange for Buckner. They traded back one spot with Tampa Bay and selected Kinlaw. Some notable players still available at 14 were Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb, and Justin Jefferson. The 49ers did, however, come away with their wide receiver later in the first round with Brandon Aiyuk.

Tampa Bay, who traded with San Francisco to move up one spot, selected right tackle Tristan Wirfs, who was All Pro the past two seasons. The 49ers, with all those weapons on the board, could have stayed at 13 and ended up with one of the league's best tackle tandems of Trent Williams and Tristan Wirfs. A move like this would've also granted them the flexibility to move on from Mike McGlinchey and utilize that money elsewhere. Potentially to keep DJ Jones last offseason.

To be clear, Javon Kinlaw is an athletic freak with great potential. But he has yet to be consistently available, and his future in San Francisco looks bleak due to his injury history. After three seasons in the NFL, Kinlaw has appeared in only 24 regular season games, and the 49ers have to decide soon whether they want to pick up his fifth-year option. In those three seasons, Kinlaw has produced merely 1.5 sacks. Not exactly the pass-rushing threat John Lynch and the team hoped for from a first-round selection.

Justin Jefferson is arguably the best wide receiver in the game, CeeDee Lamb is a promising young playmaker, and Tristan Wirfs is a great pass protector. Any one of them would have significantly improved San Francisco's Super Bowl chances since 2020 and would continue to do so in the future. Or, of course, John Lynch could have potentially found a way to make keeping Buckner in town work financially to begin with.

With Kinlaw not producing much even when he is available, it is a substantial net loss for the 49ers after losing Buckner via trade and DJ Jones to free agency on the defensive interior.

Either way, this is all hindsight, but with the 49ers coming up short every chance they get, these decisions made by the regime become more and more brutal. Hopefully, Lynch and the regime will finally figure it out and win a Lombardi trophy. Otherwise, fans may have to keep looking back on what could've been after all these rosters consisting of all-pros and no rings to show for it.