The 49ers Have Just 170 Players on Their Draft Board

It's commendable that Lynch is so transparent with the media, but he put himself in an awkward position.

Feb 27, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch during the NFL / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

SANTA CLARA -- John Lynch revealed something interesting about the 49ers' draft board on Monday. Here's what he said, courtesy of the 49ers P.R. department.

LYNCH: "I think it's an interesting Draft class. I was just looking at my notes and like one interesting thing to me, dynamic in the way of the world right now, we put a grade on players in the fall if we think there's a more than 50-percent chance that they're going to be in this Draft. So 83 players from this year's class that we put grades on. So thinking there's more than a 50-percent chance, thinking they're entering the Draft are back in college because of NIL and things like that. There's now a different route these kids can take and 35 of those are with starter grades. So that's a significant amount. And how that affects this Draft, it's gonna be interesting. I think the later rounds probably are going to be lacking. So it's a new dynamic that one I imagine we're going to be faced with each year. You can go back and make a million dollars. I don't know if that's the going rate, but it is providing competition and that's a significant amount of players.”

Q: How many?

LYNCH: “83 that we put grades on.”

Q: How many total did you have grades on?

LYNCH: “Oh gosh, 170 draftable grades, so 83 in addition to that. So, yeah. It's a different dynamic. It's something the whole league's going to deal with.”

GRANT'S TAKE: It's commendable that Lynch is so transparent with the media, but he put himself in an awkward position. If the 49ers indeed have given only 170 draftable grades this year, then what will they do with their final four picks? Those are nos. 176, 211, 215 and 251. According to Lynch, they're worthless and other teams won't want them so the 49ers probably can't trade up. Bad year to have a bunch of picks near the end of Day 3.