The San Francisco 49ers believed they were letting the Chicago Bears move up to No. 2 to draft Solomon Thomas, and were prepared to go Reuben Foster with the No. 3 pick.
The MMQB’s Peter King was embedded in the San Francisco draft room on Thursday evening, and shared the fascinating machinations that went down. Notably, when it became clear that the Niners were going to swing the deal with the Bears to swap first round picks, San Francisco had no certainty on what Chicago was doing, with general manager John Lynch assuming they were taking Stanford defensive lineman Solomon Thomas.
Thomas was the second-highest name on the Niners’ draft board, behind only eventual top pick Myles Garrett. At No. 3 was Alabama’s Reuben Foster, who the team was prepared to take with the third pick unless they could find a way to trade down. Those plans were quickly scrapped when the Bears took Trubisky, allowing the Niners to snag the second-best player in the draft in Thomas, at least in their estimation.
Attention turned to Foster, who the 49ers did not expect to fall past the middle of the first round.
“He’s not getting past Cincy [with the ninth pick in the first round], though,” Lynch said of Foster.
“I think he is getting past Cincy,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “I don’t think he’s getting past [Ravens GM] Ozzie [Newsome at 16].”
Foster did indeed fall past both, leaving the door open for the 49ers to trade back into the first round and get the third-ranked player on their draft board — a player they were prepared to draft No. 3 overall — with the 31st pick.
“It’s the pick we had no business getting,” CEO Jed York would tell King.
Lynch was quite clear with how thrilled he was after the first round. You can’t blame him, particularly given his original expectations.
