{"id":32594,"date":"2025-05-08T02:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T02:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/32594\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T02:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T02:38:10","slug":"49ers-almost-used-first-round-pick-on-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/32594\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers Almost Used First-Round Pick On Offense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each of the 49ers\u2019 first five picks of the 2025 NFL Draft were on the defensive side of the ball, starting with Georgia edge rusher Mykel Williams<\/a> at No. 11 overall. General manager John Lynch<\/a> recently discussed the situation in an appearance on the Chris Simms<\/a> Unbuttoned podcast, claiming that, had Williams not been around, offense would\u2019ve been the focus<\/a> in the first round. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, the first few offensive picks to immediately follow the selection of Williams were Alabama offensive guard Tyler Booker<\/a>, Penn State tight end Tyler Warren<\/a>, North Dakota State offensive lineman Grey Zabel, and wide receiver Emeka Egbuka<\/a>. While Warren was certainly a highly talented prospect with good value at that point of the draft, the team\u2019s plans for the tight end position were made clear when they extended<\/a> George Kittle<\/a> days after the draft.<\/p>\n

While Egbuka could\u2019ve helped to make up for the departure of<\/a> Deebo Samuel<\/a>, the team signed Brandon Aiyuk<\/a> to a four-year extension<\/a> and used a first-round pick on Florida receiver Ricky Pearsall<\/a> just last year. Combine that with the fact that Jauan Jennings<\/a>, the team\u2019s leading wide receiver from 2024, is returning to the fold, and drafting Egbuka eight spots before he ended up being selected doesn\u2019t seem very reasonable.<\/p>\n

In an early draft of the Pro Football Rumors\u2019 first-round mock draft<\/a>, I initially had Missouri offensive tackle Armand Membou finding his way to the Bay Area. As it became clear that Membou was being valued with a higher draft stock, I reevaluated and sent him to New York. My reasoning for targeting an offensive tackle stands, though.<\/p>\n

Historically, the 49ers haven\u2019t drafted a guard in the first round since making Mike Iupati<\/a> their second first-round selection in the 2010 NFL Draft. So, though they do have a need at guard, it\u2019s more like that they would look past an obvious projected guard like Booker in favor of someone with potential to play tackle. In the interview, Lynch explained that they were shocked to see Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr.<\/a> still around a nine, and Banks was linked to the team in the pre-draft process, likely due to his projection as a guard but his experience as a tackle, giving him potential at both positions.<\/p>\n

With Banks already off the board in the hypothetical, the focus now turns to Zabel. Though Zabel was projected to be a center at the NFL level, it was the only position he didn\u2019t play for the Bison. He started 33 games at tackle (17 at right, 16 at left) and seven games at guard (four at left, three at right). This could\u2019ve made Zabel a strong fit for the 49ers who have an immediate need to replace former starting guard Aaron Banks<\/a> and a not-so-distant need to eventually replace Trent Williams<\/a> (age) or Colton McKivitz<\/a> (contract) at tackle.<\/p>\n

Instead, Williams fell into the 49ers\u2019 lap, they\u2019ll hope to set him up across from Nick Bosa<\/a> on the defensive line. Additionally, they spent their next four picks on defense and didn\u2019t address the guard spot until their second-to-last pick in the seventh round. They\u2019ll either need to make another offseason addition to the offensive line or depend on Ben Bartch<\/a> to be a reliable starter in 2025 after only logging 10 starts in the last three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each of the 49ers\u2019 first five picks of the 2025 NFL Draft were on the defensive side of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[80,3504,798,4817,5305,4823,1705,702,7,6066,1502,10117,2810,2987,1458,12921,1493,6,15,1515,2392,252,2983,485,589],"class_list":{"0":"post-32594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","9":"tag-aaron-banks","10":"tag-armand-membou","11":"tag-ben-bartch","12":"tag-brandon-aiyuk","13":"tag-colton-mckivitz","14":"tag-deebo-samuel","15":"tag-emeka-egbuka","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-george-kittle","18":"tag-grey-zabel","19":"tag-jauan-jennings","20":"tag-john-lynch","21":"tag-kelvin-banks-jr","22":"tag-mike","23":"tag-mike-iupati","24":"tag-mykel-williams","25":"tag-nfl","26":"tag-nfl-draft","27":"tag-nick-bosa","28":"tag-ricky-pearsall","29":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","30":"tag-trent-williams","31":"tag-tyler-booker","32":"tag-tyler-warren"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114469896979113154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}