With the first wave of free agency gone, the San Francisco 49ers believe they have set themselves up well for the draft, and according to general manager John Lynch, the team can now go into the draft with the mindset of purely taking the best player available when it’s their turn on the clock.
Lynch was attending Ohio State’s Pro Day earlier this week when he spoke to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, where he specifically discussed the draft, and what the teams free agency moves did to affect it.
“In terms of what we did, it gave us flexibility,” Lynch said. “We had some ideas of areas where we had to get better. And what we did gave us flexibility to just focus on going out and getting the best player available, particularly with that top spot, regardless of the position.”
The 49ers currently hold the second overall pick in the draft, and if quarterback Kyler Murray ends up going first over, as many believe he could, then San Francisco would have their choice from any of the elite defensive prospects in the draft.
Not only have they already met with Ohio State’s Nick Bosa, but they also met with Alabama’s Quinnen Williams during the week.
“We’ve done a lot of work on those guys,” Lynch said. “We’ve done a lot of work on the entire draft class, but it really gets hyper-focused now. We’ve condensed a lot of the information. Now the coaches come up and we put it all together.”
So far, the 49ers have already begun reinforcing their defense, signing linebacker Kwon Alexander and trading for Chiefs linebacker Dee Ford last week.
San Francisco also signed cornerback Jason Verrett and re-signed safety Jimmie Ward, so it’s clear that the 49ers view defense as one of its biggest priorities, and with a very valuable position in the draft, they should be able to quickly rebuild their defense in time for 2019.
Follow Us
Subscribe