49ers Almost Used First-Round Pick On Offense

Each of the 49ers’ first five picks of the 2025 NFL Draft were on the defensive side of the ball, starting with Georgia edge rusher Mykel Williams at No. 11 overall. General manager John Lynch recently discussed the decision in an appearance on the Chris Simms Unbuttoned podcast, claiming that, had Williams not been around, offense would’ve been the focus in the first round.

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

While Egbuka could’ve helped to make up for the departure of Deebo Samuel, the team signed Brandon Aiyuk to a four-year extension and used a first-round pick on Florida receiver Ricky Pearsall just last year. Combine that with the fact that Jauan Jennings, the team’s leading wide receiver from 2024, is returning to the fold, and drafting Egbuka eight spots before he ended up being selected doesn’t seem very reasonable.

In an early draft of the Pro Football Rumors’ first-round mock draft, 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 with the 11th overall pick still stands, though.

Historically, the 49ers haven’t drafted a guard in the first round since making Mike Iupati their second first-round selection in the 2010 NFL Draft. So, though they do have a need at guard, it’s more likely that they would look past an obvious projected guard like Booker in favor of someone with potential to play at tackle. In the interview, Lynch explained that they were shocked to see Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. still around when he was selected at ninth overall, and Banks was linked to San Francisco plenty in the pre-draft process, likely due to both his projection as a guard in the NFL and his experience as a tackle in college, giving him potential at both positions.

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’t 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’ve made Zabel a strong fit for the 49ers, who have an immediate need to replace former starting guard Aaron Banks and a not-so-distant need to eventually replace Trent Williams (age) or Colton McKivitz (contract) at tackle.

Instead, Williams fell into the 49ers’ lap, and they’ll hope to set him up across from Nick Bosa on the defensive line. Additionally, they spent their next four picks on defense and didn’t address the guard spot until their second-to-last pick in the seventh round. They’ll either need to make another offseason addition to the offensive line or depend on Ben Bartch to be a reliable starter in 2025 after only logging 10 starts in the last three years.