The Niners telegraphed a few big changes in 2024 with their NFL Draft picks.
Trent Williams isn’t going anywhere.
In the weeks leading up to the NFL Draft, the 49ers were telegraphing that they would take a tackle — the successor to Trent Williams, it was presumed — with the team’s first-round pick.
But when the top of the first round featured seemingly nothing but quarterbacks, receivers, and offensive tackles, taking some presumed viable options for the 49ers off the board well before the team went on the clock, San Francisco pivoted.
And when the Niners didn’t trade up to select Washington tackle Roger Rosengarten in the second round, the message it sent was unmistakable.
Williams, 35, has flirted with retirement in recent seasons, but he is under contract to play for three more seasons with the Niners.
By not taking his heir apparent in this draft, San Francisco has told the league they believe they’re getting at least two of those seasons from Williams.
Otherwise, they would have taken a tackle and given him a season to learn from the master before taking over in 2025.
This is not a team that messes around in the draft regarding positions of need. But they drafted two guards who can be swing tackles at best this week. There’s no apparent heir on the roster.
The Niners clearly don’t think they need one until this time next year, at the earliest.
And as for Colton McKivitz, the team’s publicly maligned right tackle — you can do better, you can do worse, and the Niners like him far more than the public. Those two guards they selected? Both are from the McKivitz/Dan Brunskill school of versatile offensive linemen.
McKivitz might not be the long-term option, but he will be the guy for the job in the short term.
The 49ers aren’t just building around Brock Purdy; they’re going to change their offense for him, too.
This is the first offseason the 49ers can work with a Purdy who can throw a football.
And seeing as we already saw some appreciable changes to the Niners’ offense last season, after a season where Purdy was coming off internal brace surgery in his throwing elbow, I suspect we’re going to see even more changes to the offense going into 2024.
The Niners’ draft picks told us that, too.
Ricky Pearsall will replace Deebo Samuel at ‘Z’ receiver for the 2025 season, and the Niners can move him all over the field in the interim.
But Jacob Cowing (fourth round, No. 135) is the kind of player that is a true slot receiver.
And I think the 49ers will use more of those in 2024.
In the past, the Niners were a 21 personnel team. That’s two running backs (one a fullback) in the backfield, one tight end, and two wide receivers.
But that’s not to say the Niners can’t be something different. The Rams, for instance, run a “Shanahan-style offense” (it’s code for an outsize-zone running game that puts linebackers and safeties in conflict in the passing game), but they typically do it with 11 personnel—one running back, one tight end, and three wide receivers.
And the Niners ran the fourth-most empty formation sets on first down in the league last year. That’s, at minimum, a four-wide receiver set (though in many cases, one of those “receivers” was running back Christian McCaffrey.)
Shanahan said they started expanding the passing game last year to fit Purdy, who ran a spread offense at Iowa State and who, unlike his predecessor, can push the ball to the sidelines no matter where it is lined up at the snap.
Don’t be surprised if they expand upon it in 2024. They have the bodies at wide receiver to do it now.
The team’s draft values have changed.
No team leaves the draft thinking the players selected are going to be busts, but every team understands the risks associated with new prospects.
The 49ers tried to mitigate that risk this draft, by taking high-floor players that can help contribute right away across the board.
In the past, this team went all-or-nothing. It’s created some first-round busts and some late-round gems.
This season, San Francisco was trying to build serious depth for the 2024 season and beyond.
And if the Niners had to sacrifice a bit of the “boom” for that low bust potential, so be it.
They’ll probably be better off for it.
