Former First Rounder Called “Worst Draft Bust in 49ers History”

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Quarterback Trey Lance visits the dugouts before the start of an MLB game between the Oakland Athletics and the Texas Rangers on May 14, 2023 in Oakland, California.

San Francisco 49ers fans would certainly agree that Trey Lance has been the team’s worst draft pick of the 2020s.

When NFL Draft expert Matt Holder of Bleacher Report released an article titled, “Re-Drafting Every NFL Team’s Worst Draft Pick Over Last 5 Years”, Niners fans expected to see Lance as the 49ers entry. It would have been more surprising if Holder didn’t pick him.

But Holder went even further than calling Lance the worst pick by the 49ers since 2020.

“Lance might be the biggest draft bust in 49ers’ history,” Holder wrote. “Not only did the organization use a high pick on him, but it traded three first-round picks and a third-rounder to get him. That comes out to one draft pick per start that the North Dakota State product had in San Francisco.”

As Holder mentioned, the 49ers spent not only their 2021 first round pick on Lance, but traded away their 2022 and 2023 first rounders as well, sacrificing a shot at blue chip superstars two years in a row for a guy who’d ultimately only play four bad games for the team.

The 49ers’ awful luck was balanced out with great luck the next year, drafting Brock Purdy with the last pick in the draft and getting a superstar out of him.

But the fact of the matter remains that the 49ers would like to have those first rounders back.

Who Could the 49ers Have Drafted Instead of Lance?

In Holder’s article, he assumed the 49ers didn’t make the trade up at all if Lance wasn’t the guy they were going for.

In that case, he tabbed star offensive tackle Rashawn Slater as the guy the 49ers should have taken at No. 12 overall.

“The [49ers] could have used a right tackle, which Slater played during his first two years at Northwestern,” Holder wrote. “Having the two-time Pro Bowler play opposite Trent Williams would have given San Francisco a nasty offensive line, and Slater could’ve been the heir apparent to Williams on the blind side.”

That would have also left the 49ers with the 29th overall pick in 2022, where they would have been in perfect position to select defensive end George Karlaftis who already has 24.5 sacks for the Kansas City Chiefs in his young NFL career.

They would have also had the 29th overall pick in 2023, where again, they’d have again been in perfect position to select a young future defensive star in OLB Nolan Smith, who had 6.5 sacks for the Philadelphia Eagles last season.

49ers fans still cringe at the realization that they could have had several years of Karlaftis and Smith instead of four games of Trey Lance.

Even if the 49ers did still make the trade, Ja’Marr Chase or Penei Sewell are the bona fide stars that 49ers fans would feel a lot better about giving up so many future picks for.

Will Lance Ever Start in the NFL Again?

Trey Lance’s NFL career isn’t over. He’s currently on the Los Angeles Chargers roster as a backup, and some analysts suggest that Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh really likes Lance the same way he liked former 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick about a decade ago.

Lance hasn’t been a regular starter in the NFL ever, and hasn’t been named the starter for an NFL team since the 2022 season with San Francisco. He was a backup for the Dallas Cowboys last season and made one start in Dallas’s final game against the Washington Commanders.

He completed 20 of 34 passes for 244 yards in the Cowboys 23-19 loss to Washington.

What do you think, 49ers fans? Will Trey Lance ever figure it out for another team? Who do you wish the 49ers would have drafted instead of him?

Ethan Inman is a sports journalist covering the San Francisco 49ers and Las Vegas Raiders for heavy.com. He also co-hosts a college football podcast for The Voice of College Football, and writes about the NBA and MLB. He has previously covered the USC Trojans, the NHL, college baseball, and the intersection of sports and popular culture for other publications. He is based in the greater Los Angeles area. More about Ethan Inman