B-
San Francisco 49ers
Larceny in pick No. 127 lands the 49ers a B-, Hurst and all.
by Iowradar ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 1 steals
· 6 reaches
Thirty-one other rooms let Ted Hurst slide, and the 49ers were the ones holding the card at pick 127. Highway robbery.
The cost of the Payne reach is exactly the players who went right after him. For all the activity, interior defensive lineman went untouched, which is hard to explain. On the needs board they went 5 of 8, with offensive lineman the one that mattered most.
A workmanlike haul that should hold up just fine.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a disruptor off the edge, a steep price for the projection. A real need, handled.
Gennings Dunker at Round 2, Pick 26 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A wide receiver of that caliber at slot 127 is the definition of value, full stop. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They liked Kaytron Allen enough to skip the value, taking him in the 133rd overall pick. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A premium they did not need to pay, Matt Gulbin a notch or two before his time. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They talked themselves into VJ Payne at No. 170, and the board did not agree. A minor need, but a need all the same.
A reach for Riley Nowakowski in the 215th pick; a little patience would have been rewarded. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A big swing on Eli Heidenreich at pick 231, well ahead of any board in the building. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.