{"id":247274,"date":"2025-09-18T15:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=247274"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:25:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:25:53","slug":"49ers-draft-busts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/09\/18\/49ers-draft-busts\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco\u2019s Biggest Draft Busts of the Last Few Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every April, NFL teams hold a seven-round draft to strengthen their rosters with college players. For the San Francisco 49ers, much of their recent success has come from homegrown stars like tight end George Kittle, linebacker Fred Warner, and defensive end Nick Bosa. The front office has also supplemented that core with trades and free-agent signings, offsetting occasional draft misses. <\/span>But not every selection lives up to expectations. For every Kittle or Warner, there\u2019s a high draft investment that failed to deliver. With Jake Moody\u2019s release providing the latest reminder, here are three of the biggest recent 49ers draft busts.<\/span><\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s Biggest Draft Busts of the Last Few Years<\/h2>\n

1) Jake Moody, Kicker\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

With their third-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the 49ers selected Moody, hoping that the University of Michigan product could take over the team\u2019s placekicking job from longtime kicker Robbie Gould. Moody excelled in college, winning the Lou Groza Award in 2021 and earning Big Ten Kicker of the Year honors in 2021 and 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Oct 15, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; San Francisco 49ers place kicker Jake Moody (4) shakes hands with Cleveland Browns punter Corey Bojorquez (13) after the game at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moody’s NFL struggles<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Most NFL teams wait to draft even the best college kickers until the sixth or seventh round\u2014if at all. \u00a0The 49ers made Moody only the second kicker since 2016 selected within the first 100 picks. Given the team\u2019s other needs, fans and experts questioned the pick, which now looks like a costly gamble. Moody\u2019s inconsistency led the team to end the experiment two days after their first game this season. He finished his 49ers career with 46 field goals made out of 62 attempts, a 74.2 percent success rate on field goals, which simply is not good enough for a team trying to win the Super Bowl. The 49ers have since signed another kicker and are unlikely to draft one as high in the draft in the near future.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Trey Lance, Quarterback\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

The 2021 draft is not one that the 49ers will look back on fondly. That year, General Manager John Lynch traded with the Miami Dolphins<\/a> to move up from the No. 12 pick to the No. 3 pick, which he used to select Lance out of North Dakota State University.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lance starred in college, leading North Dakota State to FCS titles in 2018 and 2019. However, the step up in competition and a string of injuries derailed his development. He is now serving as the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>\u2019 backup quarterback<\/a>. The 49ers must feel incredibly lucky that quarterback Brock Purdy, the final NFL Draft pick in 2022, panned out.<\/span><\/p>\n

3) Javon Kinlaw, Defensive Tackle<\/b><\/h3>\n

Kinlaw, the 49ers\u2019 2020 first-round pick out of South Carolina, failed to live up to expectations after the team selected him No. 14 overall. Persistent knee injuries<\/a> kept him from earning consistent playing time or establishing himself as a core piece of the team’s future.<\/span><\/p>\n

In four seasons with San Francisco, Kinlaw accumulated 70 tackles and returned one interception for a touchdown. Having signed with the Washington Commanders<\/a> in free agency this past offseason, Kinlaw hopes to shed the bust label on his new team.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 49ers have drafted and developed enough stars to stay in the Super Bowl hunt, but these draft busts at premium positions have slowed their ability to build a consistent contender. With their championship window still open, nailing future drafts will be critical.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From high draft picks to missed opportunities, these 49ers draft busts have impacted the team\u2019s push to remain a consistent contender<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5641,"featured_media":144907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,6431,31],"tags":[10029,6029,7325,7059],"class_list":["post-247274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-nfl-teams","category-49ers","tag-jake-moody","tag-javon-kinlaw","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-trey-lance"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247274"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247343,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247274\/revisions\/247343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}