The 49ers will enter the 2023 draft in a unique spot. They hold 11 picks, but none until No. 99 and eight of their selections come in the final three rounds. San Francisco can and should be heavily involved in the trade market during the draft, but there’s a way they can maneuver and handful of times to target players they like without swinging for the fences.
On the surface a trade up for the 49ers might involve packaging all of their third-round picks to leap up into the second round. It’s the quickest route to securing any kind of premium draft capital and general manager John Lynch hasn’t been averse to throwing around draft picks to swing big trades, but San Francisco can afford to act more prudently with its 11 selections.
Here are some ideas we put together on how the 49ers can trade some of their draft capital to better distribute their selections in this year’s draft. Trade values are grabbed from the Rich Hill model on Draft Tek: