The 49ers could easily explore trading down from No. 11 overall in the draft, but John Lynch might be short on willing trade partners.
Armchair general managers can propose trades when they’re playing around with a tool like Pro Football Focus’ mock-draft simulator.
Heck, they can even click a button that forces a trade, meaning it’s possible to trade off a seventh-round pick in exchange for a top-five selection.
Real life is different, though, and even the most seemingly lopsided trades require sign-off from two different parties. It’s hard enough to find the right context for a proposed trade, but when factoring in a need to land a willing trade partner, convincing said partner to accept your own terms adds yet another layer of difficulty.
The San Francisco 49ers may love the idea of trading down from their top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, No. 11 overall. Considering their offseason roster purge, there’s no shortage of needs to address via the draft, so general manager John Lynch probably wouldn’t mind landing more proverbial darts to toss at the big board.
That said, trading down from No. 11 isn’t going to be as simple as pressing that PFF “force trade” button.
49ers may have difficulty finding trade-down partner on draft day
Here are the top 18 picks this April:
- Tennessee Titans (3-14)
- Cleveland Browns (3-14)
- New York Giants (3-14)
- New England Patriots (4-13)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (4-13)
- Las Vegas Raiders (4-13)
- New York Jets (5-12)
- Carolina Panthers (5-12)
- New Orleans Saints (5-12)
- Chicago Bears (5-12)
- San Francisco 49ers (6-11)
- Dallas Cowboys (7-10)
- Miami Dolphins (8-9)
- Indianapolis Colts (8-9)
- Atlanta Falcons (8-9)
- Arizona Cardinals (8-9)
- Cincinnati Bengals (9-8)
- Seattle Seahawks (10-7)
True, the Niners may explore trading with one of last season’s playoff teams. But, for the point of simplicity, let’s keep things relegated to trading back no further than No. 18 overall.
Either way, the same argument would apply.
As ESPN’s Adam Schefter pointed out during the NFL Combine, there isn’t exactly a major drop-off in prospective talent from pick Nos. 10 through 35:
.@AdamSchefter laid out how much depth is in the 2025 NFL draft 👀
"The player you get at No. 10 in this draft is similar to the player that you get at 35." pic.twitter.com/OdZNYYcIOM
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) February 26, 2025
Plus, Schefter added the strength of this year’s draft is in the middle rounds. There might not be a ton of elite talent, but there are plenty of good players to be had there.
Lynch knows this, which is why it’d likely be interested in trading down to stockpile more picks within the top 100 or so. Yet 31 other teams know this, too, meaning a trade-up to No. 11 doesn’t exactly provide a lot of advantages unless there’s a specific player a would-be trade partner absolutely has to have.
Those are usually quarterbacks.
Trading up for a quarterback at No. 11 overall probably won’t happen
Aggressive trade-ups don’t always happen for just quarterbacks, but they’re the most likely candidates. Quarterbacks Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders likely don’t make it beyond the top three picks, let alone the top 10, and it’d be a potentially wild reach to trade ahead of the 49ers for Jaxson Dart.
But, early runs on quarterbacks (or other consensus blue-chip players) could easily push desirable talent down the board to No. 11. Yet, if Lynch and the Niners aren’t as thrilled about who’s remaining, they could feasibly trade down.
The problem, though, is convincing one of those other teams to give up draft capital in a move-up deal for a crop of non-quarterbacks who aren’t graded as potential Pro Bowlers.
Plus, if a quarterback like Dart was the intended target, none of the teams selecting at pick Nos. 12 through 18 are exactly in the market for one. Scroll back up to the list of picks there, and you wno’t find too many teams on the hunt for a rookie signal-caller selecting after the 49ers. Perhaps the quarterback-needy Pittsburgh Steelers (No. 21 overall), but they’d likely be inclined to trade into the late teens if they felt Dart wouldn’t slip to them at their original pick. Not trading to No. 11 overall.
As such, don’t be surprised if San Francisco fails to trade back. There aren’t many likable scenarios where it’d make sense for would-be trade partners.
