Among a slew of reasons the 49ers fell from Super Bowl contention to the bottom of the NFC for years was the team’s inability to supplement the roster through the NFL draft.

That played a prominent role in general manager Trent Baalke’s eventual firing after the 2016 season when San Francisco went 2-14 under one-and-done coach Chip Kelly. The 49ers appear to be going in the right direction since hiring John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan as replacements.

Here, we’ll go back to the important 2014 draft and re-select San Francisco’s first nine picks months after their appearance in a third straight NFC title game. We won’t pretend to be smarter than NFL talent evaluators and understand we have the benefit of hindsight to see what could have been.

Round 1 (pick 30): Jimmie Ward, DB, Northern Illinois

Re-draft: Demarcus Lawrence, DE, Boise State (pick 34, Dallas)

(Demarcus Lawrence #90 of the Dallas Cowboys – Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)

Ward battled injuries (missing 22 games in his first four seasons) and been moved all over the secondary since Baalke tapped him to replace veteran Carlos Rogers as the slot cornerback. Ward has been a good player when healthy, but not nearly as valuable as Lawrence has been for Dallas. The Cowboys gave Lawrence the franchise tag this offseason after logging 14.5 sacks in 2017. Meanwhile, the lackluster pass rush has been the 49ers’ Achilles heal in recent seasons. No 49er had more than 6.5 sacks last year.

Aldon Smith was entering his fourth year with San Francisco at this point, but he was coming off a campaign that included an extended midseason absence to attend an in-patient treatment facility following his second DUI arrest. He was suspended nine games the following season. Looking back, finding an eventual replacement for Smith would have been a wise move with fellow pass rusher Ahmad Brooks getting long in the tooth.