The 49ers’ streak of not picking No. 2 in the draft is starting to make Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak sweat. It’s been 53 years since they used the second overall pick in the draft. They held that selection in 2017, but traded back one spot with the Bears and took Solomon Thomas with the No. 3 pick. The streak was safe last year with San Francisco picking ninth, but now it’s in jeopardy again as the 49ers head into the draft with the No. 2 overall pick in tow.
Earl Morrall, a quarterback from Michigan State, went second overall to the 49ers in the 1956 draft. It was the first time in their brief history they’d used that pick. They did it again 10 years later when they took running back Ken Willard from North Carolina in 1965. Since then it’s been all quiet on the No. 2 pick front in San Francisco after they opted to move the pick two years ago.
There’s a very real chance the streak comes to an end this year. If the Cardinals take quarterback Kyler Murray No. 1 overall, it gives the 49ers their pick of players to bolster their defensive front. Trading back instead of adding the top prospect on their board seems like a risky proposition for a team that needs to win the 2019 draft.
On the other hand, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch haven’t been shy about letting teams know the second pick is available in a trade. We saw in the 2017 draft – Shanahan and Lynch’s first with the club – that they won’t hesitate to trade back even one spot if the price is right.
If Bosa, the consensus top player in the draft, does end up going first, it might behoove the 49ers to keep their no-No.2-pick streak alive and move back to pick up more assets in a year where they hold just six total selections.
There’s a simple goal in Santa Clara regardless of where the 49ers wind up picking in the first round of this year’s draft – don’t pick in the top two for the foreseeable future. If they nail their 2019 pick, the much more important streak of 24 seasons without a Super Bowl has to be the next one to come down.
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