Will the 49ers have an impact rookie in 2024?

The 49ers are back in the first round ahead of a crucial year for the organization.

The San Francisco 49ers have managed to build one of the strongest rosters in the NFL, developing homegrown talent, while making the necessary additions via the trade market and free agency to establish themselves as a perennial contender.

However, as players continue to get older and earn second contracts, the 49ers are finding themselves in limbo between paying their own players and getting younger at certain positions in an effort to remain salary cap-compliant.

They’ve already begun to face the ramifications, having released longtime defensive tackle Arik Armstead this offseason, while more decisions could be on the way next offseason, with a number of key free agents set to hit the open market in 2025.

Now, the last two offseasons have been different for the 49ers, as they’ve struggled to connect on a number of their draft picks, while also working at a disadvantage, having been without a first-round pick since 2021.

Still, they’ve managed to find an immediate contributor in both classes, with quarterback Brock Purdy emerging from the 2022 class, while safety Ji’Ayir Brown evolved into a starter after Talanoa Hufanga suffered an injury last season.

Will that be the case again in 2024?

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Looking at the current draft, general manager John Lynch acknowledged that, with the current state of college football, this draft class is considerably weaker than expected, as many draft-eligible players returned to college due to NIL.

As a result, the 49ers may not look to take 10 draft picks, which could lead to some movement up and down the board as they approach the 2024 NFL Draft.

“We have to be smart with that in terms of how we allocate our resources. We have ten picks,” Lynch said on Monday ahead of the draft.

“You start asking yourself how many of those can make our team and how do we want to approach that, and that’s, that’s part of what makes this whole thing so fun and enjoyable, but, I do think a strength of this draft, to me, a lot of premium positions are strong, and so that’s exciting.”

Among the premium positions that have a lot of talent, especially at the top, is offensive line, where we could see double-digit selections occur within the first round itself on Thursday.

Lynch acknowledged the team’s interest in the position group, while noting that several top players in the class share that coveted versatility.

“I think it’s good tackles, it’s good linemen,” Lynch said of the draft class. “And the interesting thing with those linemen in this draft, we think a lot of them have flexibility to be tackles and/or guards.

“And so that’s nice that you take somebody with some versatility. You know, I think there are some options and, you know, part of the draft is: you’re not always drafting for the immediate, you know, sometimes it’s drafting for future needs. And so we have to be cognizant of that.”

The 49ers could look to address the offensive line by bringing in competition at either tackle, guard, or even center, with the hopes of battling for a starting spot in 2024 or even looking ahead to 2025 when the group could look considerably different.

Overall, though, it’ll be important for San Francisco to grab at least one impact player over their first three selections. Looking at the last few Super Bowl winners, each team has seen at least one of their rookies play a considerable role, while the 49ers themselves have developed a few players in that department.

Facing some serious potential changes, however, in 2025, the 49ers need to start hitting on their draft picks, making the 2024 NFL Draft even more crucial for the organization after the team’s struggles over the last two drafts.