49ers Draft Rewind 2021: It Will Always Be The Trey Lance Draft, No Matter The Hits After

It’s time to reflect on the San Francisco 49ers’ previous drafts again. Thanks to YouTube poster and 49ers fan Marvin49, we have videos of each draft. We’ll look at every year during the Kyle Shanahan era up to 2025. Today, it’s 2021.

The 2021 NFL Draft will forever be defined by one person: Trey Lance. There’s no way to avoid it. The 49ers’ epic botch on that pick will forever be synonymous with 2021.

The moment the San Francisco 49ers traded three first-round picks (and a third) to move up to No. 3 overall, the draft stopped being about depth, value, or roster building. It became about one thing: Quarterback.

Everyone knew Trevor Lawrence was going first to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Zach Wilson to the New York Jets at No. 2 felt like a lock. That left the 49ers sitting there at No. 3, and the debate took on a life of its own. Actually, it was more of an emotional debate: just who were the 49ers looking to get when they made that trade? Alabama’s Mac Jones or North Dakota State’s Trey Lance?

And that defined the months leading up to round one. Everyone dug in, a great majority doubled down, and some even rewrote their own takes in real time just to avoid being wrong. While that debate raged on, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields was there too, but didn’t seem to be a source of interest.

The debate ended with Trey Lance being drafted. And just like that, the future of the franchise was handed to a quarterback with one full season of college experience. Spoiler: It didn’t work.

That’s the part everyone remembers: the injuries, the lack of reps, the uncertainty. Lance had flashes in training camp, got a few starts, and when he was finally handed the job in 2022, it lasted all of two games before a broken foot ended his season and his career with the 49ers. You know the rest: Jimmy Garoppolo came in, then Brock Purdy, then the 49ers ran out of quarterbacks. Lance was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in the offseason and got a cool two years out of that.

After the Cowboys, Lance went to the Los Angeles Chargers under Jim Harbaugh in 2025. He started the final game of the season against the Denver Broncos while Justin Herbert rested for the playoffs, going 20-of-44 for 134 yards and a pick-six.

Not exactly a statement performance. Or a sign of improvement from his San Francisco days.

Still, the Chargers re-signed him to a one-year, $6.75 million deal in March. Which, all things considered, isn’t bad for where his career was trending.

The sad part is, the Lance pick overshadows what was a pretty good draft beyond the first pick. The 49ers got some great players. Most of whom played themselves out of the 49ers’ price range when contract extensions came up.

Notre Dame guard Aaron Banks was the second-round pick, and like Lance, he didn’t do much as a rookie. Unlike Lance, he developed. Banks eventually stepped into a starting role, played well enough to make Laken Tomlinson expendable. He played well enough that he priced himself out of San Francisco..

He signed a four-year, $77 million deal with the Green Bay Packers and started 14 games in 2025. The contract raised some eyebrows, and his season included a handful of penalties, but he proved himself as a legitimate starting guard.

Next is the 49ers’ annual pick burned on a running back. While Fields never came into the quarterback drama, Ohio State is going to join the running back drama with Trey Sermon getting the pick. At this point, I don’t get why the 49ers don’t just go with undrafted free agents at the position. Sermon never made much of an impact, mostly due to ball-handling issues, and was quickly forgotten.

Michigan Cornerback Ambry Thomas is next. Now he did have promise due to one moment that will always be remembered—intercepting Matthew Stafford to seal a win over the Los Angeles Rams and send the 49ers to the playoffs. Unfortunately, that moment ended up being, well, the only moment. He was released in 2024 and never developed into the starter many hoped he’d become.

Western Michigan tackle Jaylon Moore might be one of the more interesting cases in this draft. The problem? The 49ers already had Trent Williams and Mike McGlinchey. As time went on and McGlinchey left in free agency, Moore began to show his talent, enough to generate interest from the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025, who signed him to a two-year, $30 million deal. That’s a lot of money for a player who still isn’t a full-time starter, but it speaks to his value as a swing tackle. In 2025, he played in 15 games and started six.

OK, now for a pick still on the team: Oregon defensive back Deommodore Lenoir developed into a starting corner and earned a five-year, $88.88 million extension in 2024. At the time, it felt like a huge win for the 49ers to keep him. Of course, 2025 turned into a down year.

He remained the starter in 2025, still ahead of Renardo Green, but there was a noticeable dip in performance. Not a collapse, but not the same level of impact either. And for whatever reason, his season highlights include a headbutt on Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the Divisional Round.

OK, so 2025 wasn’t his best showing. His career has been great for a fifth-round pick. A career in which many fans were pulling their hair out during his rookie season when he wouldn’t get to play.

Right after Lenoir came Talanoa Hufanga.

Hufanga quickly became a fan favorite, flying around the field and making plays. His time with the 49ers was defined by big moments and, unfortunately, injuries. But in 2025 with the Denver Broncos, we finally got a full season. That’s right, Hufanga played a full 17 games. He finished with 106 tackles and a couple of sacks. When healthy, Hufanga is still one of the more impactful safeties in the league. And him staying healthy for a full season still feels like the outlier.

Finally, there’s Elijah Mitchell. At one point, he looked like the running back of the future. Injuries hit, the depth chart shifted, and things unraveled quickly. By 2025, he played one game for the Kansas City Chiefs before being released, bounced to the New England Patriots practice squad, and eventually signed a futures deal. That’s quite the fall from where things started.

Trey Lance will always be the headline for this draft, but if you take him out, it’s still a decent haul. A haul that had players the 49ers couldn’t extend due to salary cap issues. It’s not until 2022 that the Trey Lance botch really messes things up for the team.

Pick Breakdown

Round 1 – Pick 3 – Trey Lance, QB, North Dakota State
Round 2 – Pick 48 – Aaron Banks, G, Notre Dame
Round 3 – Pick 88 – Trey Sermon, RB, Ohio State
Round 3 – Pick 102- Ambry Thomas, CB, Michigan
Round 5 – Pick 155 – Jaylon Moore, OT, Western Michigan
Round 5 – Pick 172 – Deommodore Lenoir, CB, Oregon
Round 5 – Pick 180 – Talanoa Hufanga, S, USC
Round 6 – Pick 194 – Elijah Mitchell, RB, Louisiana-Lafayette