Nevius: 49ers’ drafts have been a mixed bag for Kyle Shanahan, John Lynch

I’m concerned about the 49ers.

Not just this season, although Sunday night’s game with the Colts is clearly a must-win. With the Cardinals at 6-0 and the Rams 5-1, there’s a real concern that the NFC West leaders could run away from Jed York’s team.

No, I’m more Big Picture concerned. I’m worried about the direction of the franchise.

Now in their fifth year, Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch have a body of work to evaluate.

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On the bright side, Shanahan continues to show he is an offensive wizard, drawing up one innovative play after another. He’s also been great with the media, taking questions seriously and answering honestly and at length.

Lynch is doing the face-of-the-franchise thing and is a sound bite machine.

The problem is the draft. Because although you need stars to win in the NFL, good teams have good drafts.

And not just first-rounders. You expect the second-, third- and fourth-rounders to be serviceable, if not spectacular, players who can fill a role.

That isn’t happening with Team Shana-Lynch.

Take this year’s draft. The bombshell was Trey Lance, but the team clearly wanted help on the offensive line and defensive backfield. After Lance they took two linemen and three DBs in the first five rounds. (They had extra choices in the third and fifth rounds.)

Basically neither of the linemen, second-rounder Aaron Banks (touted as a “plug and play” starter) or fifth-rounder Jaylon Moore, has been a factor.

The bright spot is Deommodore Lenoir, the fifth-round DB from Oregon who has played 191 snaps and shown potential. But Ambry Thomas, chosen two rounds before him, has only been on the field for nine plays, according to the Football Guys site. Safety Talanoa Hufanga has made a few cameo appearances.

And yes, drafting players is a dark art, and it isn’t unusual to swing and miss. But the 49ers’ brain trust is making it a trend.

The nadir, of course, was the 2017 draft, when — with a chance to acquire impact players who could start for years to come — they whiffed on two first-round choices, DE Solomon Thomas with the third pick and LB Reuben Foster at 31.

Thomas was probably a poor fit. He played interior line at Stanford and only had 11½ sacks in two years. Projecting him as an outside pass rusher was wishful thinking. He’s now with the Raiders.

Foster was a train wreck from the start. Before the draft other teams openly questioned his health (shoulder) and his personal issues. With the 49ers, both were big problems. He was waived partway through his second season.

In all, just two players are still on the team from the 2017 draft. George Kittle, a definite fifth-round triumph, and sixth-rounder D.J. Jones.

But before those two were chosen, the team made some of those head-scratching decisions that have defined their draft choices.

They traded a fourth- and a seventh-round choice to move to the third round to pick C.J. Beathard. Reportedly, while Shanahan was high on him, other teams rated him lower.

Beathard played 19 games, took some thunderous hits and was cut.

Even more curious — and more to the point we are trying to make — the brain trust traded a fourth- and a fifth-round pick to move up in the fourth round to take Utah running back Joe Williams.

Reportedly, Shanahan loved him. And, full disclosure, after seeing Williams run for 332 yards against UCLA and also being named MVP at the Foster Farms Bowl, I was impressed, too.

But Williams also “retired” from football during his last season, then returned. So you don’t have coaches questioning a player’s commitment; you have the player doing it.

Williams never took a snap in the NFL.

You know the others. Trading up — second- and third-round picks — to get WR Dante Pettis in the second round in 2018. Pettis exasperated Shanahan for three seasons before the team cut him, reportedly after finding zero trade interest.

There’s Jalen Hurd, a third-rounder in 2019. Shanahan thought Hurd could become a wide receiver after playing running back in college. The experiment has never happened. Hurd had moments, but he’s been injured for his entire career so far.

Those are cases where Shana-Lynch took a big swing, ignoring conventional wisdom because they thought they saw something others had missed.

The irony is that when they go with the chalk — what everyone says is the logical choice — they get Nick Bosa, who has been sensational when healthy.

But that’s not the 49ers’ way. Before the 2020 draft, there were reports that defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw had knee issues. The 49ers brushed that aside and drafted him with the 13th pick.

He’s now being held out of practice with ... knee issues.

In need of a quarterback, everyone thought Shanahan and Lynch would take steady Alabama QB Mac Jones.

But they loaded up and took their biggest swing yet — three first-round draft choices and a third-rounder to move up to the third pick to get Lance.

It was a big price to pay, especially since Jones didn’t go until 15 choices into the first round, and the 49ers could have gotten him at 12 without mortgaging their future.

Instead, they pushed in all the chips. It could be a moment that defines the franchise.

It better work.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cw.nevius@pressdemocrat.com. Twitter: @cwnevius