The San Francisco 49ers enter the 2026 NFL draft with six picks, including the No. 27 overall pick, that they will select starting Thursday, April 23.
The 49ers have a late first round pick that they will use to beef their offensive line, edge rushers or defensive secondary. However, San Francisco general manager John Lynch isn't married to the idea of selecting a player solely off of team needs.
Lynch told reporters that their draft strategy will include picking the best player available to them, in addition to the positions they need.
"Well, I think what you try to do is position your team such that you just don't have glaring holes where, like we have to take this position. So there's some comfort in that, and I think it likely gives you more of a belief and a comfort and just picking the best players, you can't go wrong, taking good football players, and obviously it's a combination of all those things," Lynch said. "It's short term, it's long term, but I think having that in place some of the things we've done this offseason gives us great, a great ability to go in with really a mindset of taking the best player, not just saying we've got to come out with this position."
He added: "I do believe this is a draft because I think, like the top half of the first round probably runs out a little quicker in terms of what people deem true impact players. Now, I believe there's a lot of impact beyond that, but I do think there's going to be a lot of movement this year. It just feels like it's setting up for a draft like that, because it gets somewhat homogenous after that, and then it's kind of, what's your flavor, what are you looking for? And so I do think that sets up for a draft where there'll be a lot of movement."
The 49ers will have one pick (No. 27) on Day 1 in the first round and another on Day 2 (No. 58) in the second round. San Francisco will pick the majority of their selections on Day 3 during the fourth round, where the 49ers will have four picks to make (No. 127, 133, 138 and 139).
The 49ers have a total of six picks in the 2026 NFL Draft, according to NFL.com. Here's a full breakdown of the 49ers' draft positioning.
The 2026 NFL draft, starting from the Most Relevant, No. 1 pick, likely Fernando Mendoza, to Mr. Irrelevant the last pick in the draft, your guess is as good as ours. The draft in its entirety will feature 257 total picks across seven rounds. The draft begins Thursday, April 23 at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: San Francisco 49ers draft picks, selections, rounds