Briana Jeannel

Following the conclusion of the 2026 NFL Draft, head coach Kyle Shanahan offered a behind-the-scenes look at the San Francisco 49ers draft process during an appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," sharing how the team navigated trade-down decisions and evaluated prospects to ultimately land on the team's 2026 draft class.

The 49ers entered draft weekend with six total selections but left with eight new players after moving around the board and adding future draft capital. This year's class includes: WRDe'Zhaun Stribling(Ole Miss), DLRomello Height(Texas Tech), RBKaelon Black(Indiana), DLGracen Halton(Oklahoma), OLCarver Willis(Washington), CBEphesians Prysock(Washington), LBJaden Dugger(Louisiana), and OLEnrique Cruz Jr.(Kansas).

While the post-draft portion of the offseason offers a slower pace, Shanahan described the months leading into the draft as one of the most demanding stretches of the year. Unlike the scouting department, which evaluates prospects year-round, Shanahan's personal draft process begins after the NFL season concludes. To manage the volume of prospects, Shanahan relies on collaboration throughout the coaching staff.

"We give all the position coaches a responsibility to make highlight tapes on everybody," Shanahan said. "I tell them they've got to watch a lot of game tape to make those highlight tapes. Then I study their highlight tapes so I can study 200 people."

The process, Shanahan explained, helps him efficiently narrow a large pool of players while trusting the work done by position coaches and scouts. San Francisco entered the draft with the No. 27 overall pick but traded back twice before selecting Stribling with the first pick of Day 2. Shanahan shared the 49ers entered draft weekend with multiple outcomes in mind.

"We targeted everything at 27," Shanahan said. "You always have an idea of who might be there, who you're hoping to be there. There were a couple guys that we hoped could be there, but we knew there was a possibility they wouldn't."

The 49ers also prepared for the possibility of trading down if their top options were off the board.

"We had a feeling odds were those guys weren't going to be there, and we were kind of expecting we would trade back," Shanahan said. "We were hoping we could trade back twice, accumulate some more picks and still get the guy we wanted."

That plan ultimately played out.

"Our first goal was that the guy we wanted would fall to 27," Shanahan said. "But we got our second goal."

Shanahan said the 49ers internal evaluation of Stribling steadily climbed throughout the pre-draft process, despite outside projections that often slotted the receiver later.

"That's how he was advertised when we first looked at him, like a late second-round pick," Shanahan said. "Then the more we watched him, we were like, man, it's not that we just like him because his value is better later. We actually like him more than some of these guys who will probably be taken at the end of the first round."

The decision to select Stribling at No. 33 came down to the draft room's conviction.

"You've got to decide whether you want to risk (leaving Stribling on the board) or not," Shanahan said. "We're not going to wait and watch him go at 38 and us be pissed. Let's just take that dude at 33 and live with it."

The same philosophy carried into San Francisco's third-round selection of Black, the Indiana running back. Shanahan shared the 49ers valued him as the team's second-rated back on the board, and determining where a player could realistically come off the board remains one of the draft's greatest challenges.

"You've got a guy who's not invited to the combine, so what does that mean?" Shanahan said. "Maybe it means he's going in the sixth round. But then you evaluate him and you're like, man, I think this is a third-round running back."

As the draft approached, Shanahan said the 49ers believed league interest in Black was growing.

"By the time the draft came, we felt everyone's looking at this guy as a fourth-round pick," Shanahan said. "If everyone's looking at him as a fourth-round pick and we want him, I'll take him at 90 in the third.

"I've done that so many times in 22 years," Shanahan said of waiting too long on a prospect. "Then he goes two picks before you and you're like, man, why'd we try to get cute?"

For Shanahan, the success of the weekend came from the ability to leave the draft with a larger group of players the organization believes can compete for roster spots and contribute in the future.

"We added eight players who all have a very good chance of making our team," Shanahan said. "On top of that, we added a sixth-round pick for next year, which I think is huge because we didn't have one."

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