John Lynch reveals 49ers' number of first-round grades and gold helmet designations in 2024 NFL Draft

The San Francisco 49ers are tough graders, but they have a very high opinion of many of the players in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Speaking at his pre-draft press conference on Monday, general manager John Lynch was asked how many first-round grades they have on players in this class. His revealing answer suggested the 49ers may be becoming more forgiving graders, or that the top-end talent in this draft is superior to that of previous years.

"We're not at 32 [first-round grades] this year. We're slightly more than the last couple years. So that's a good thing," said Lynch. 

"But I think that just speaks more to we have a high standard that we don't change, blow with the wind to try to put first-round grades. When we like players, we draft them and I think we don't get beholden to 'well the league sees them here.' So 22 is kind of where we're at, 22 first round grades. We do have a high standard there that is up from the last couple years. So I think that's a good thing."

In addition to first-round grades, the 49ers also give 'gold helmet' designations to the prospects they believe tick all the boxes required to be a player on their team.

Last year, the 49ers drafted two players who received that distinction, Ji'Ayir Brown (their top selection in the 2023 draft in the third round) and Brayden Willis. Safety Brown excelled after injury pushed him into the starting lineup and he had an interception in the Super Bowl 58 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The number for 2024 was in double figures, but Lynch was once again keen to stress the emphasis the Niners placed on not deviating from the criteria.

"I believe this weekend we kind of went through those again," he added. "I believe we were about 16 gold helmets. We like keeping that standard high. 

"You always want to give more because our hit rate with those guys. Then you start, let's stick to our standards because of the reason our hit rate is high is because it is such a high standard. So we're at about 16 gold helmets. 

"We do well with those guys because it takes into account everything we believe in. That's talent, that's spirit and playing like a 49er. That's always a fun part of the process, guys lobbying for a guy to be a gold helmet and saying, no, he's not making the standard. And we've got to hold true to that."

But for all the talent at the top, Lynch hinted the 49ers do not think much of the potential late-round options, pointing to a key change in the college football landscape as reason for a dearth of starter-level players on day three and perhaps indicating that San Francisco will be very willing to part with such assets to move up the board this week.

"I think it's an interesting draft class," said Lynch. I was just looking at my notes and like one interesting thing to me, dynamic in the way of the world right now, we put a grade on players in the fall if we think there's a more than 50-percent chance that they're going to be in this draft. So 83 players from this year's class that we put grades on. So thinking there's more than a 50-percent chance, thinking they're entering the draft are back in college because of NIL and things like that.

"There's now a different route these kids can take and 35 of those are with starter grades. So that's a significant amount. And how that affects this draft, it's gonna be interesting. I think the later rounds probably are going to be lacking. So it's a new dynamic that one I imagine we're going to be faced with each year. You can go back and make a million dollars. I don't know if that's the going rate, but it is providing competition and that's a significant amount of players."