The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) [4] are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference West Division. [5] The team, founded in 1944 by Tony Morabito, is named after the prospectors who arrived in Northern California in the 1849 Gold Rush. [6] [7] The 49ers joined the NFL prior to the start of the 1950 NFL season. [6] Since 2014 they have played their home games at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, located southeast of San Francisco. [6] [8] [9]
The NFL draft, officially known as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting", [10] [11] [12] is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. [13] The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings; the teams with the worst win–loss records receive the earliest picks. Teams that qualified for the NFL playoffs select after non-qualifiers, and their order depends on how far they advanced, using their regular season record as a tie-breaker. The final two selections in the first round are reserved for the Super Bowl runner-up and champion. Draft picks are tradable and players or other picks can be acquired with them. [14] From 1947 through 1958 the NFL designated the first overall selection as a "bonus" or "lottery pick". The pick was awarded by a random draw and the winner who received the "bonus pick" forfeited its selection in the final round of the draft and became ineligible for future draws. The system was abolished prior to the 1959 NFL draft, as all twelve teams in the league at the time had received a bonus choice. [15] [16]
Since the team's first NFL draft in 1950, the 49ers have selected 87 players in the first round. The team's first-round pick in their inaugural NFL draft was Leo Nomellini, a defensive tackle from the University of Minnesota; he was the 11th overall selection. [6] [17] The 49ers have drafted first overall three times, selecting Harry Babcock in 1953, Dave Parks in 1964, and Alex Smith in 2005. [18] In the most recent draft, held in 2024, the 49ers chose Florida wide receiver Ricky Pearsall. [19]
The 49ers did not draft a player in the first round on ten occasions. Nine of the team's first-round picks—Lance Alworth, Jimmy Johnson, Ronnie Lott, Hugh McElhenny, Leo Nomellini, Jerry Rice, Y. A. Tittle, Patrick Willis, and Bryant Young—have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame; [16] one of these, Lance Alworth, chose to sign with the NFL's pre-merger direct competitor, the American Football League (AFL), and never played for the 49ers. [20] [21]
Symbol | Meaning |
---|---|
† | Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame |
* | Selected number one overall |
Position abbreviations | |
---|---|
C | Center |
CB | Cornerback |
DB | Defensive back |
DE | Defensive end |
DT | Defensive tackle |
FB | Fullback |
FL | Flanker |
G | Guard |
HB | Halfback |
LB | Linebacker |
QB | Quarterback |
RB | Running back |
S | Safety |
T | Tackle |
TE | Tight end |
WR | Wide receiver |
Kevin Thomas Hardy was an American professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 1968 NFL draft. He was an All-American out of Notre Dame where he also lettered in basketball and baseball.
The 2021 NFL draft was the 86th National Football League draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland, Ohio from April 29 to May 1, 2021.
The 2022 NFL draft was the 87th edition of the National Football League's annual draft and was held from April 28–30, 2022, at the Caesars Forum on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise next to Las Vegas. The first round was held on Thursday, April 28, and was followed by the second and third rounds on Friday, April 29. The draft concluded with rounds 4–7 on Saturday, April 30. It was the first draft to be held in the Las Vegas metropolitan area and the state of Nevada.
The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 season. The draft was held outside of Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, from April 27–29, 2023.
The 2024 NFL draft was the 89th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft was held at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza in Detroit on April 25–27, 2024. The draft had an attendance of over 775,000, breaking the overall record previously set in 2019.