This team might not have glaring needs heading into three days of selections, but the 49ers’ roster desperately needs to build depth for the upcoming season (and bring in starters for the not-too-distant future). With all those highly-paid veterans (and with another, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, coming soon) on the roster, that depth can only be found via the draft.

The 49ers have 10 picks in this draft, including the team’s first day-one selection since picking Lance. This is a critical crop.

And Lynch will be heading into this draft with new voices in his ear.

This draft not only needs to produce depth for the football roster, but it’ll thoroughly test the depth of Lynch’s football operations department.

Lynch has lost a top lieutenant from his staff the past three of the last four seasons. Like Kyle Shanahan’s offense has proliferated the league in recent seasons, with coaches being poached left and right in the process, the Niners’ football operations department has also been raided. In 2021, Martin Mayhew went to Washington to be their GM. Last season, Ran Carthon took over as the Titans’ head man. But this offseason brought the most significant loss, as Lynch’s right-hand man, Adam Peters, replaced Mayhew in Washington.

It was a different kind of California exodus. You could even call it a brain drain.

“It gets annoying. Like, ‘Leave us alone,' ” Lynch said at the NFL scouting combine in February.

And heading into this offseason, and particularly this draft, one has to wonder: Is what’s left enough?

It’s cruel timing. Right as the roster needs to establish a new foundation, Lynch needs to build one in the front office, too.

Add it all up, and this draft becomes a proving ground for a GM who has been in place since 2017 and has done an excellent job overall.

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