49ers contract extension report makes 2023 draft class look even worse

The San Francisco 49ers, like every other team around the NFL, have the chance to sign players from their 2023 NFL Draft class to contract extensions for the first time this offseason.

While the NFC West rival Seattle Seahawks extended Jaxon Smith-Njigba to a huge deal, and the Los Angeles Rams have the option to extend Puka Nacua or Byron Young, who can't the 49ers extend this offseason?

Well, as ESPN's Nick Wagoner highlighted in his report on the 49ers' potential contract extension candidates, there is no rush or urgency for the 49ers to extend any impending free agents, which is a bad look for their 2023 NFL Draft class.

49ers' 2023 NFL Draft class looks worse with contract extension report

"After getting an extension done with left tackle Trent Williams, the 49ers don't appear to be in a hurry to re-sign any more of their own pending free agents," Wagoner writes.

This offseason is the first time that 2023 NFL Draft picks can be extended, as they've played in three seasons and will be hitting free agency after the 2026 season.

The 49ers didn't have any first or second-round picks in the 2023 draft, but they did make nine picks. Most of those picks have not panned out.

Ji'Ayir Brown is the best of this bunch and has been a decent player worth considering extending. But, he's not such a high-priority that the 49ers must sign him now before he becomes difficult to extend.

The rest of the draft is terrible, as Jake Moody and Cameron Latu, the two other third-round picks aside from Brown, aren't even on the team right now.

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Darrell Luter and Robert Beal aren't key extension candidates, and Dee Winter was already traded to the Dallas Cowboys for a Day 3 pick in this year's NFL Draft.

Brayden Willis, Ronnie Bell, and Jalen Graham didn't pan out either, with Bell also leaving the 49ers already.

Without a 2022 first-round pick coming off a fourth season in the NFL, and no other notable extension candidates, the 49ers aren't in a position to sign any more extensions this offseason.

This is a brutal indictment of the 2023 draft class for John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, as even Brown, their best pick from that draft, isn't a guaranteed extension candidate.

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