Kyle Shanahan, John Lynch explain the challenges of keeping the 49ers' nucleus together

The San Francisco 49ers have officially made three picks in the 2024 NFL Draft. On Friday night, the team selected cornerback Renardo Green from Florida State and guard Dominick Puni from Kansas, adding to Thursday's first-round pick, wide receiver Ricky Pearsall from Florida.

There has been considerable speculation surrounding potential trades leading up to and during the draft, particularly regarding wide receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel. As of two days into the 2024 NFL Draft, both players remain on the 49ers' roster, indicating it's increasingly likely they will still be around for the 2024 season.

Speaking to reporters after the second day of the draft, head coach Kyle Shanahan discussed the challenges of keeping the 49ers' talented nucleus of players intact.

"It gets harder each year because, one, when you keep your nucleus together, there's not as many holes for just people to come in and take," Shanahan shared. "Especially later in the draft, it can get harder in spots and things like that. And obviously, from what everyone knows, the better guys play, and you re-sign your own guys, it just becomes very tough to keep a nucleus together.

"So each time, free agency is harder in that way. The draft's harder in that way. And we always try to make decisions, always, about what's best for now with always going into the future. As the money gets higher, and our situation gets like this, it definitely gets harder."

The 49ers hope their selections in the draft's first three rounds will strengthen their roster and inject talented youth into the team.

"There's still good players out there," general manager John Lynch said. "That's our job, to go find them. I do think there's probably not the quantity that there typically is in a draft. It probably runs out of some gas. But our challenge is to find who those guys are and find the guys who have an opportunity to help make our team better. There's some element to just throwing more darts and seeing who sticks, so a little combo of those."

The 49ers will continue their efforts on Saturday morning with six more selections ahead.

Lynch added, "We look forward to having a really productive day tomorrow, and that means all the way into [undrafted] free agency, all the way through our post-draft party. We're going to have fun."