A splash trade on Tuesday morning sent Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos. Miami sent a fourth, while Denver sent their first-round pick, as well as the 94th and 130th overall picks in the draft.
Five years ago, the San Francisco 49ers made a franchise-altering trade in March, too. Fast forward to 2026, and none of those picks involved in the trade are playing for their respective teams any longer. We processed the end of Lance’s era back in August 2023.
How the Trey Lance picks turned out
In the 2021 draft,
Miami used San Francisco’s original 12th overall pick and their 2022 first-rounder to trade ahead of the Lions–who they likely thought were taking a wide receiver at the time– to select Waddle. Waddle went over 1,000 yards receiving in each of his first three seasons, despite playing a full game just once.
The Dolphins traded the 49ers’ 2022 first-round pick to Kansas City for Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who went on to have two 1,700+ yard receiving seasons. I’d say that was worth a first-rounder. Hill was one of the most dynamic players in the NFL at the time, and did not disappoint with Mike McDaniel. Hill was. recently released by the Dolphins.
In November 2022, the Dolphins sent the 49ers’ 2023 first-round pick they acquired in the Lance trade to Denver for Bradley Chubb. Coincidentally enough, Miami also traded for 49ers running back Jeff Wilson that same day. Chubb was released last week by Miami before signing a three-year deal with the Bills.
You can play the hindsight game and say the 49ers should have stayed at 12 and selected Micah Parsons. It was evident that the team wanted a weapon at quarterback. They identified that prospect to be Lance, but the timing, injuries, and overall plan for Trey never came to fruition
Everything came full circle when the Niners ended up signing Mac Jones last offseason, but he fell to 15th that year for a reason. We can’t ignore how he played in those early days, either.
Ultimately, the 49ers took a swing and a miss at the most important position in the sport. In hindsight, what would you have done differently?
