[cardcrimson]

It's not that complicated.
Okay, guess I'm a simpleton

First rd picks cost a lot of money. When you don't have them you can pay other more proven  more, be they your own draft picks or free agents.
Then why don't teams trade their first round picks every year if they aren't worth it?

The Lance situation is weird because the Niners have otherwise religiously only paid for proven very good players. They chose to pay about the most unproven guy they could in Lance. The move might have made sense, but it absolutely deviated from their doctrine otherwise. So I guess it makes sense that Lance didn't work out. But the injuries he sustained really couldn't be factored into the equation when deciding to draft him.
So the Niners historically only pay for proven very good players. How many of these first round draft picks were "proven" at the time. I assume the Niners paid them? Eric Reid, 2013; Jimmie Ward, 2014; Arik Armstead, 2015; DeForest Buckner and Joshua Garnett, 2016; Solomon Thomas and Rueben Foster, 2017; Mike McGlinchey, 2018; Nick Bosa, 2019; Javon Kinlaw and Brandon Aiyuk, 2020; Trey Lance, 2021. Only one I think not still in the league. Three others considered busts. Overall pretty good picks in the first round that you so disdain. Oh, and a quote from pre-draft 2021: ". . . I feel like the Niners are getting a shot at an elite QB for almost nothing. Of course you always want your first round pick, but everything costs something." Wonder who said that?

I don't see how Dallas is a better situation for Lance. He's gonna be #3 there this year just like with Niners. And he's not gonna be anything better than #2 in Dallas next year as Prescott has a $60M cap hit in 2024. So really, all that is happening is Lance is getting a change of scenery. He's not gonna have his 5th year option picked up next year, so he'll be a free agent in 2025, able to pick where he wants to go, possibly never having started more than 5 games.
Actually, he was number 4 with the Niners according to recent reports. . .. 

Whatever, the James Wiseman analogy is now complete.
Huh? I'm not an avid fan of the NBA, so I don't recall, how many picks did the Warriors give up to trade up for Wiseman? Not a lot of household names in the 2020 NBA draft anyway. . . .

[cardcrimson]

It's not that complicated.
Okay, guess I'm a simpleton

First rd picks cost a lot of money. When you don't have them you can pay other more proven  more, be they your own draft picks or free agents.
Then why don't teams trade their first round picks every year if they aren't worth it?

The Lance situation is weird because the Niners have otherwise religiously only paid for proven very good players. They chose to pay about the most unproven guy they could in Lance. The move might have made sense, but it absolutely deviated from their doctrine otherwise. So I guess it makes sense that Lance didn't work out. But the injuries he sustained really couldn't be factored into the equation when deciding to draft him.
So the Niners historically only pay for proven very good players. How many of these first round draft picks were "proven" at the time. I assume the Niners paid them? Eric Reid, 2013; Jimmie Ward, 2014; Arik Armstead, 2015; DeForest Buckner and Joshua Garnett, 2016; Solomon Thomas and Rueben Foster, 2017; Mike McGlinchey, 2018; Nick Bosa, 2019; Javon Kinlaw and Brandon Aiyuk, 2020; Trey Lance, 2021. Only one I think not still in the league. Three others considered busts. Overall pretty good picks in the first round that you so disdain. Oh, and a quote from pre-draft 2021: ". . . I feel like the Niners are getting a shot at an elite QB for almost nothing. Of course you always want your first round pick, but everything costs something." Wonder who said that?

I don't see how Dallas is a better situation for Lance. He's gonna be #3 there this year just like with Niners. And he's not gonna be anything better than #2 in Dallas next year as Prescott has a $60M cap hit in 2024. So really, all that is happening is Lance is getting a change of scenery. He's not gonna have his 5th year option picked up next year, so he'll be a free agent in 2025, able to pick where he wants to go, possibly never having started more than 5 games.
Actually, he was number 4 with the Niners according to recent reports. . .. 

Whatever, the James Wiseman analogy is now complete.
Huh? I'm not an avid fan of the NBA, so I don't recall, how many picks did the Warriors give up to trade up for Wiseman? Not a lot of household names in the 2020 NBA draft anyway. . . .