S.F. big Day 1 winner — for Oakland, it’s wait and see

The Bay Area football teams made the biggest news on the first night of the NFL draft Thursday.

One team for the right reasons. That would be the 49ers.

One team for possibly the wrong reasons. That would be the Raiders.

Early in the evening, 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan made a splashy debut. The tandem’s first tangible move as the team’s new decision makers was impressive. The 49ers traded one spot down from No. 2, got the player they wanted, a haul of additional picks and surprised the draft experts. Late in the evening, Lynch made a trade with the Seahawks to move up to get Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster at No. 31.

By the end of the night, Lynch was declared the decisive winner of Day 1 of the draft.

In between the 49ers’ pyrotechnics, Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie also shocked the league. With the

24th pick, he selected Ohio State cornerback Gareon Conley, who has made headlines in the past few days after having been accused of rape. He has not been charged. This week, he released a statement through his agent proclaiming his innocence. He told reporters he took a polygraph test for a team but not for the Raiders. He said he is meeting with police Monday.

McKenzie said the team “did our due diligence throughout this whole process.” He said he didn’t want to get into specifics but that he was confident the Raiders could trust Conley.

He’d better be right, because he took a huge risk. If it doesn’t work out, McKenzie not only will have wasted a high draft pick but also damaged his reputation as a smart executive with an eye for talent and character. And hurt the team’s new image of doing things the right way.

Issues of sexual assault and domestic violence have been a scourge over the NFL. Raiders owner Mark Davis has drawn a line over such offenses, saying he wouldn’t employ a player with a history of domestic violence. McKenzie said he had discussed all possible picks with Davis.

According to the police report of the April 9 incident in Cleveland, the woman who alleged she was raped went to a hospital where a rape kit was administered. Conley’s friends who were on the scene told the police nothing happened. Though the initial police report said the 23-year-old woman refused to speak to police, her attorney has since said she is cooperating with police.

As always, the NFL dealt with the issue in an awkward way. The NFL Network broadcasters seemed mostly stunned by the selection.

“If the woman is lying, congratulations to this kid,” said analyst Mike Mayock. Ugh. More genuine congratulations were going out to Lynch and the 49ers for their draft, though they also selected a player with a “red flag.” Foster was asked not to attend the draft because he got into an argument with a hospital technician at the combine. He was also one of a couple of players who had a diluted drug test, which is viewed as a positive.

“I’ve got big things to prove,” Foster said. “People think things about my character off the field. I’ve got to show them how serious I take my job.”

For weeks prior to the draft, Lynch made no secret of the fact he would like to trade down from the No. 2 pick in return for more picks to stock the 49ers’ depleted roster.

He simply flopped spots with the Chicago Bears, moving back to No. 3. In return for the one spot move and 10-minute delay, the team got Thomas, plus a third-round pick, a fourth-round pick and a third-round pick next year. Lynch used two of his 11 remaining picks to move back into the first round to get Foster.

The Bears wanted North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. The 49ers managed to convince them that they coveted Trubisky themselves or that another team was offering a bounty to get him. The Bears bit. They made the trade. They took Trubisky.

The 49ers’ social media account trolled the Bears by announcing the pick accompanied by a picture of Thomas about to sack Trubisky in the Sun Bowl in December. Thomas was unstoppable in that game, recording seven tackles and bringing the pressure that forced a Trubisky sack on the decisive play. Thomas was the MVP of the game.

“It definitely helped me,” Thomas said. “I think that game opened people’s eyes to the player I could be.”

Thomas was considered the second best passrusher in the draft. He is, by all accounts, a solid person; in other words, no “red flags.” He’s a Stanford guy, just like his new general manager, Lynch.

Here’s the annual draft caveat: We have no idea about any of this. What looks good in real time in an April draft often looks like a disaster two or three years later. What looks bad or dangerous can turn out to be a good thing down the road.

All we know now is that our two football teams made the biggest news Thursday. For different reasons.