Color me worried. Why sign a guy like Sudfeld? I mean, I get they need bodies, but they will soon have 5 QBs. Josh Johnson, Jimmy G, Josh Rosen, Sudfeld, and whoever we draft. I also know Shanahan is on record as saying that he likes his QBs to be the same style of QB to be in camp. And one trait Shanny shares with his dad is his abject pig-headedness when it comes to his self-belief. He thinks he can turn shit to gold where it comes to QBs, and he didn’t want anything to do with our ex-running QB, Colin Kaepernick. And every guy since has been a pocket passer.
This sure sounds to me like Shanny wants Mac Jones, since 4 out of these 5 QBs are slow-footed white guys who don’t move very well. As I’ve said, Jones could be the 2nd coming of Big Ben, but it is a huge gamble seeing as how he has 17 starts, and played behind a very stout Alabama line.
And really. The last Alabama QB to make his mark in the NFL? Kenny Stabler. Then agan, Ohio State has a shitty track record. Fuck, I don’t know. I think the Niners are playing chicken with the Jets to try and deke them into Jones.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
TB12 can’t run for shit either.
Give me a quick processor with field awareness.
I simply hope Lynch and Shanny get it right.
Goff 2.0 will get us killed for years.
I think that the one QB in this draft that has HOF potential is Jones. If he can handle pressure he is going to be a great QB. Therein lies the conundrum, we haven’t seen him under pressure. He could also bust under pressure.
The reason I like Jones is that while the running QBs come out of the gate stronger because they can run out of pressure often that goes away in few years, with very few exceptions. Pocket passers are just more consistent over the years. If you have a decent O-line you don’t need a running QB. Running QBs rarely process info like a pocket passer.
I keep waffling back and forth between Jones and Fields. I was solidly on Jones until I read about Fields IQ test. Now I am just hoping we pick the right one.
I lean toward a pocket passer but I have seen Fields under pressure and he did well vs Clemson. He was hurt and couldn’t run more and more as the game went on. He was forced to be a pocket passer and was great. On the the other hand, IMO, the 3 most important aspects of a QB are accuracy, decision making and poise. Jones is superior to all in this draft for accuracy and decision making. On the poise front we simply don’t know.
How do you explain Russell Wilson, maybe not a Mahomes but hi is able to run and break out of the pocket to extend plays, I just don’t see Jones ability to do something as simple as sliding out of the pocket to extend plays
How do you explain Tom Brady and Joe Montana. Both smoke Wilson on the ring count. We can play that game all day. This is not a game of I told you so. I’m just talking about what is typical. Pocket passers are typically better processors. There are a few exceptions but not many. I would rather have a good pocket passer over a one read and run guy. That guy Joe Burrow from last year was mobile and a great pocket passer. Is Fields that? I just hope we take the right guy. I can’t choose between the two right now.
Joe had The Genius coaching him, and could you image Joe running for his life cause he did not have an o-line. Bill would have never let that happen. IF the Niners were to total commit to a passing game and coached to o-line to pass protect, then yes a pocket passer is good to go. Right now the Niners o-line is terrible at pass protection, Jones like every other QBS the Niners have had will get hurt because of that.
Johnson is the QB that will be left out. I think he’s already 34 or 35 and maybe sudfield has something Shanny likes. I am kind of hoping we take Lance also but it doesn’t sound like we are.
Some guy like Joe Namath who was the QB at Alabama might disagree with you Chuck.He Guaranteed a SB Bowl 3 win for the Jets over a heavy favorite Colts team as critics laughed, and he went out a proved them all wrong..
I said the last Bama QB. Namath graduated in 1964.
Remember who’s in the 1 slot.
Trent is known to be a lone Wolf and, as we know….
Made Alex his top choice over ARod.
No matter what happens, the guy we take will have a ton of scrutiny attached.
Don’t worry, idiots! I’m the second coming of Dak Prescott and the Niners will be hooking up with the next generation of sad sack QBs in Mac Jones. The turnovers at Levi’s Field will be epic!!
yawn
Berger I see the pocket passer the same way.
Is the game more mobile now?
Pro’s and cons of course.
Joe
Tom
History
Give me the thinker
Give me the accurate passer
Protect the QB
Sack the QB
That is just it, the Niners have not had an o-line that can give a pocket passer time to do reads and get the pass off. They have all gotten injured from having to run.
Very good point. All our line has proven is we get our non-mobile QBs killed. Fumbles, INTs, sacks, and pressures all come from a lack of protection. And we had so many turnovers last year from the pressure all our guys were under that it cost us 3-4 games.
Wait till Fields blows the socks off of Shanny on his workout with the 49ers on April 14 to get a true evaluation unlike Jones uninspiring pro day.They are in a mobile division ( except for Stafford) and that’s what Shanny wants after what Mahomes did to them in the SB..Fields is still my pick, but I guess it’s up to Shanny&Lynch to figure It out for us arm chair QB’s..
One thing I’m happy about is the Niners are leaving no stone unturned as there going to both Fields &Lance 2nd pro day.Fields April 14, Lance April 19
Yep. My main point of contention was their being adamant in their decision way before the fact. As in Trent Baalke saying about AJ Jenkins, “he was our pick from the get-go.” Nothing changed their mind about a guy who turned out to be nothing. Having an open mind about who to draft should be paramount.
Agree Chuck… After they blew a gasket and drafted Thomas and Red Flags 🚩 Foster instead of drafting Mahomes are Watson I just wonder if Shanny/Lynch were just to inexperienced then to make the right picks.I’m hoping and praying 🙏 they should get every input from scouts are whoever involved and nail this draft.And of course the most pressure will be on Shanahan cause he will have the final call!!
The point here is all the prognosticators gave the Niners high marks for that draft.And it was horseshit. We had just gotten Garoppolo and he was lights-out his 5 games the season before, so we thought we had our QB issue fixed. I certainly get why they didn’t draft Mahomes or Jackson, and I don’t even think had they NEEDED a QB if they would have picked one of them anyway.
They traded up for the fucking Beater for fuck’s sake.
So, they very well may draft Jones, and the world will explode with invectives and assholery all around. I know I won’t be happy with it, but that doesn’t guarantee his success or failure. Nor does any of the noise.
Thing is, he may very well come in and be spectacular. So, fuck the prognosticators and the blowhards. If he ends up with us, we have to wait and see like the rest of the football world.
Anyone expect Pick 3 to be someone other than a QB?
Would we….
Could we….
Shock the Draft and grab a top rated pass catcher?
Pitts?
Chase?
How about the top rated CB?
Maybe Lynch and Shanny are buying the best smoke screen in Draft history?
Me either 😀
Fun to think about it through.
Ala Flash80 and Julio?
In which case if Pitts comes our way, Trask in RD2?
No. We have Aiyuk and Deebo. We’d go DE if there was any shocking non-QB pick.
Kwity Paye?
Think we will ever see Jalen Hurd another high pick when they could of grabbed DK Metcalf?
This is what worries me about Shanahan/Lynch and there drafting, to many shaking your head picks! Though they did hit pay dirt with Kittle as a 6th rounder.It is a crapshoot for every team and I get teams fill for needs but when those needs don’t pan out your draft grade turns into a bust ..
Metcalf had a neck injury. He fell because nobody was sure if he could even play. It is easy to say we should have taken him, in hind sight. Everybody is a genius when they get to see the results after the fact. I consider no one an expert if they say we should have drafted Mahomes or Metcalf. There is no one who doesn’t know that now.
I’m going to go on record now to adjust my expectations if a QB is the 3rd Pick.
Mac
Fields
Lance
Between Trask and Book, somebody is going to get a real good QB in the 2nd round. I originally was hoping we would stay at 11 and take Jones. I figured there was a good chance he would be gone so plan B was take the CB Horn and a QB in Rd 2.
Now that we traded to 3 we have to take a QB. Your sidestep into what if we took something else was a good one! I’ve got Mac/Fiends and then just shit.
I’m leaning Fields. I’m going to watch a bunch of film on him soon so that I can make up my mind. If he is indeed a one read and run QB I’ll want Jones. If he shows he is good at going through his progressions I’ll want Fields. I’ll try to find the time to watch this week.
I hope so, AK. Hurd will be good if he can ever get on the field. Some guys just get bad breaks in the game. I mean, blowing a 3rd pick overall on a guy who is mediocre is much worse in my book than drafting someone who gets waylaid by injuries.
Trading up for a guy like Reuben Foster, a guy with known issues, is the same deal. Bosa is in the same boat as Hurd right now. If he gets hurt more and more, it’ll stink on ice, but the guy is a supreme talent that will hopefully stay healthy on his way to a hall of Fame career.
The point being, Bosa’s injury history was much more extensive than Hurd’s. And they took the shot. Revisionist history in the draft is always easy. Unless you were out in front of it before the shit went down. Like Keenan Allen. I wanted him bad but we passed on him for Vance McDonald, who just retired.
I remember the scouting report. He couldn’t block very well but Vance McDonald was a 270 lb slot receiver who dropped one or two passes per game. The best was the place kicker we drafted. He didn’t have a very strong leg but he made up for it by being not very accurate. I don’t think Dennis and I ever stopped laughing over that one. The Vance McDonald one was a good laugh too.
You convalescent morons were jumping for joy when they drafted Bosa. You knew he was injury prone so don’t throw him under the bus now. They’ll be wasting a pick on Mac Jones, anyway.
wow. the bar is low with you, and now it is buried.
I just watched a 13 minute highlight video of Fields. It was all runs and first read deep balls. He reminded me of Kaepernick with a more accuracy. I was impressed with his arm and accuracy throwing deep. I did not see any touch throw and no 2nd reads. Overall, I was disappointed because of what I did not see.
I thought, that was a highlight reel. I need to watch a game. I watched the Clemson game. On the first play he threw a nice ball to his 2nd read. On the next play he threw a nice ball to his third read. He went to many 2nd reads during the game. He did a nice job of negotiating the safeties. Ohio St has very well designed plays, some of them were Shanahan type of plays. Fields sold the misdirection well. He also showed some decent instincts for throwing a receiver open a couple of times. He did not have to that often because his receivers were usually wide open. He had to face some pressure but it wasn’t that bad.
I need to see more but I am now solidly leaning Fields.
If he can buy time to hit secondary receivers, I’m in. Jones scares the shit out of me. There are too many guys like him (Darnold, Rosen, Wentz, Marinovich, Leaf, etc) scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding who were supposed to be the next big thing but only became the next big turds.
Nothing has moved me off their picking Lance.
Tim Kawakami
We’re now just about halfway between last month’s 49ers trade that changed everything and the first-round draft pick in 16 days that will decide everything. And we still know nothing for sure at all. Nothing. For sure. At all.
Which, we can presume, is exactly the way Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch like it — with every informed, semi-informed and wholly uninformed guess at their motivations concerning the No. 3 pick filling up the NFL discussion boards. For what that’s worth.
Evaluate the quarterbacks at the top of the draft? Not really; thanks to the 49ers, this is now much more about evaluating Shanahan’s methods and potential personnel quirks. His strengths and weaknesses. His processing. This is basically an on-the-fly psychoanalysis of Shanahan’s core football beliefs. We know he has them, as all good coaches and executives do. You want decision-makers who make emphatic decisions. But how is Shanahan making this one? Could he really be stubborn enough to give up three first-round picks to take someone as athletically pedestrian as Alabama’s Mac Jones and bypass Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance? Or is Shanahan setting us up to look one way while he fakes and bootlegs to the other?
This is also about trying to decipher Lynch’s sway over the biggest decision he and Shanahan will make as a duo and perhaps Lynch’s draft-period craftiness. Can Lynch persuade Shanahan off of picking Jones, if that’s Shanahan’s preference? Does Lynch want to push Shanahan off of Jones? Has this all been designed to create the illusion of tension? The illusion of certainty? The illusion of creating an illusion?
Some NFL people I talked to this week are now wondering if there was a sly purpose to the 49ers doing this trade with the Dolphins so early in the process. The NFL people don’t know if the reports about the 49ers’ process and theoretical love of Jones have been a 100 percent smokescreen or intentional leaks. They’re just wondering if the 49ers possibly made the trade that early not because they were all decided but to make sure they could make a proper decision without worrying about anybody else getting in the way.
It’s a complicated theory. But the more we go through the process and the more notes and half-guesses emerge, the more I believe this is what is happening. And I’ll say it now, though obviously all things can change several more times before the pick: I don’t think Shanahan and Lynch are locked on Jones, and I think by the evening of April 29 they will likely decide to select either Fields or Lance.
Not Jones. (I could be enormously wrong about this.)
OK, why not push this all the way: I think they’re going to take Fields at No. 3. And we’ll know far more about all this after Fields’ second Ohio State pro day on Wednesday and Lance’s second North Dakota State pro day Monday.
This is the consensus assumption, and I do not challenge it: Shanahan and Lynch gave up three first-round picks (this year’s No. 12 selection plus their first-rounders in 2022 and 2023) and a 2022 third-rounder to move up to the third pick and have confirmed that they did it to draft their quarterback of the future; when you give up that much, it’s usually with a specific target in mind; several people who know Shanahan well have speculated that he must be focusing on Jones, who wasn’t projected to go anywhere near the top three until the 49ers got there themselves but is the kind of strictly-in-the-pocket passer than Shanahan is known to prefer.
Shanahan would’ve picked Jones third if the draft was March 26, the thinking goes. I agree. But it wasn’t held on March 26. Since they’ve set the second pro days mostly to accommodate the 49ers, we can assume that Fields’ and Lance’s agents believe their clients have a shot to be taken in the third slot. And we can assume that the 49ers’ process couldn’t have been completed by March 26, when the trade occurred (which was also a few days before Shanahan and Lynch attended Jones’ pro day). That’s why Shanahan and Lynch have asked for closer looks at Fields and Lance, and that’s why they’re getting those looks.
Could Lynch and others on the 49ers staff have pushed for the quick trade because they wanted to give Shanahan enough time to fall in love with somebody other than Jones? That is pure speculation on my part. But Shanahan isn’t quite as stubborn about his QB selections as he can sometimes be portrayed, and I admit, I’m one of the people who continues to portray him this way.
When he came to the 49ers in 2017, Shanahan did plan to bring in pocket passer Kirk Cousins as a free agent in 2018 and he did mostly overlook Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson in that draft, when the 49ers held the No. 2 pick, because he was lasered in on Cousins. Shanahan always says he’d love to have a QB who can run and evade pressure and throw it deep, but he always gets back to the most important factors: accuracy, poise and reading the defense from the pocket. If he doesn’t have that in a QB, Shanahan doesn’t want that QB.
However, it’s important to note that Shanahan has shown adaptability at QB, and it happened right in front of us. He was planning for Cousins, went 0-8 to start his 49ers career and then Bill Belichick called at the trade deadline and offered him Jimmy Garoppolo for a second-round pick. Garoppolo has never been a scrambler, but at the time, he wasn’t really known at all, and Shanahan switched up the 49ers’ QB future pretty much on a dime.
In January 2020, I asked Shanahan if Lynch had to convince him to make the deal for Garoppolo, which likely meant never acquiring Cousins. “Oh, definitely,” Shanahan said. And he was convinced in about 10 minutes. Interesting.
I think Shanahan definitely has a set idea of what he wants in a QB. I think he makes big decisions quickly. But I also think he can fully process that he’s made some errant calls in the recent past: skipping Mahomes and Watson in the 2017 draft because he was waiting for Cousins; moving up in the third round that year for C.J. Beathard, signing Brian Hoyer in 2017 and feeling quite comfortable for several seasons with Beathard and Nick Mullens as the backups behind somebody who gets injured as often as Garoppolo.
He’s also made some great decisions. Successfully getting an extremely mobile QB like Fields or Lance to expand the 49ers’ offensive parameters (while remaining efficient) could turn into one of his best.
OK, yeah, about Garoppolo. A lot of the NFL people I talk to assume that Garoppolo can’t really be the 49ers’ planned 2021 starter. They believe this is the true smokescreen, that Shanahan and Lynch can’t be comfortable handing back the starting spot and paying out $24.1 million to somebody they’ve given up three first-round picks to replace.
If the 49ers are done with Garoppolo, they need the No. 1 pick to start Week 1 of this season. Which is another direct connection to Jones, widely believed to be far more NFL-ready than Fields or Lance (or presumably BYU’s Zach Wilson, projected to go No. 2 to the Jets). I’m not all the way certain Jones’ transition will be as seamless as many people are presuming, since he was only a one-year starter at Alabama and QBs who started for multiple years with the Crimson Tide before him — Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa — didn’t exactly take over the NFL as rookies. But I understand the thinking. If the 49ers need a new starter right away, it would point the pick to Jones over all others likely available at 3.
But I do believe the plan is to keep Garoppolo around. I’ve written it before: The 49ers think they can get to another Super Bowl with this roster, and Garoppolo remains their best shot at QB until the No. 3 pick is ready. I think Shanahan has been straight up with Garoppolo about the situation; I think Garoppolo is displeased but determined to play as well as he can in 2021; and I think a rookie might screw up some games in 2021 that the 49ers could otherwise win.
And if finding the best QB to play immediately is not a high priority in this draft, it definitely creates a broader lane for Fields and Lance.
Plausible scenario: Before the trade, Shanahan was getting information that teams behind the 49ers’ 12th pick might be trying to move up to grab Jones and the 49ers knew that Fields and Lance could go well ahead of 12, also. Shanahan didn’t want to lose out on all of them, so even as he spotlighted Jones, he and Lynch decided they had to get to No. 3 just to make sure they were in position to take any of the QBs after Trevor Lawrence and Wilson.
That would mean the 49ers paid three first-round picks to give themselves breathing room; if you think it through from Shanahan’s potential point of view, getting to No. 3 was incredibly expensive, but the worst-case scenario for him was getting Jones, somebody he probably thinks can win a lot of games in the NFL and maybe sooner than the others. And if he’s convinced that Fields or Lance is better, then the 49ers have control of that option.
This isn’t a new theory, it’s just been sharpened by the procession of time and the winnowing down of the unknowns. With two weeks to go.
You may have noticed that 49ers fans have been in an uproar ever since Jones’ name came up as their projected pick at No. 3. You may actually be one of those uproarious 49ers fans. I understand the fervency, and I guess I get the rabid desire to shout down any credible suggestion that the 49ers could take Jones. It would be a weird pick. I will criticize the 49ers if they pick him.
But it also strikes me that the force of this anger isn’t coming from 49ers fans who think it is impossible that Shanahan traded three first-round picks to select somebody as undynamic Jones. It’s coming from fans who deep down know it really is something Shanahan might do.
I don’t think fan opinion or any media member’s opinion or even Jed York’s opinion will stop Shanahan from doing what he thinks is right, especially at this position. You don’t want a coach whose decision flips around waiting for which way the wind blows. But I also believe he understands this is the most important personnel decision the 49ers have made in years, at least since drafting Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers (and many others) in 2005. Also: the 2005 decision didn’t involve trading two future first-rounders (which, just for comparison’s sake, would’ve been Vernon Davis and Patrick Willis). So this is larger. It’s the entire Shanahan/Lynch era, boiled down to their pick on April 29.
This is why we’ve got to do some psychoanalyzing to try to figure this out. I think Lynch and Shanahan are betting enormously on themselves but also can see that Jones’ talent is not comparable to Fields and Lance. I think Shanahan understands that he didn’t have to make this trade to get a pocket passer to fit his system. He could’ve remained at 12, and if Jones was gone by then, he could’ve taken another position then looked at Florida’s Kyle Trask or Stanford’s Davis Mills in later rounds. Shanahan could’ve had Jones on his mind when he made the trade to No. 3 but gave himself plenty of time to move in another direction.
I think it takes a while to adjust the process like this. Shanahan got there in 10 minutes when it was time to acquire Garoppolo and bypass Cousins. I think a month is more than enough to bypass Jones and get there on Fields or Lance. I think the pick will be Fields, and let’s see those pro days.
Man, that’s a whole lot of fluff. Kawakami sure likes to pontificate to the point of inanity.
The article can be boiled down to Shanny and Co bought time to make their decision by making the trade early in the process.
My whole point about this is what I’ve been saying for a while now. That their pick wasn’t set in stone on March 26th.
I hope they ARE open to changing their minds while they go through this process. It sure appears that way. Shanny isn’t as stubborn as he wants to appear.
New thread is up.