49ers. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Now that we are officially looking ahead to the 2021-22 NFL season and putting the crazy corona ridden season behind us, it’s time for mock draft season. While the mocks that highlight the teams picking early such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, NY Jets and Cincinnati Bengals are fun we will instead look at teams that are just a player or two away from playing in the Super Bowl. We take a look here at the San Francisco 49ers.
Don’t forget the 49ers were less than one quarter away from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy just a year ago if not for a heroic fourth quarter comeback courtesy of Patrick Mahomes. 2020 was not a kind year by any stretch of the imagination for the 49ers on the injury front.
The 49ers were without quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for a bulk of the season, star defensive end Nick Bosa, stud tight end George Kittle and a slew of other key contributors. Even while suffering arguably the most injuries in the league the 49ers still managed to stay competitive in most games thanks to Head Coach Kyle Shanahan.
Looking at team needs for 49ers
With numerous key players set to return for the start of the 2021/22 season the 49ers will be right back in the hunt for the NFC West crown. There has been some smoke that the 49ers are interested in a new quarterback whether that be acquiring a veteran or drafting a rookie but head coach Kyle Shanahan has stated numerous times now that they are rolling with Jimmy Garoppolo.
While it could just be coach speak we have no reason to believe Jimmy Garoppolo won’t be the quarterback of the 49ers after these comments from Shanahan, “You look into every avenue and you see if there’s something out there that can get you a ton better.” Shanahan continued on saying:
“That’s the same answer for every position, but look at Jimmy, look what he’s done, look where he’s at financially. We better have a very good answer if you’re gonna find something better than that because Jimmy has shown in one year that he’s the guy who can take us to the Super Bowl, and I also think that Jimmy is going to get a lot better the more he plays.”
Let’s take a look at how the 49ers can retool this draft to make another run to the Super Bowl.
