The San Francisco 49ers still have roughly a month before they have to decide on which quarterback to take with the recently acquired No. 3 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and according to two separate reports, the team’s primary decision makers are not on the same page.
The Athletic’s Michael Lombardi — a former NFL general manager who isn’t exactly beloved in the broader media ecosystem — reported during a radio appearance that head coach Kyle Shanahan prefers one quarterback while general manager John Lynch prefers another.
“Someone told me yesterday — not an NFL head coach — but someone told me that there is a conversation in the building that Kyle wants X and maybe Lynch wants Y,” he said. “Look, I’m going to be very clear here: Kyle is going to make this pick. It’s in his contract. It’s not a question of he’s just going to do it by his personality. The Shanahans run the 49ers. Lynch is there to do what he is told to do.”
Lombardi did not share the identities of the quarterbacks in question, but radio host Dan Patrick subsequently reported that Shanahan wants Alabama’s Mac Jones while Lynch and the personnel department want North Dakota State’s Trey Lance.
“Yeah, I know Kyle Shanahan loves Mac, [and I] was told personnel department is still hoping to change his mind to Trey Lance,” Patrick said, reading a text message from an unidentified source. “I get that Mac fits what he does, but man, I would want a lot more with that third pick.”
Patrick added, “It feels like they could have gotten Mac Jones at six instead of three.”
Jones — an intelligent but athletically limited player similar to previous Shanahan quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Matt Ryan — is widely regarded as the fifth-best quarterback in the draft class. If the 49ers do select Jones at third overall, it would instantly become one of the worst trades in NFL history in terms of value, even if Jones reaches his supposed “ceiling” of Cousins or Ryan.
Typically, a team should not give up two future first-round picks for a quarterback who not only has a fixed ceiling, but also could have been acquired for far less. When the Miami Dolphins moved back into the top 10 after acquiring the No. 12 pick from the 49ers, they sent only one future first-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles to get the No. 6 pick and a 2021 fifth-round pick. Jones will likely be available at No. 6.
We’ve written at length about why you should be skeptical of the Jones-to-the-49ers chatter, but NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller believes the 49ers brass should not necessarily be trusted to avoid such a boneheaded move.
“I’m trying to trust John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, but I remember when they said they didn’t need a quarterback and they passed on Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson only to pick up C.J. Beathard in the third round,” he said on Patrick’s show. “I’m still a little gun-shy about trusting this front office. This just feels like something they would do. They would over think it again, just like trading back to get Solomon Thomas or drafting Reuben Foster in the first round. It feels like this front office is a little too cute sometimes.”
