Prior to swinging a deal for the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft — which they have admitted they will use on a quarterback — the 49ers monitored Deshaun Watson‘s availability, as Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com writes. That’s not terribly surprising, as the Niners were reportedly high on Watson’s list of preferred destinations, and San Francisco has been connected in some way or another to many of the quarterbacks that were on the trade and free agent markets this offseason.
Ultimately, after the club managed to retain key players like left tackle Trent Williams and fullback Kyle Juszczyk, and after Watson’s off-field situation made a trade for him infeasible, GM John Lynch approached ownership with the proposal to acquire the No. 3 pick from Miami. Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan believe the roster is championship-ready, and while they feel they can win with Jimmy Garoppolo under center — after all, the Garoppolo-led 49ers were in the Super Bowl about 14 months ago — they knew they needed a backup plan given Jimmy G’s injury history. And, with the 2022 class of collegiate QBs looking like an uninspiring group at the moment, San Francisco decided the time was right to make a bold move to secure a top prospect who would represent a Garoppolo fallback plan this year and who has a real chance of becoming a top-flight passer down the line.
The fact that the club was looking at players like Joe Flacco and Andy Dalton even after they had initiated talks to make a move up the draft board underscores the fact that the team is not comfortable with Garoppolo on a long-term basis and was considering trading him and replacing him with a different veteran that could have served as a bridge to a younger passer. Of course, a trade for Watson would have obviated the need for a rookie signal-caller, but even if Watson weren’t facing legal issues, there would have been stiff competition for his services, if the Texans had chosen to move him at all. While a player like Trey Lance, Justin Fields, or Mac Jones are hardly the sure thing that Watson is, we know that Shanahan prides himself on his ability to get the most out of his quarterbacks.
Garoppolo, meanwhile, was understandably unhappy when he learned that the team was drafting his replacement, and it sounds as if Shanahan made no bones about the fact that 2021 is looking like Garoppolo’s last year in San Francisco. As Wagoner writes, Shanahan said Garoppolo ultimately understood the plan to bring him back for “one more go” and “rehabilitate his value” (presumably for a trade in 2022).
“I’m sure Jimmy was a little pissed off from it, just like I would be, too,” Shanahan said. “The more mad Jimmy gets, usually the better he gets. (If) Jimmy just gets madder and stays healthy, this is going to be a good thing for Jimmy, too, which could be a great problem for the 49ers.”
As for who the 49ers might take at No. 3? Jones is a highly accurate passer, especially on intermediate throws, and boasts a terrific deep ball. In other words, he checks a lot of Shanahan’s boxes. He is also said to have high-level football IQ and excellent leadership abilities, and while many pundits have suggested his ceiling is lower than that of Lance or Fields, ESPN’s Adam Schefter cites one NFC GM who says teams have Jones graded much higher than the media does (via Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area). As such, Schefter says he would not be surprised if the 49ers pull the trigger on Jones.
Pretty sure every team monitored Deshaun Watson
Exactly. Such a horrible article….but…but someone at ESPN wrote about it so I must too. Dumb.
@bowser
I will never understand people who gripe about this. Passing on news from any reliable source is the foundation the traderumors sites were built on.
As much as he monitored the massage industry?
Patriots qb 2022 unless cam kills it
Cam has been killing it for a few years now …
His career, you mean?
Pro Days can be pretty deceiving, but you know what top passers DONT do at their respective NFL auditions? Overthrow unguarded receivers… something Mac Jones did twice. If the Niners trade all that capital to draft someone like Jones and he busts (which is more likely than the other top QB’s in this class) Shanahan and Lynch could, and probably should, be fired.
Drafting Jones would be fine. If the 49ers hadn’t paid all those picks to move up. Stupid desperation move. Long term consequences the Shanahans know intimately. See effect of RGIII trade on Redskins that Mike Shanahan was coaching.
Niners basically announced on instagram that they’re drafting fields.
No, he didn’t commenting that he like what he saw doesn’t mean they are taking him. They do that with pretty much every prospect every team goes and watches at the pro days
I CAN NOT BELIEVE MY EYES my.yall really want to do that,GIVE THE BIG G his props he has proven himself worthy of being a 49er my so back up off the man and let him go.. having a great back up qb is what y’all need to focus on
Monitored like his soon to be issued ankle bracelet?
Deshaun Watson is in limbo. He doesn’t want the Texans and due to his immense baggage, no one wants him right now. It would be a PR nightmare for any body trading for him.