The San Francisco 49ers had the 2nd overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. They had no plan for the quarterback spot and were staring at their choice of a potential franchise option in the draft. Mitchell Trubisky, Deshaun Watson, and Patrick Mahomes were considered the top 3 guys (according to most people. Trubisky obviously couldn’t play but nobody could seem to figure that out except for myself). San Francisco ended up trading down from 2 to 3 collecting more picks and still passed on a quarterback.
Chicago moved up one spot and took a bust. Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes were left on the board. San Fran went with Solomon Thomas (who is ok at best). During Super Bowl media week, Kyle Shanahan explained why he passed on Mahomes:
*side note: Not sure why it’s “hilarious”.
“I didn’t look into him obviously as much as I should have,” Shanahan said Tuesday. “We definitely looked into him, studied all of his tape. Was just a freak, could make any throw, had the ability to do anything. That was a little bit different situation for us. We had the second pick in the draft, did not feel like from all the intel that you get and stuff that he was gonna go that high.”
“It was a little different situation for us just ’cause I think it’s pretty well documented of just the relationship I had with Kirk being in Washington and I felt very confident that he wasn’t gonna stay there,” Shanahan recalled. “So anytime you go into a season knowing that a franchise quarterback was going to be available the next year, it made me a lot more picky with what we were looking at.”
What we should take away from this is that it appears that Kyle Shanahan was locked into Kirk Cousins. Talk about an alternate universe there. Shanahan was part of the Washington staff with his dad. The Shanahan’s did not want RG3 but also drafted Kirk Cousins that same year. Crazy turn of events.
The Jimmy Garoppolo traded was gifted to them by the Patriots. If it weren’t, Kirk Cousins might be in San Francisco. The butterfly effect on that is crazy. Could Cousins have gotten the 49ers to the Super Bowl with that running game and defensive line? If Kirk Cousins is happy in Washington, that probably prompts the 49ers to draft a quarterback in 2017. Imagine the alternate universe with Kyle Shanahan and Patrick Mahomes? Crazy to think about.
