The 49ers have kept their choice at No. 3 overall in this year’s draft a well-guarded secret. Heavy leanings toward Mac Jones appear mostly to be guesses from people in media and inside the league. While we furiously scramble to uncover and then connect dots that will eventually lead us to a premature answer on who San Francisco will pick, the answer might’ve already been given by head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Shanahan said something interesting in his March 29 press conference when asked if Kirk Cousins was his archetype quarterback. That was long the assumption when Shanahan said his initial plan for the club was to sign Cousins in free agency following the 2017 season.
Since then every quarterback conversation around the 49ers has begun with Cousins. It stands to reason that’s where much of the Jones hype started as well – based on the assumption a Cousins-type QB was what the 49ers’ head coach was after.
Shanahan called that assumption ridiculous in his press conference.
“I think Kirk does a good job for whatever team he plays for every year,” Shanahan said. “There’s a number of quarterbacks like that, but that’s the only one I’ve been associated with because people thought I was trying to bring him here, which I was at the time. It’s not because that’s how you draw it up. If you’re going to draw it up, you’re going to draw the biggest, fastest, strongest and best quarterback in the pocket. So, I think that’s pretty ridiculous to say that.”
Did Shanahan with that quote inadvertently tell us who the 49ers are going to select with the third overall pick in the 2021 draft? Let’s run down the list of attributes he described.
