SANTA CLARA, Calif. _ They got their guy _ probably the best guy available for them _ and the 49ers got even more than that.
They played it perfectly, they were patient, they head-faked or sweet-talked or hypnotized or just plain out-smarted Chicago into giving up three good picks to trade up just one slot and then the 49ers drafted Stanford defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, who they probably wanted all along, anyway.
I'm voting for hypnosis, probably.
Anyway, this is all about as successful as anybody could've hoped for the opening move of the John Lynch-Kyle Shanahan draft experience, and I include Lynch and Shanahan in that.
Obvious point: Trent Baalke wasn't terrible at draft-maneuvering, but he never pulled off anything like this.
On KNBR Thursday, Lynch immediately credited executive Paraag Marathe for closing the deal, which is not
a major difference from previous years, because Marathe always was the 49ers' chief negotiator under Baalke.
What's different about this one: Lynch has the security to dole out that kind of credit, and Lynch and Shanahan set the parameters, identified their valuing of Thomas and the other possible selections, and they're the ones who pulled the trigger so aggressively and appropriately.
This is the way a front office is supposed to work. Including Marathe.
So this was a great trade, assuming Thomas has a solid career, because Lynch and Shanahan showed that they understand value and they can be aggressive and they can out-play and out-last other teams in the NFL.
Listen, the 49ers did not go into this draft in a great spot�sitting with all these roster weaknesses and with the second overall pick when everybody else behind No. 1 pick Myles Garrett seemed relatively similar.
The 49ers put out some flares about North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky (which I never believed), and Lynch openly talked about being "open for business" for possible trades.
I thought this would be tough going. I thought they would probably just have to use the pick and take Thomas and that wouldn't have been terrible, but it wouldn't have been the best value for the position.
Sometimes you just can't play yourself into a better situation.
I didn't think even the greatest poker player would be able to leverage much more than maybe one third-round pick, and I thought that would probably drop the 49ers maybe all the way to 8, or 10 or maybe even lower _ and that would've taken them out of the Solomon Thomas stakes.
So that wouldn't have been ideal, for sure.
But instead...
Up stepped Chicago, at 3, and apparently desperate for Trubisky ... and most importantly ... the Bears were convinced that they couldn't just sit back and let the 49ers stay at 2.
The Bears must've believed that either the 49ers were going to take Trubisky at 2, or that the 49ers were going to trade the pick to somebody else who was going to take Trubusky ...
And Lynch and Shanahan clearly leveraged the heck out of Chicago, after Shanahan first decided that Trubisky wasn't a Franchise Quarterback and that the 49ers should pass on him.
Believe me, I would trust Shanahan's view on a QB over whoever is making those decisions for Chicago, which only a few months ago decided to pay journeyman Mike Glennon $18 million.
Then gave up all those picks to move up one slot to draft Trubisky.
Summary: The 49ers moved down just one spot and Chicago traded them a third-rounder (No. 67) and a fourth-rounder (No. 111) this year plus a third-rounder next season.
And they got Thomas, who was the best value for them at 2, anyway.
Yes, the 49ers now have used their first selection on a defensive lineman for three consecutive years _ after taking Arik Armstead in 2015 and DeForest Buckner in 2016 _ and that does seem a little excessive.
But you can never have too many good defensive linemen, and if you think differently, just look at what the New York Giants did on their way to victories in Super Bowl 42 and 46 and what Seattle has done for years, with some nice results.
Defensive linemen, generally, are just more valuable than defensive backs or inside linebackers. Defensive linemen can set a team's culture, the way Justin Smith did when he arrived more than a decade ago.
If you build a great defensive line, you can win a lot of games over a lot of years, and I expect the 49ers are now more than halfway there.
And they picked up three more picks along the way.
That gives the 49ers six picks in the top 111 this year ... and now Lynch has extra ammunition to do all sorts of extra manipulation and maneuvering, and I am guessing that some of this is with an eye towards acquiring Kirk Cousins from Washington at some point in the future.
We can see that Lynch and Shanahan have a vision, they have a front office running smoothly, and I wouldn't put anything past them after what they just pulled off.
