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On Wednesday, 49ers Hall-of-Fame quarterback Steve Young appeared on Tolbert & Lund to discuss San Francisco’s draft strategy and where he thinks the direction of the team should go.
When asked about what side of the ball the 49ers should focus on the in draft, Young didn’t shy away from his bias as a legendary quarterback.
“I would go all in on offense right now,” Young said. “I know we just saw the lowest scoring Super Bowl in history so it’s like, ‘Oh yeah Steve, great tip,’ but the four teams that had the best offenses in the league are the last four that made the championship games. Get a pass rusher and a corner, then pour the money into offense.”
Steve Young thinks the team shouldn’t be handcuffing head coach Kyle Shanahan when it comes to talent.
“Kyle can do this,” he said. Give him the tools to do it with. There are a lot of teams out there that don’t have an offensive innovator and can call plays on weekends and make due with not a lot. Give him the stuff, and then we’ll see where we are. Don’t give me some theoretical thing where there’s a safety available a we need him. There aren’t going to be safeties anymore because you can’t play the position! You can’t patrol. You can’t do anything, so who cares. Gimme the tackle, gimme the guar- Look what the Colts did. They drafted a killer guard! Thats a huge thing.”
When asked what sort of weapons coach Shanahan should have next season, Young had a particular type of player in mind.
“He doesn’t need (Odell Beckham Jr.). That would be great, but you need receivers who ‘threaten on Wednesday.’ You need guys who, when other teams are going through preparation and the rosters come out, when they see his name they go, ‘Ooh. I gotta pay attention this week.’ You gotta have a couple of guys that make people notice you on Wednesday. Kyle does a great job with what he’s got, but you need a couple of guys that strike fear early in the week.
“Now if Jimmy (Garoppolo) grows and grows and does what Tom (Brady) does, you can create a bunch of stuff when a guy get super on top of it all, but that’s not where we are. You’ve got to have some threats.”
The Faithful probably echoes the same sentiment as Young when it comes to signing a marquee receiver, and hopefully for everyone, that comes sooner rather than later.
Listen at the 29:00 minute mark to hear Young talk 49ers here: