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That, Mahomes guy is pretty decent, huh? The man who ruined the 49ers’ Super Bowl last year could have been a 49er if the organization wasn’t solely focused on acquiring Kirk Cousins. And by organization, we mean Kyle Shanahan, who has some sort of obsession with Cousins that he cannot shake.
Back in 2017, with Brian Hoyer as their quarterback and the knowledge that the team would have to be rebuilt, and it might take three seasons, instead of even properly evaluating Deshaun Watson or Patrick Mahomes, the 49ers locked into the idea of signing Kirk Cousins, eschewing the opportunity to draft a franchise quarterback who could grow with a rebuilding team and instead selecting Solomon Thomas after a trade down.
How does newly-minted Hall of Famer John Lynch look back on not drafting Mahomes? With regret, obviously. He said his attendance at Mahomes’ pro day was effectively smoke to drive up the price for a team interested in taking a quarterback.
“That will probably haunt me for a while,” Lynch said Sunday. “Because I remember going to his pro day and we were in a different place as an organization and we had a different plan for quarterback and so we really weren’t going to his pro day, doing my job but really as kind of a smokescreen because we were going elsewhere.”
Lynch recalled called Kyle Shanahan and pontificating on whether the 49ers should consider Mahomes. Jaws of general managers were dropped at his pro day, Lynch said.
“And then calling our head coach, Kyle, and saying, ‘We might want to rethink this.’ Because he put on a show,” Lynch said. “I mean you talk about the talent. It’s a windy day in Lubbock, and I remember standing next to you know various NFL gyms and whatnot everybody’s jaw was dropping because what he was doing throwing the ball into the wind and finished with like an 80-yard throw. I mean it was remarkable. And he’s, he’s an incredible kid.
We went to dinner with him. Started to see that he had those other elements that we were talking about and wanted to be great. So he’s a tremendous player, and he’s on a trajectory that he’ll go down as one of the greats if he keeps it up and got a great opportunity to obviously add to that legacy later today.”
But hey, the 49ers got Jimmy Garoppolo, so… nothing to see here.