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49ers Notebook: Shanahan, Lynch talk Mac Jones, Jimmy Garoppolo’s future… and death?

By

Jacob Hutchinson

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We learned everything and nothing on Monday, as the 49ers’ brass talked about their preparation leading up to the NFL Draft, which begins Thursday night. And boy, did they talk about their preparation. John Lynch opened the presser by talking at length about how they managed to scout so many players in so many places, with so much uncertainty.

And Kyle Shanahan, originally scheduled to be absent, was there too.

He utilized his time to become his most emo self, speaking, unprompted, about the fickleness of life and death, name-dropping the old guard, now-retired quarterback pair of Drew Brees and Phillip Rivers, and definitively saying he does not listen to what fans want him to do.

If you were hoping to come out of this presser with the notion that the 49ers would be drafting one of Justin Fields or Trey Lance, or that Jimmy Garoppolo would stay on board for the time being, there was little here for you.

The sentiment was defensive; a stark reversal from the happy-go-lucky, we-got-our-guy honeymoon presser that came after the 49ers had traded up. It was tense, like there have perhaps been too many discussions and long nights in Santa Clara, with not everyone sold on the same person.

No guarantee that Garoppolo is the starting QB, or… alive, apparently

Emo Kyle made an appearance. Maybe the offensive line room (which loves heavy metal) turned him on to Meshuggah, who knows. But when asked about Jimmy Garoppolo’s future, Shanahan, unlike in the presser which followed the trade up to three, failed to guarantee Garoppolo would remain on the roster, or, stunningly, that he would be alive on Sunday.

“I can’t guarantee that anybody in the world will be alive Sunday, so I can’t guarantee who will be on our roster on Sunday,” Shanahan said. “So that goes for all of us.”

I mean, geez, Kyle. That’s a bit much.

I’m imagining John Lynch being asked the same question and answering, “Yeah, well, we all die someday, so who knows?”

Behind that brutally existential statement is a clear lack of assurance that Garoppolo will be there. The brass was much more hard-lined in their stance on Garoppolo on March 29, and have appeared to loosen that grip.

In March, Shanahan said it would be difficult for the 49ers to feel confident enough in their rookie to move on from Garoppolo.

“But right now, Jimmy, it’s going to be hard to find a quarterback that gives us a better chance to win than Jimmy right now, especially even a rookie in the draft,” Shanahan said. “So, that’s what you look into. Now, if someone wanted something for that and it can make your team better in a lot of other ways, you listen to that, but also depends on how good you feel about that rookie. We’re not there yet right now and odds are, we probably won’t be.”

Shanahan affirmed on multiple occasions that the 49ers are drafting a “starting quarterback.” That’s a significant tonal shift from a month ago, when there was a bit of a “we don’t know what this rookie will be” mentality.

There’s no guarantee either way; Garoppolo could remain the starter, or they could trade him. Shanahan said the 49ers have plenty of “leeway” and that it would still be tough to part with Garoppolo; but there was a definitive reassessment, at least publicly, of the situation.

“We’re getting to a spot to get a starting NFL quarterback,” Shanahan said.

Shanahan doesn’t care what you want, or your view of pick value

There were a couple things Shanahan could not stop repeating on Monday: that there are five guys they think are capable of being starting quarterbacks, and that he is not listening to outside sources. Though, his defensiveness would indicate that he’s heard a little bit from people not inside the building.

He said he’s been pressed by friends, colleagues, even refs at his kids soccer games on what his plan is at No. 3, with most people offering their own opinion. His friends have to go through his wife, Mandy, to get to him.

“I hope the fans are happy with it, but the key is, ultimately, they’re gonna be happy based off how we’re do in the future, not how they feel that night, whether they won the arguments with their friends or things like that,” Shanahan said.  “If you would have been excited about one of these guys at 12, then you should be excited at three. It’s about whether you get one. So, let us go through the process. We’re going to get a good one. Yeah, I wish I could take that anxiety away from people, but that’s just because people get excited.”

Shanahan continued to try and reassure fans that, whoever they get, they’ll sort out those injury woes that have plagued them at quarterback for the last few years, and urged them to delay judgment until the rookie actually plays in a game.

“If you get involved in that, it will affect how you are, how you think, and what you do,” Shanahan said. “And that will affect me if I get involved in that. What I can promise people is that you have two people, who, we make sure we don’t get involved in that, because that is so irresponsible to let something like that affect your decision. We do this for a living and I think people should be proud of us that we won’t let that affect our decision.”

This came in a presser in which Shanahan was asked specifically, multiple times, about the one guy fans have near-universally expressed displeasure over, and who has been strongly linked to the 49ers: Mac Jones.

It sounds an awful lot like it’s Mac Jones

Despite being asked multiple times, Shanahan declined to say anything specific about what traits of Jones he likes. If he was trying to play his cards close to his vest, they weren’t close enough, because, while not openly angry, he evaded the anti-Jones questions and continued to mention that the 49ers like five quarterbacks.

He admitted that at the start of the process, there was one guy they had in mind when they moved up (by all accounts, probably Jones), but they’ve kept an open mind.

“We had a guy probably first back then, but we knew that wasn’t set in stone,” Shanahan said. “We probably started with one in mind, but that one’s gotten better since, and so have all the other candidates. So, do we know exactly what we want? Maybe, probably, but maybe not. I don’t feel like we need to say that and that’s not just for our case. But lots of stuff happens between now and the draft and you don’t want the whole league knowing exactly what you’re set on four days before the draft.”

And this, if it hasn’t been abundantly clear, is Shanahan’s call. Lynch said explicitly that, “I will always defer to him.”

The 49ers’ talent evaluators can push and pull and prod—which Lynch said is encouraged, to make assessments with conviction—but if there’s a guy Shanahan is set on, it’s his choice.

And his choice has to have a few traits that Shanahan loves. That’s elite processing, footwork, communication (the ability to understand the playbook and communicate it with Shanahan), and ability to throw the ball to all three levels. John Beck, the quarterback coach who played under Shanahan and has worked with Lance, Fields and Zach Wilson, said as much last week on KNBR.

Beck did also say that Shanahan wants a guy who can turn broken plays, or ones that aren’t called against the wright defense, into net positives by escaping pressure. Jones is without question the worst of the five quarterbacks in that respect and he had elite protection at Alabama, limiting the amount of times he was under significant pressure. He was also bailed out plenty of times by having two of the three best receivers in the country in DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle.

Shanahan was also asked about the trend of more athletic, mobile, highly arm-talented quarterbacks succeeding in the NFL (see: Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Kyler Murray, Justin Herbert, plus veterans like Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers, even Matthew Stafford) and disagreed… that there is a trend.

While he thinks the league is always evolving, he doesn’t seem to believe that the league is moving a direction that necessitates athletic quarterbacks, which, you think would be blasphemous after the 49ers have been whooped by athletic quarterbacks in recent years.

Instead, after mentioning those guys, Shanahan shouted out the now-retired relics of the NFL’s past: Drew Brees and Phillip Rivers.

“I think the whole thing of the success of people like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, Deshaun, Lamar, like these guys are unbelievable and they can play the position and they’re obviously very, very talented and running around and doing stuff,” Shanahan said. “But those are those guys. You got to look into a lot of people.

There’s lots of different ways you can do it. I don’t look at it as intrinsic. I look at it as, there’s some special players, they’re special people. I don’t care when Drew Brees comes out, whether it’s 30 years from now, 30 years ago, or today, he’s going to be pretty good. So is Phillip Rivers, so are all these guys. So is Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes. They would have been good 40 years ago also, really good. They’re gonna be good 40 years in the future. You got to take guys you believe are good enough to do it whatever way that is. There’s lots of ways to do it, and people are proving that more and more.

Man, you want to find Drew Brees who can move like Lamar Jackson, and Mahomes is maybe in the middle. There’s no, this is where it’s going, this is where it’s been. It’s it’ll always evolve… There’s lots of different ways and whatever those why’s are, how does that pertain to your offense, what you have, the building you have and what you think gives you the best chance to win.”

It’s hard not to read between the lines. This is as close to the draft as you get to talk to a head coach and he’s been evaluating this prospects for months. Shanahan obviously has a preference, and no matter what he tries to hide, he mentions some things here that stand out.

Again, he talks about Brees and Rivers, who are the old sentinel pocket passers now gone, with Tom Brady the remaining relic and anomaly, as he’s always been. And he mentions “how does that pertain to your offense, what you have, the building you have, and what you think gives you the best chance to win.”

Shanahan has always been obsessed with Kirk Cousins. Even when I asked him to dissuade us from that notion and he mentioned that in an ideal world, you’d draw up the biggest, fastest, strongest and greatest pocket passer, he still spent a near minute fawning over Cousins.

It’s always been Shanahan’s scheme above all else; it’s that hubris that dissuaded them from pursuing Mahomes and Watson in 2017, and it’s exactly what could have them draft the least talented quarterback of the top five. Jones listens to coaching, processes well, delivers the ball on time, and has solid footwork. If you’re Shanahan and you look at a roster that’s ready to compete now, maybe you say you can eschew the great arm talent for great mental talent.

That would be ignoring that Fields received Ivy League offers and reports have Lance as one of the smartest quarterbacks in the draft and the fact that Jones has a DUI and accident on his record, but hey, football acumen can differ from practical intelligence. If Shanahan believes he’ll execute what he’s told, it might just be Jones.

Oh, and one more note. The 49ers are picking up Mike McGlinchey’s fifth-year option, Lynch confirmed, which will come in at roughly $10.9 million.

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