One of the most experienced journalists to ever cover the NFL joined KNBR 1050’s The Audible Friday morning.
ESPN’s John Clayton chimed in on all things San Francisco 49ers, including his thoughts on why the team will chase after Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
While many around the league say the Patriots will command a first round pick — at the very least — for the 25-year-old, Clayton can see New England bending a little bit in order to add an influx of young players to their roster.
Clayton even said he can see a trade working similarly to when the 49ers traded Alex Smith to the Chiefs back in 2013 for a second-round pick and a conditional draft pick, which also turned into a second rounder. Former GM Trent Baalke turned those two picks into several more players by way of trades, including Carlos Hyde and since-retired Chris Borland.
“I think they will be involved in Jimmy Garoppolo, but I think there’s going to be a really good battle on that one,” Clayton said. “Because I think when you look at the Garoppolo trade, it’s going to be very similar to the Alex Smith trade of a couple years ago. Where naturally, if you’re the Patriots, you’re going to hold out for a No. 1, but you are not going to hold out totally. So knowing there’s maybe not a top five quarterback in this draft, that’s why I think the second round options might be a little more viable. Because then maybe you can give a (second round pick), (a third round pick) in 2018 and I think the Patriots will take that because they are trying to restock the roster as far as getting young guys for the next Super Bowl run.”
And how about Thursday’s marathon press conference with Kyle Shanahan, John Lynch and Jed York? Clayton is actually taking stock into the new tone that was set by the 37-year-old head coach and 45-year-old GM.
“The one thing that looks apparent is that it looks like the two can get along and that’s so important,” Clayton said. “Because you do have front offices where the front office guys don’t get along. I mean, the coach doesn’t get along with the GM and the GM doesn’t get along with the coach. It looks like it’s a good start and I think a lot of that has to do with John Lynch’s personality. I think with Kyle Shanahan having so much clout coming in — because he was in a position to do that — that’s a good start. If you can have at least a team working together, then they can start working collectively to get the right decisions to try and get the roster better.”