Which QB prospect will the 49ers target after trading up in the NFL Draft?
49ers #49ers
Normally, when a big trade goes down in the NFL, I’m assigned to grade the deal for both teams. But that really isn’t necessary with Friday’s big move that saw the 49ers give up two future first-round picks for the right to swap the No. 12 pick in this year’s draft for the Dolphins’ third-overall pick.
There isn’t anything interesting to say about the deal itself. It makes sense for both parties. The Dolphins seemed to be invested in Tua Tagovailoa for at least one more year, so the move down — it ended up being a three-pick drop after Miami flipped the No. 12 to Philadelphia for the No. 6 pick — out of “quarterback territory” makes sense. The Dolphins added draft capital and still should be in position to draft one of their top targets.
The 49ers are the more interesting team, obviously. You don’t make that kind of move up the draft board to take a non-quarterback, which makes things awkward for the highly-paid Jimmy Garaoppolo, who doesn’t have a lot of guaranteed money left on his deal, leaving him in a very precarious spot. He’ll likely be traded, though a no-trade clause could complicate matters. Either way, it’s unlikely he’ll be in a 49ers uniform by
San Francisco’s aggressive move may have caught us all off guard — it’s Friday afternoon and the weather is nice, man — but it certainly isn’t shocking that Kyle Shanahan and company are looking for an upgrade at quarterback. They know what Garoppolo is by this point, and they know he’s not good enough. Not with paydays coming for the 49ers’ young stars, which would make rostering a highly-paid system quarterback much harder to do.
So, good move all around. Cheers to both teams. Sorry, Jimmy G. Your brief time as the 49ers’ franchise quarterback provided me with so many content ideas. You will be missed.
Now let’s get to the interesting part: We know the 49ers are trading up for a quarterback, but which quarterback is it? We can cross Trevor Lawrence’s name off the list. The Jaguars might as well start selling his jerseys at this point. And the Jets sent their whole damn organization to Zach Wilson’s pro day today, and the consensus from those in the know seems to indicate he’s locked into the No. 2 pick.
So that leaves us with three realistic options: Ohio State’s Justin Fields, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance and Alabama’s Mac Jones. Let’s rank each of them based on the likelihood of them being the 49ers’ target.
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