Golden Nuggets: Building excitement for 2018

Wednesday, December 27th, 2017 edition of the Golden Nuggets, a daily compilation of San Francisco 49ers links from the Internet

By Billy Kerr@bkerr725 Dec 27, 2017, 2:00am PST

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NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars at San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers spent much of this season fighting for the right to draft either 1st or 2nd overall in the 2018 draft. They lost their 1st 9 games of the season and a stretch of 5 of those games they lost by less than 3 points. Jimmy Garoppolo changed all that. He has led the 49ers to 4 straight wins and the 49ers are now scheduled to draft with the 8th overall pick in the draft. They have one game left in their season against the Rams and could drop even further in the draft.

GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan are closer to having the 49ers competing than most people would have thought. They have demonstrated that they can pick well in the draft as their rookies have been performed well this season. Reuben Foster and Adrian Colbert have been key players for the defense and Trent Taylor, Matt Breida, and George Kittle have helped the offense. Lynch and Shanahan had to turnover a lot of the roster they inherited from the previous regime and this past draft went a long way to help.

With over $100 million in cap space, Lynch and Shanahan are able to go after the free agents that they want in the offseason. The total rebuild could be complete by next season if they hit on their free agent deals and draft picks. And Jimmy Garoppolo is the main reason that it could be complete. Having him completely changes the team’s plans and he has already elevated the team’s play in his limited starts. He has the 49ers ready to enjoy success next season.

49ers Links

Can’t wait to see what’s in store | Excitement for 2018 (Wagoner)

Tom Brady on his former backup (Alper)

Crazy to see that after starting 0-9 | 4-0 start (Reiss)

Cooled down the Jags (Wagoner)

Garoppolo’s success (Harris)

Kyle could lead Jimmy to a MVP in the next few years | Kyle and Jimmy: the dream team (Maiocco)

Highest ranking | Moving up the power rankings (Iyer)

Moving towards greatness (Williams)

Player of the week nominations (Martin)

Jimmy deserved most of the credit | Tom giving Jimmy his credit (Branch)

Staley in the team of the week (Monson)