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NFL draft rumors: One former NFL person thinks 49ers really like DeShaun Watson

I would be surprised if the 49ers spent the No. 2 pick on him, but I won’t make any assumptions at this point.

We’ve been hearing plenty of rumors about whether or not the Cleveland Browns might select North Carolina Mitchell Trubisky with the No. 1 overall pick. Mary Kay Cabot heard the San Francisco 49ers might also be interested in Trubisky at No. 2. Well, now we can add another quarterback to the rumor mix.

The 49ers conducted a workout with Clemson’s DeShaun Watson, and also brought him to Santa Clara for an official visit. They did the same with Trubisky, while the team had two meetings (Combine, Pro Day) with Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer, but no word on an official visit or workout.

I have heard that the 49ers are interested in Kizer if he is there in the second round. I don’t think that’s really a surprising piece of information given the interest we’ve seen from John Lynch. But I have not heard anything regarding Watson in the first. I think the Watson information might be a bit of a smoke-screen. Gabriel has 30 years of NFL scouting experience, including nine as the Chicago Bears director of college scouting. He has plenty of sources, but it remains to be seen if they’re just trying to push a narrative, or if there is serious truth to the interest.

The quarterbacks in this year’s class have enough question marks that predicting anything is tough. I do think the Houston Texans will draft Patrick Mahomes if he is there at pick 25. And if the Browns do not spend the first pick on Trubisky, I think they will spend pick No. 12 on him if he is there. But that leaves a lot of room for craziness to happen. I don’t expect quarterbacks to go off the board No. 1 and No. 2, but I’m certainly not going to make any assumptions about anything in such a likely unpredictable draft.