The San Francisco 49ers waited until the third round to draft a quarterback this year, trading into the back of the round for Iowa’s C.J. Beathard. The team had been mentioned in connection with Mitchell Trubisky and other QBs in the lead up to the draft, but they passed on all of them.
After the draft, head coach Kyle Shanahan said that he was the guy they felt most comfortable with among this year’s quarterbacks. He acknowledged they had other quarterbacks ranked on their draft board, but it was impacted by where they thought they would go.
You could say that if someone like a Mitchell Trubisky or DeShaun Watson had been available in the third round, the 49ers might have considered him. But based on what Shanahan had to say about the other quarterbacks, it’s clear that after film review, they had no plans on spending a first on a quarterback.
Shanahan was on the Rich Eisen Show Friday morning, and Eisen asked him about this year’s first quarterbacks. He asked which of them might be most likely to be starters quickly. Shanahan did not think any of them were clear day one options. That does not mean one or more would not be starting, but they were not obvious choices to be in that position.
Shanahan was willing to acknowledge as well that rarely do you have that happen in a year. Franchise quarterbacks are out there, but most of the time they require some semblance of development.
Here’s what he had to say about this year’s early quarterbacks:
“You know, none of them were just standing out to where it was like, this guy’s a slam dunk to start right away. They all had different traits. All the top guys who went early, you could see why. They all had ability and they have a great chance to be very successful in this league. But, I didn’t think anyone was just a slam dunk, ready to put in and play right away.
“And to be honest with you, rarely do you go through a year where there are guys like that. It’s a real tough position. It’s not, I think you look at everyone in the league, there’s probably about 10 to 12 guys that franchises aren’t really trying to replace. If there’s only 10 to 12 guys, that doesn’t mean that a franchise guy is coming out every year. There’s always a chance of one, but it’s always a gamble. All the guys had ability, but no one’s a slam dunk. It takes a lot of work and a lot of talent. You gotta make sure make sure you put the right people around them also.”