With the NFL Combine underway, we haven’t had time to discuss every single thing that’s been said by San Francisco 49ers head coach or general manager John Lynch. But one thing I marked down to talk about was Shanahan’s thoughts on improving the roster and, specifically, where it doesn’t need improvement.
The first spot is quarterback, which is obviously extremely nice to say. Jimmy Garoppolo is in town and he’s not going away for a long time. That position is settled, unless the 49ers made a grave mistake.
“It will be nice in free agency when anybody we’re going for doesn’t ask me who our quarterback is going to be,” Shanahan said. “They know. That’s nice. I don’t have to always say, ‘We’ll have one, I promise. Just can’t tell you. Just wait, we’ll see.’ That makes it easier. I think it makes it more attractive a little bit. There’s some people who can see where we’re going and what our situation is. Now you can just focus on getting better at the position. But I think it eases everyone because everyone wants to know who your quarterback is and I think that’s pretty obvious on our team.”
But the other spot? Fullback, of course. Shanahan said the only spots the 49ers aren’t looking for starters at are quarterback and fullback, which might upset some people given Kyle Juszczyk’s contract, but I love it.
Knowing that Shanahan feels so strongly about such a player is huge. The offense that Shanahan wants to run will heavily feature Juszczyk, and my prediction is that he’ll more than earn his deal, especially with Garoppolo at quarterback. He does just about everything well, and it’s not like the 49ers are hurting for cap space.
I wrote a lot more about Juszczyk and how he can shine with Garoppolo signed to an extension, and I stand by everything I said there. Get ready for a whole lot of passes thrown Juszczyk’s way in 2018.