Is Matthew Stafford worth the 49ers’ first round draft pick?

I once had an economics professor who claimed that everything in life could be explained by economics. I’m still not totally on board with that idea, but the current quarterback situation can certainly be understood in terms of simple supply and demand. Niner Nate Nelson and Leo Luna attempted to that in today’s Niners Nate-tion podcast.

Adam Schefter recently tweeted about the amount of QBs that could be on the move this offseason. You could make the argument that more than half the league could change their signal-caller in 2021. Given such a robust supply of both buyers and sellers, how much should the 49ers extend themselves to acquire any one player - especially when you factor in the rookies from the Draft? Is going all-out for a guy like Stafford still worth it with so many other options available?

“I’m fully on board with StafFrancisco. I’m going to go ahead and make that a thing here. Those top four quarterbacks are going to be gone when San Francisco picks at twelve. That means you’re going to have to trade up if you want one of those top four guys. It’s going to cost you a lot more to trade up to get one of those four quarterbacks than it would cost you to get Matthew Stafford.”

Awesome/horrible nicknames aside, Leo’s point about Stafford and the 49ers is a good one. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have spoken multiple times about the importance of this year’s draft class. Both have said that they want to have as many draft picks as possible to replenish the roster. Using that principle as a guide, and considering the tight salary cap situation, it’s quite possible that the 49ers will only upgrade the quarterback if they can do it using only one or two draft picks.

Is that possible considering how many teams want to make a move at quarterback and the amount of players available? Listen to today’s Niners Nation podcast to find out.

Other things from today’s episode

-Special guest Angelina Martin from the Turlock Journal to help with the QB discussion

-Is the 2021 team good enough to win a Super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo?