Betting odds for who the 49ers will take No. 3 at 2021 NFL Draft

The betting odds for who the San Francisco 49ers will take with the No. 3 overall pick on the eve of the 2021 NFL Draft indicate Alabama’s Mac Jones is the huge favorite.

Here are the odds for the third pick, per DraftKings.

Jones (-335)
Trey Lance (+300)
Justin Fields (+550)
Kyle Pitts (+3300)

*You would have to bet $335 on Jones to win $100. You would win $300 if you put $100 down on Lance.

The odds look much different than they did following Fields’ second pro day at Ohio State University. Following his session, oddsmakers moved Fields ahead of Jones. Here is how the odds looked two weeks ago.

Fields (-125)
Jones (+120)
Lance (+350)

Several NFL insiders are also guessing that Jones will be the pick. A smaller portion of draft pundits is leaning towards Lance, while Fields has gotten less hype by the day leading up to the draft.

For context, here are the odds for who the Detroit Lions would take with the third pick in the 2020 NFL Draft:

Going into last year’s draft, here were the odds on who the Detroit Lions would take at No. 3.

Tua Tagovailoa (-160)
Chase Young (+220)
Isaiah Simmons (+500)
Jeffrey Okudah (+550)

The Lions had Matthew Stafford on the roster at the time and wound up choosing Okudah.

When San Francisco held the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, oddsmakers were right by listing Nick Bosa as the overwhelming favorite.

Nick Bosa -300
Quinnen Williams +300
Kyler Murray +800
Dwayne Haskins +1400

Although Jones has his section of supporters, the general sentiment from 49ers fans is that they hope he doesn’t wind up being the pick. But some scouts believe Jones has the potential to be a great fit in Shanahan’s system.

Lance and Fields project to have higher ceilings, but as the cliche goes, the draft is a crapshoot. Both Lance and Fields are better overall athletes than Jones and would give the Niners a dual-threat option at QB, which has been the recent trend among young NFL QBs if you look at signal-callers like Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen.

Shanahan touched on what he is looking for in a franchise QB during Monday’s media availability.

“I don’t look at it in trends of the league. I look at it as there’s some special players. There’s some special people. I don’t care when Drew Brees comes out, whether it’s 30 years from now, 30 years ago or today, Drew’s going to be pretty good. So is Philip Rivers. So are all these guys. So is Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes. They would have been good 40 years ago. They’re going to be good 40 years in the future. You’ve got to take guys you believe are good enough to do it, whatever way that is. There’s lots of ways to do it and people are proving that more and more.”

The suspense will come to an end just after 5 p.m. PT on Thursday.