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We’re starting to see the talking heads who have pushed Mac Jones to the 49ers begin to hedge or completely walk back their statements. With Justin Fields having a pro day next week, I wonder how long before we start to see his name tied to San Francisco.
Why can’t the 49ers re-sign Richard Sherman? The market never seemed to materialize for him. He’s still a starting cornerback. Can’t they work something out? — Scotty H.
Sherman remains available. He said on his weekly podcast with Cris Collinsworth that he figures teams won’t pull the trigger on him until after the draft when they have a better feel for their cornerback position.
You can put the 49ers in that category. Conventional wisdom has them taking a cornerback with a Day 2 pick for the first time since drafting Ahkello Witherspoon in the third round in 2017. It makes a lot of sense. The secondary is full of veterans like Jimmie Ward, Jaquiski Tartt, K’Waun Williams and Jason Verrett. All of them but Ward are on one-year deals. It seems like the perfect time to ease a rookie into the fold.
If for some reason they don’t take one? The 49ers still have enough salary-cap space to bring back Sherman.
Why Sudfeld’s contract suggests he’ll be with 49ers for 2021
Sudfeld agreed to a one-year, $990,000 contract. The deal includes $252,000 in guaranteed money and another $137,500 available in incentives, reports Field Yates of ESPN.
The level of financial commitment to Sudfeld suggests the club expects him to be on the roster — or, at worst, on the practice squad in 2021.
Sudfeld, 27, spent the past four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. Rich Scangarello, the 49ers’ quarterbacks coach, worked last season as a senior offensive assistant with the Eagles.
WHY HE FITS WITH 49ERS
Lance has everything. He can throw it. He can run it. He has pocket presence. And he also has the personality and leadership traits required of the most important position in the sport.
Lance has a chance to be a great player for a long time. And the 49ers have braced themselves for the possibility that any rookie quarterback they select will sit for a year behind Jimmy Garoppolo.
That should be just fine for Lance, who probably faces a more difficult transition to the NFL than any of the other quarterbacks the 49ers might consider with the No. 3 overall pick.
He looks a lot like Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, who carved up the 49ers last season without resorting to using his scrambling skills to pick up yards on the ground.
Lance appears to be comfortable with play-action, as he turns his back to the defense. That’s a big staple of the 49ers’ offense.
Senior Bowl to Induct Joe Staley and Four Others into Hall of Fame
Staley played in the Senior Bowl back in 2007 prior to being drafted by the 49ers 28th-overall later that spring.
“Being invited to play in the Senior Bowl was a huge deal for me coming out of Central Michigan,” Staley said in a statement from the Senior Bowl press release. “It offered me an opportunity to compete against the very best in the country and show what I could do as a player. It is a great honor to be selected to the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame among so many other athletes that I look up to and have competed with or against over the years.”
But there’s something interesting to note about him: he’s not mobile. He runs a 4.9 40-yard dash. So all the pundits and experts who think Kyle Shanahan has evolved to appreciate and covet dual-threat quarterbacks might not have it right.
This offseason, the 49ers have signed Sudfeld and Rosen, plus they met with veteran statue Joe Flacco. It seems to me that Shanahan likes pocket quarterbacks as much as ever.
So when Adam Schefter says Mac Jones will be the 49ers’ pick, I can believe it. Because Jones is similar to Sudfeld, Rosen, Jimmy Garoppolo, Nick Mullens, C.J. Beathard and Brian Hoyer.