How Lamar Jackson could end up making the 49ers winners in the NFL draft
Quarterbacks are the most valuable commodities in the NFL Draft and are thus overdrafted, here we look at how the San Francisco 49ers can take advantage.
One of the benefits of being the San Francisco 49ers in this NFL Draft is watching the quarterback circus.
Every move, every scrap of rumor, every trade being calculated to see where it puts the 49ers on draft day.
Of course, the more quarterbacks that go in the first eight picks, the better for the 49ers.
The best case scenario is five quarterbacks, (Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson) go in the top eight picks. We can almost guarantee the first three will be, while Mayfield will be very likely.
Jackson remains the wild card, and also the most intriguing prospect of the bunch.
People will scoff and say he isn’t a worthy top-10 pick, but whether or not he is irrelevant. People need to remember 2017 prospects Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes weren’t especially touted either, but the sheer want for quarterbacks caused teams to jump ahead of other.
And they weren’t for nothing either. Watson was easily the best offensive rookie in the league before suffering an ACL injury, and Mahomes was good in limited action and will get the chance to lead the Kansas City Chiefs this year.
This can encourage teams to fall in love with Jackson, and all it takes is one willing to move up.
Why would teams want Jackson so badly?
In this writer’s entirely objective opinion, Jackson easily is the most exciting of the five major quarterback prospects (also the most raw and in need of coaching). His throwing accuracy, while still needing touching up, is entirely overblown as a flaw and can be easily fixed.
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People suggesting he needs to change positions, well that isn’t (and shouldn’t) going to happen.
There are flaws though, and the major one is described here:
"Jackson needs to improve his footwork and coverage reading, but his main concern is delivering balls outside the hash marks, one of the most critical throws in a quarterback’s repertoire. If Jackson ends up on a team without the imagination to take full advantage of his skill set, he could easily fail. If a team has a top-down commitment from ownership to develop a modern offense for Jackson’s unique capabilities, like the Spread Coast style the Chiefs employ, Jackson could conquer the league."
So basically a team should design the offense around his strengths, but really that should be already be on any teams to do list for another quarterback.
In terms of strengths, Jackson boasts a lot of weapons such as:
- Game breaking speed
- A cannon for an arm
- Elite mental toughness in the face of defensive pressure
- Durability
- Excellent timing on his passes
They’re just a few, but they’re huge attributes for a rookie weapon to have.
What this could mean for the 49ers
Again, in this writers opinion, there are six blue-chip prospects in this draft.
Namely Saquon Barkley, Quenton Nelson, Bradley Chubb, Tremaine Edmunds, Minkah Fitzpatrick and, in a surprise choice, Vita Vea (I’ll explain why in a later post).
The 49ers will almost definitely get a few to pick from here, the more the better.
It could also enable the 49ers to drop down a few spots.
Next: How the 49ers offseason would have gone without Jimmy Garoppolo
People will scoff and say that Jackson isn’t worth it, but all it takes is one team.
49er fans better hope it happens, every quarterback taken early is worth its weight in gold.