San Francisco 49ers: 10 biggest ‘what ifs?’ in NFL Draft history
By Peter Panacy
Hindsight is 20-20, and the 49ers aren’t strangers to the retrospective look from previous years’ NFL Draft classes. Including these 10 ‘what if?’ moments.
The San Francisco 49ers are about to have one of those moments that’ll create a slew of “what if?” question marks for the next decade.
When your team makes a franchise-altering decision by trading up from the No. 12 overall spot in an NFL Draft all the way to No. 3, there’s only one true intention: landing a franchise-caliber signal-caller who’ll be expected to helm the organization for the next decade. Perhaps longer.
However that all goes will be the subject of criticism, analysis and scrutiny for quite some time. If general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan get it right, they’ll be hailed as geniuses.
If the move results in a flop, though, it’s potentially a job-costing trade. Especially considering the Niners mortgaged two additional first-round selections, plus a Round 3 pick, and with the understanding that missing on a Round 1 quarterback can potentially set a team back for years.
Naturally, the “what ifs” are already starting to come in, and San Francisco’s bold move in the 2021 NFL Draft kicks off the list of the 10 biggest “what if?” moments in team draft history.
No. 10: What if 49ers stayed put at No. 12 in 2021 NFL Draft?
To move up to No. 3 in the 2021 draft, the 49ers gave up the No. 12 pick in that year plus first-round selections in 2022 and 2023, going along with a 2022 third-round pick, too.
Media speculation and some reports have all led to this choice being used on Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, someone who likely would have been available at No. 12 overall anyway. Or, at the very least, within range of a more modest trade-up, say somewhere between Nos. 6 and 10.
Right there, even without the pick being made just yet, there’s the “what if?” question.
What if the Niners stayed put? True, it was more than evident during the offseason Lynch and Shanahan wanted to move on from their current quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, hence all the reported interest for now-Carolina Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold. Yet the trade itself already prompted those hindsight questions, although they’re more geared to “let’s wait and see” more than anything else.
Either way, regardless of whether or not the pick is Jones or another top prospect quarterback, there will be years of asking “what if?” once San Francisco’s selection is announced.