The way the 49ers have handled the quarterback position in this regime has always been very curious to me. Something just really never felt right to me.
Firstly, they passed on the position in 2017 in the draft besides Beathard in round 3. They had Trubisky, Mahomes and Watson to choose from at pick 2 but said no to all three. That’s a very strange thing to do for a new regime. Usually, the first thing to do in these situations is figure out the quarterback position. They did not. They went with Brian Hoyer and CJ Beathard.
The thought about this at the time was Shanahan was preparing for a run at Kirk Cousins. He’s confirmed that’s true a couple of times. That, of course, ended shortly after when the 49ers acquired Jimmy Garoppolo.
Looking back, however, I think the plan was always supposed to be similar to how it is currently playing out.
I seriously think the plan was the inverse of what teams usually do. Teams usually get the quarterback first then build the roster around him. But by the time the roster gets in its best shape, it’s time to give the QB top dollar, if they pan out. But that’s the other problem, a lot of these top rookie QBs are placed in such unfavorable spots where it is almost impossible to succeed. Some of the ones that have really succeeded were placed in favorable spots. Rodgers sitting behind Favre, Luck joining a Colts team that was really good but coming off a year where Manning was hurt which caused them to be bad and the Chiefs being a playoff contender when drafting Mahomes are the best examples recently. The bin of quarterbacks who went to crappy spots and failed is overfilled and it’s impossible to name them all.
So the 49ers first chose to build a roster to get to the point where they can give a rookie QB the best chance possible to succeed. In the meantime, they were very fine with a veteran quarterback who can run the show decently enough to keep them afloat. Jimmy Garoppolo was the guy tasked with providing that and it’s probably why Shanahan didn’t split hairs between Garoppolo or Cousins. He probably saw both as capable of fulfilling that same role for him.
But now, the roster is in a very good spot. It’s still one of the best rosters the NFL has to offer. It’s probably the best possible spot a rookie quarterback can land. An added benefit they didn’t know until recently is that the cap is going to go way up throughout the life of this QBs rookie contract. The 49ers will have so much flexibility to spend around the guy to improve this roster even further and keep cornerstone players in place. This is a situation where a rookie should be able to succeed, historically speaking.
This is all a product of the 49ers different line of thinking when it comes to roster building, and it was only made possible by the fact this regime got a six-year period of time to get it together. This was a long game strategy from the beginning from the looks of it. I would not be surprised if this strategy is copied more and more in the future. It takes a lot of patience and it can go wrong if a solid set of plans and backup plans aren’t put in place. But who knows? Maybe this is the future strategy of the NFL. Brick by brick.
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