What kind of quarterback does San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan really want?
Perhaps the most important question for Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers’ No. 3 pick in the NFL draft comes down to what he wants in a quarterback.
Specifically, Shanahan has admitted to planning for Kirk Cousins to be his long-term signal-caller when he was making over San Francisco’s roster in 2017. That played a role in the 49ers passing over Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson in Shanahan’s first draft. Signing Cousins in free agency the following offseason never happened because Jimmy Garoppolo was unexpectedly made available at the trade deadline and then signed to a five-year contract months later.
The question this spring, after trading three first-round draft picks and a 2020 third-round pick to eventually move on from Garoppolo: Did Shanahan just want a quarterback like Cousins at that time or for all time?
Which leads to the next questions: Is Shanahan as enamored with Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, as many seem to think? Or would he prefer a more athletic option such as Ohio State’s Justin Fields or North Dakota State’s Trey Lance to extend plays outside of structure and contribute to the running game?
“I do think there’s more (athletic) options coming into the league, but if you can’t sit in that pocket and play the position, eventually it’s not going to matter. So, they both go hand in hand,” Shanahan said March 29.
Does Shanahan prefer pocket quarterbacks?
— Yet, because Shanahan was after Cousins, many talent evaluators in the league and media have assumed that’s his preferred style of quarterback, given the success he had with other immobile players like Matt Schaub and 2016 league MVP Matt Ryan. Shanahan pushed back on that idea.
“I think Kirk does a good job for whatever team he plays for every year,” Shanahan said. “There’s a number of quarterbacks like that, but that’s the only one I’ve been associated with because people thought I was trying to bring him here, which I was at the time.
“It’s not because that’s how you draw it up. If you’re going to draw it up, you’re going to draw the biggest, fastest, strongest and best quarterback in the pocket.”
Former 49ers quarterback Steve Young, who remains close with Shanahan’s father, Mike, believes Kyle Shanahan more likely prefers to tailor his offense around a talented quarterback rather than find a quarterback just to run an ironclad system.
Young noted processing, which some believe Jones is best at among the top quarterbacks in the draft, is just part of the equation, leaving a chance Shanahan could coach up a quarterback to process in the pocket and take advantage of athletic traits.
“You know what fits in his offense? It’s a good player! A great player!” Young said on KNBR’s “Tolbert, Kreuger and Brooks Show” last week pushing back on the idea he only wants a player like Cousins. “Don’t kid yourself. Because he had Matt Ryan and now Jimmy, not the most mobile guys in the world, they’re fine, then that’s his system. No!
“Kyle, he wants a processor. But don’t get me somebody that can’t process. I want that. But if you give me someone who can also move, Kyle would love that. Do not think that he’s moving away from someone that can move around and (be) dynamic, that’s the furthest from his thinking. As long as he could do the work from the pocket, give me someone that can move around too, I’m just more dangerous. I know his dad feels that way from my experience together. Mike loved that I could move around and used every inch of that.”
Kyle Shanahan has generally preferred a quarterback that could move out of the pocket in play-action passes and naked bootlegs, even if those players weren’t threats to run for first downs, like Cousins, Ryan and Garoppolo. But he also had one of his best seasons as an offensive coordinator in 2012 with Washington, working with offensive rookie of the year Robert Griffin III, who had 3,200 yards, 20 touchdowns, five interceptions with 815 rushing yards and seven scores on the ground.
Maybe not Mac Jones — Regarding Jones, evidence suggests he might not be the Cousins-type of player based on what he did at Alabama.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar recently looked at how often Jones was used in such instances, and the numbers indicate he might not fit with Shanahan as easily as many expect.
“Last season, Cousins ranked fourth in the NFL with 62 dropbacks in boot-action with 61 attempts, completing 38 passes for 472 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions,” Farrar wrote. “In 2020, Mac Jones ranked 23rd in the NCAA with 23 boot-action dropbacks, completing 10 of 17 passes for 123 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.
“... I’m just saying that the 49ers didn’t move up to the third overall pick to take a guy who doesn’t fit what their offensive play-designer wants to do. And a quarterback who implodes the second he leaves the pocket doesn’t fit what their offensive play-designer wants to do.”
That would seem to leave Fields and Lance as the more likely possibilities for Shanahan at No. 3. Particularly since he’s watched Mahomes beat his team in a Super Bowl on a play well outside of structure (ahem, third-and-15). Shanahan was also flummoxed by Buffalo’s Josh Allen last December, who destroyed the 49ers defense from in and out of the pocket. Allen completed 32 of 40 for 375 yards and four touchdowns.
His team allowed the third- and second-most rushing yards to quarterbacks over the last two seasons, respectively, while struggling to contain players like Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray.
Said Young: “In the end, fundamentally, it’s can (the quarterback) do the job in the pocket? Yes, and plus go move around? All day long I’ll take that. That’s what I would love nothing more.”