High bar is set for 49ers QB of future

Mobility a bonus, but pocket skills are the priority

Before diving into what the 49ers might do in April, let’s revisit what was done to them in December.

In Week 13, in a game they desperately needed to win to bolster their faint playoff hopes, the 49ers lost 3424 to Josh Allen.

OK, so they were beaten by the Bills, but Buffalo’s young quarterback put on a clinic: How a DualThreat QB Can Singlehandedly Win a Game.

Allen completed 32 of 40 passes for 375 yards and four touchdowns. He rushed for only 11 yards, but he consistently used his legs to escape pressure, extend plays and complete offschedule downfield throws.

The first postgame question to head coach Kyle Shanahan: Why didn’t the 49ers blitz Allen more after he was dropped for just one sack?

Shanahan’s loosely translated answer: Allen’s ability to move and also play within the pocket made him indefensible.

“When we did blitz, he got away from it and made some big plays with some receivers running across the field,” Shanahan said. “When we didn’t, he just dinked and dunked it and got after us, too.”

That was hardly the first time Shanahan’s team was undone by a mobile QB who could also make plays from the pocket. The 49ers’ 2019 season ended with a loss to Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LIV. And their 2020 season was sandwiched by losses to Arizona’s Kyler Murray and Seattle’s Russell Wilson.

Now Shanahan, armed with the No. 3 pick in April’s draft, could have a chance to get a guy like that. The candidates are Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, bigarmed prospects who regularly broke free from pressure in college. Fields ran the 40yard dash in a blistering 4.44 seconds Tuesday at his pro day. And Lance rushed for 1,100 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2019. The other candidate is Alabama’s Mac Jones, a boringbycomparison pocket passer who had 14 rushing yards in 2020.

Shanahan has never been overly enamored with mobile QBs. He’s pointed to Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as QBs whose inability to escape from pressure, starting at a young age, forced them to develop the musthave trait Shanahan prizes above all others: the ability to stand in the pocket, read defenses and deliver the ball.

“If you’ve been doing that since you’re 7 years old to the NFL,” Shanahan said in 2017, “you’ve had a hell of a lot more reps than this guy who’s been able to run around and make plays all the time.”

That was four years ago. Have QBs such as Mahomes, Allen, Murray and Houston’s Deshaun Watson, all of whom are 25 or under and can cause defenses migraines in myriad ways, softened his stance on the subject?

Shanahan was asked Monday about the perception that his ideal is Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins, a largely immobile pocket passer, and that he’s rigid in what type of QBs he’ll consider.

“You want an elite player,” Shanahan said. “And, of course, if you can get a guy who is elite with his arm and can play in that pocket and do everything — and still run around and make offschedule plays … I mean, that’s what you’ve seen with Mahomes. Everybody wants something like that. But there is a risk to everything, and you’ve got to see that (ability) in the draft. You’ve got to see it in college.

“I mean, no one’s probably been talented like (Mahomes). Some have. ( John Elway was) pretty talented and there’s people … I do think there’s more 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.”

Shanahan’s answer reflects how demanding he is of his QBs. Above all else, Shanahan, one of the NFL’s most respected playcallers, wants them to execute his offense and possess the anticipation to quickly identify those teammates that often get schemed open. That’s Priority A, B and C. But if a QB can do that at an elite level — and also has the ability to make something happen with his legs when an offensive tackle gets whipped, or a receiver falls down or when Shanahan calls an awful play against an allout blitz?

Shanahan clearly views that as a rare combination. No pressure Fields and Lance, but can you become the next Mahomes? OK, how about Elway?

Elway and Brady are the only QBs to start in five Super Bowls. And they could be joined by Mahomes, 25, who has started in the past two. Shanahan has noted that championship QBs, at some point, have to stand and deliver.

“Especially when you get in those playoffs, eventually a team’s going to make you sit in that pocket and make you make some big throws to win a game,” Shanahan said in December. “So you have to have that ability. But anyone who (can run and throw) always has the chance to exceed everybody.”

In a long answer Monday that came after he’d been asked about Jones, Shanahan said the 49ers only decided to trade up to the No. 3 pick after they’d determined they would get one of the three QBs they had determined they would be “comfortable with leading our team for a long time.” Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and BYU’s Zach Wilson are expected to go 12.

“We couldn’t make that decision before there were three guys, so we had to feel that way with three,” Shanahan said. “Now, I think there’s a chance to get there with four and five (QBs). There’s a chance.”

One interpretation: Shanahan can already see Jones, the type of QB he’s preferred, has the qualities needed to flourish in his offense. And he’s still determining whether Fields or Lance, whose skill sets make them harder evaluations, could fit.

Shanahan said “risk” or “risks” on seven occasions Monday in reference to the 49ers trading two future firstround picks and a thirdrounder to draft a QB who, based on history, has about 5050 chance of being worth the investment.

Regarding risks: If Shanahan passes on both Fields and Lance, he’ll be taking a chance that he’ll repeat perhaps his biggest draft blunder.

In February 2020, five days before losing to Mahomes in the Super Bowl, Shanahan acknowledged he didn’t study Mahomes closely enough before the 2017 draft because he planned to sign Cousins in free agency in 2018.

“I didn’t look into him, obviously, as much as I should have,” Shanahan said.

Four years after missing out on Mahomes, there is one mistake Shanahan won’t repeat before this year’s draft.

He will examine Fields and Lance exhaustively to see whether, like Mahomes and Elway before them, they could exceed everybody.