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49ers: Trades for Ford, Sanders cost picks but left Shanahan without regrets
Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch went into the second day of the draft with no picks — and no regrets.
The trades that brought them Dee Ford and Emmanuel Sanders a year ago left the 49ers without any picks Friday when the NFL Draft moved to Rounds 2 and 3. They don’t have a pick in Round 4 either.
But give Shanahan a second chance, and he’d still deal for Ford and Sanders.
“I do believe those two things are what got us to the Super Bowl,” Shanahan said Thursday night. “We were close, but it would have been very hard to get over the hump without those two guys. And that’s what has us in this situation this year.”
Here are four insights gleaned from Round 1 in which the 49ers drafted South Carolina
defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw at No. 13 and Arizona State wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, the latter after trading up six spots to No. 25.
1. WIDE RECEIVER RATINGS >>
Fans and media spent the pre-draft runup by sizing up the draft’s top receivers. They were all there for the taking, except Henry Ruggs, who went No. 12 to the Raiders. Only afterward did we learn that Shanahan’s preferences were Arizona State’s Aiyuk and Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb, who went No. 17 to the Cowboys.
Aiyuk’s all-around ability and versatility appealed to Shanahan, and so did the Reno native’s willingness to be physical.
“He was my favorite receiver I evaluated. There’s no doubt in that,” Shanahan said. “CeeDee Lamb was a hell of a receiver and can make a lot of plays. I always keep it pretty real with you guys, so that was the guy in competition with him.
“This guy was there the first time I watched him.”
Shanahan learned that as he flicked on college receivers’ film once he digested the Super Bowl LIV defeat. Lynch, meanwhile, got more background on Aiyuk’s capabilities from Herm Edwards, Arizona State’s coach and Lynch’s trusted friend since their Tampa Bay days. Lynch noted that, in selecting Kinlaw, he also leaned on his relationship with South Carolina coach Will Muschamp, who was helpful in last year’s selection of Deebo Samuel.
2. DEFENSIVE MINDSET >>
Shanahan acknowledges he is an offensive-minded coach, and he is a better one when his team has a dominant defense, as last year showed.
“You know what’s a lot easier to call offensive plays for? What we had Weeks 1-8 last year, where our defense was 100 percent healthy, dominated everyone,” Shanahan said. “That was the easiest I’ve ever had to call a game offensively. If we can keep our defense that way and gradually build our offense, that was our goal when John and I got here.
“Nothing’s more fun than having the defense like we had last year, and that gives you the best chance to get to the Super Bowl.”
NFL Network analyst Charlie Casserly gave credence to Shanahan’s approach. Casserly recalled how, when he oversaw the Houston Texans’ 2006 No. 1 draft choice, Shanahan concurred they should draft defensive end Mario Williams over Reggie Bush.
3. TOP PICK TREND >> Arik Armstead, 2015. DeForest Buckner, 2016. Solomon Thomas, 2017. Nick Bosa, 2019. And now, Kinlaw. Investing the 49ers’ top draft pick is not tiring to the decision makers.
“I’m always down to go defensive lineman if the right guy’s there,” Shanahan said of first-round picks. “I was surprised Kinlaw was there. I can promise you, ask my high school friends when we did Madden and drafted our own guys like back in ‘97: my first pick was always (Michael) Strahan and theirs was Randy Moss. I always wanted to do D-line and that’s what we’ve done here, and John feels the same way.
“I was on a team in Atlanta with one of the best offenses in the history of the NFL, and it’s still really tough to win if you don’t have that D-line. That was our goal since before we came here, and last year it really showed.”
Lynch said they “zeroed in on” Kinlaw for a while, surely at least as far back as March 16, when they traded DeForest Buckner to the Colts.
“You go back to when we first built this thing, and Kyle and I came together, one of the things we believed in is that’s an equalizer,” Lynch said of defensive-line play. “In a football league where everything is set up for offenses to be successful, one way to equalize the equation is to get after it and knock down the passer. We built a pretty good unit there and wanted to keep it strong.”
4. GOODWIN’S FUTURE >> With or without Aiyuk’s arrival, the 49ers have been calibrating for months how to unload veteran wide receiver Marquise Goodwin. Lynch revealed Monday that Goodwin was nearly dealt a couple times, and that remains the likely scenario.
“We’re trying to find a good home for him,” said Lynch, noting that the draft’s saturation of wide receivers paused the trade pursuits of interested clubs.