I'm not sold on Cousins despite the big numbers he put up but Shanahan obviously knows him well so I'd trust him that he's the type of guy he wants in a QB. What I don't like is that he's 28 years old. There's not a lot of wear on his tires but the guy would be 29 heading into week 1 of next year. You're basically looking at 5-6 years from him. So if we make the trade I wouldn't mind us looking at a young kid to develop later this year or even early next year if we're in a great spot draft wise.

At the end of the day while the swap and Cousins is much better to stomach than straight up trading a first rounder for him my preference would be not to trade for him.

If i'm ranking my preferences in terms of the QB rumor mill/options it's

1. Trade for Jimmy Garoppolo in an Alex Smith like deal after acquiring additional picks after trading down from #2 overall.
2. 1st round swamp + Kirk Cousins
3. Trade down from #2 overall and draft QB in round 2 or later. Mahomes in round 2 or Peterman in round 3 would be guys to target
4. Take QB at #2 overall

Looks like Tom Gamble is on his way out. Not surprising it's happening but timing is a bit. Figured it would be after the draft.

Lynch and Shanahan both talking as if they're "open to Kaepernick returning."


Lynch should be fired for not having cut this moron already. The fact that "Coach Killer" Kaepernick and bull chit take a knee act might be returning is enough to keep me away from the NFL for at least another 6 months.

I'm sure it's just politics. I can't imagine they'd keep him with all the distractions.

Probably just don't want it to seem like they couldn't wait to get rid of him as some people may turn it racial.

It's a tough one…I was fine with that move if McDaniels was HC because of the connection and inside knowledge of Garoppolo but the same cannot be said for Shanahan.

I think when it's all said and done I'd still make that trade though. I do think he'd be a great fit for Kyle's offense and I think he's a quality player, younger than Cousins and while he wouldn't be cheap probably wouldn't cost as much just due to the smaller sample size.

Granted the drop from #17 to #32 is substantial but that would be the most i'd give up for JG and in theory doing the pick swap you're not losing so if you grab a stud player at #32 and you get a franchise QB it's a good day.

LOOKS we we signed earl mitchell?

4 year deal… duno who this guy is?

not familiar with him either, but hes getting starter money.. soooo….

Trying to make sense of this:

Started 5 games last season.
Cut by Dolphins due to $4 million salary.
Signed by Niners to $5.5 million in 2017.

Is this a sign of beggars can't be choosers? Or is he a legitimate building block for our new defense?

Solid veteran pickup imo. Doubt he'll play the whole game.

Pretty much this. More veteran, lead by example and get the young guys in line type of pickup. I wouldn't expect much from him and hope we bring in someone else but he could be a solid run stopper.

From all interviews/reports, it's clear their treating this as a red shirt season and they have no interest in over drafting for a QB.

Lynch has been deliberately transparent since he took the job, so I don't doubt his positive words towards Kap.

I wouldn't be mad if they brought Kap back on money similar to what Denver was offering him last season, and this is coming from someone who wasn't his biggest fan even during the Harbaugh days.

I don't know how transparent he's being. There's a fine line between being transparent and giving away key information to the competition and walking that fine line with PR chit. Don't think Lynch wants to start any controversies or give away what the team wants to do outside the obvious.

I also don't think we can take what he's saying as they have no interest in taking QB at #2 overall. Overdrafting a QB is all relative.

Was Matt Ryan overdrafted? Most places didn't have him as a top 3 prospect in that draft class. Was Carson Wentz over drafted?

What i'm reading from his comments is that they're not going to rush a guy out there before he's ready and I think that's great. I love hearing that from them. To me that means if they decide someone like Trubisky is worth drafting at #2 overall because he's not a finished product they won't feel the urgency to get him out there just because he's #2 overall draft pick. In fact between Trubisky, Watson or Kizer if one of those guys is our draft pick I hope they don't see any playing time in the regular season.

I think what Green Bay did with Aaron Rodgers is a perfect example. Rodgers had a quality skillset but there were still concerns about him. There is a long article about how Mike McCarthy basically retooled Aaron's mechanics and made him into the QB he is today. Obviously Rodgers is a big part of his own success and you can't just take a lazy kid who won't put in the work in the film room or the study to be better but the changes in Aaron were substantial. His accuracy and his arm both improved as a result. He may still have been successful if he played as a rookie but he would've never been as good as he is now.

To me Trubisky has the skillsets to get to that level…assuming he's going to work as hard as Aaron did. Physically he's there. His biggest question mark is the offense he comes from, his lapses in mechanics and the 1 year of starting experience. If he's the pick he MUST sit at least for a year. Kizer isn't ready either. Watson more so due to the offense he ran.

The big contracts we gave Kyle and John mean they can wait and don't have to panic to please the fans or be shown the door. I think that's great news.

I would still prefer that we trade down this year and draft one of the top guys next year but I definitely wouldn't be opposed to using #2 overall for a QB because I feel good that we would bring him up the right way and not rush things.

But coming back to Kap…he's a terrible guy to bridge that gap. I'd rather go with someone like Hoyer or even old man Schaub(because honestly at the end of the day a higher draft pick next year means better QB prospect)

Boy this free agency class looks rough.

Just further shows the importance of drafting well. I've been kind of bouncing back and forth about the direction we should go in this offseason but more and more I'm hoping we find a trade down partner and pick up some additional picks this year and possibly next season as well.

This is definitely not a win next year type of deal so we don't have to fill every gaping hole on the team and go by the board.

Bad news is this draft is not very good on offense. No studs on the OL and questions with whomever you think is the top QB prospect. WR class has two top guys but then it's a bit of a crap shoot.

My ideal scenario would be trading down with a team like Buffalo for their #10, 2nd rounder this year and their first next year. I can see them jumping up for one of the QBs in front of Chicago or Jets.

Use #10 on Solomon Thomas or if he's gone Corey Davis(love this dude)

Use the 2nd round picks to go BPA. Could be looking at some good LB talent there and perhaps help on the interior.

This draft will have some terrific defensive talent in it. We can grab someone to develop outside the first round at QB with the goal to either sign Cousins if Washington doesn't extend him this year and/or draft one of the guys slated to declare next year.

All eyes on the combine this week. I'm hoping the QB prospects light it up and raise their stock. Good for us whether we're planning on drafting them or increases the possible trade value of #2. Hell maybe Cleveland panics with so many QB needy teams picking after their #1 and before their #12 that they pull a trigger on one of them and we steal Myles Garrett at #2.

Genus… Interesting thoughts in your QB post

Shanahan left some big clues (or a strange smokescreen) in his KNBR radio interview, specifically QB -
The worst mistakes you can make is you take a guy who isnt that good of a player, or worthy of that, the expectations change, you put a guy in a position that is really unfair to him and you set your organization back,

I remember the 08 draft pretty well and Matt Ryan was a consencous top 3-5 pick. Just did a quick google, and CBS Sports had Ryan as the 7th best player overall, USA today also had him as the 7th best, Mayock and Schefter both had as a top 3 pick, and Mel Kiper called Ryan the best QB in the class, no brainer at #3, and a top 10 of all time QB prospect grade.

Compare that to any of the QB's in this class, the same people like Mayock saying he'd be scared to draft a QB in the first round, and the NFL.com guys Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks ranked Trubisky and Watson in the mid 30's.

Drafting the 7th best player in the draft at #3 is more than fine, Id go as far as saying the 12th to 15th best player can go 1st if its a QB (Like Matt Stafford), but it'd be nuts to draft the 35th player at #2, which is exactly what Shanny is referring to.

In an ideal world, we adopt the Rodgers-Favre, Rivers-Brees, Pennington-Testaverde model where the pro bowl QB plays, the first round QB sits for multiple seasons and then the groomed QB takes over a loaded team. Those situations are not comparable to ours.

Above all….When we go 1-15 next season, i'd hate to see us pass up on goat prospects like Rosen.

Completely agree to trading down and loading defense, it just makes too much sense.

Combine starts today and free agency is right around the corner. Before we lose our minds in free agency just remember 2 years ago the top 3 big free agent contracts were N Suh, J Byrd, and D Revis. Two of those guys were cut yesterday.

I definitely agree with the bold part. What makes me nervous is that you never know what can happen. Technically we don't know if Rosen or Darnold or any other underclassman would come out next year. Even if we get #1 overall you have no control over who comes out if they're not seniors. Or what happens if there are two great QBs in the class and we're picking say 5th with 3 QB needy teams ahead of us?

We know we have #2 overall this year and it likely means we get our pick of this QB class.

I agree with your concerns and like I said I'd prefer we trade down and hopefully be in position to draft a highly rated prospect at QB next year but I don't think using the experts rankings is always right either.

Really the "reach" is only as good or bad as the player selected. If Brady was drafted in the first round everyone would've laughed at the Pats and called them crazy. If Dallas drafted Dak with #4 overall people would say Jerry Jones is going senile but he's the #1 guy drafted in every re-draft.

I know I'm guilty of it myself with the "we could've had that guy later/without a trade up" mentality but you never know.

What I do like is that Kyle Shanahan seems to have a pretty good track record picking QBs at least from what I've read(granted we haven't heard his whiffs to know whether they exist or that they're just omitted) but he had Derek Carr as the top QB in his class with Garoppolo being #2 behind him and was obviously very high on Cousins favoring him over RG3.

Having him in charge of the roster will help me with any choice we make. If we don't grab QB #2 overall there will be no regrets but if we do I won't let the Mayocks of the world concern me because it means Shanahan liked what he heard/saw from the kid. As long as we don't rush these guys I think the top 3 guys COULD be very good. They all have flaws which they need to work on but if i'm making the pick at #2 and it has to be QB, I'm taking Trubisky.

Let's hope the QBs do great things at the combine this week and help raise their draft stock.

It's all about finding the right ones

Giants pretty much did a full 180 on their defense with the cash they shelled out in free agency last year. But this FA class is very weak imo.

My #1 guy to get is Dont'a Hightower. I think the guy is not only a 3 down player who fits very well in the new scheme but he's just what we need in the locker room. Bit concerning about him getting banged up here and there but you can't deny his knack for big plays.

I would like Alshon Jeffrey but for some reason we don't have much luck with high price FA WRs.

I think this time last year most mocks had us drafting Goff or Wentz at #7. The Rams didn't trade for #1 overall until mid April. That's when everyone basically jumped on the Goff/Wentz 1/2 bandwagon.

Wentz was considered a good choice in the 2nd round heading into the senior bowl. Combine took him to another level because the Eagles got all wet from his interviews.

Well new reports are saying Kap is out. Good bye bye….



Also seeing reports that the PATS are not willing to trade Jimmy. I know they would ask for a lot but I am curious to see how he would do as a starter. I guess he sits for another few years there behind Brady.


^More than likely they are just playing game and are trying to drive up his price.

Oh definitely. Thinking about the comp picks and now would be the time to spend because we aren't getting nothing next year as our current free agent crop sucks. Maybe we get something for losing Kap but I wouldn't hold my breathe.

If we can sign anyone of these guys I'd be happy:
Donta Hightower
Alshon Jeffery
Jonathan Hankins
Brandon Williams
Don't. Poe
Zach Brown
AJ Klein (I think this dude can play)
Josh Gordon (Why not take a gamble? Sign him to a 1 year deal)

Getting 1 of those guys will feed a major need for us and all of them are relatively young.

According to NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah, the "biggest talk" at the Combine among NFL personnel people is how talented USC redshirt freshman QB Sam Darnold is.
Jeremiah goes on to use the word "rare" when discussing Darnold, saying "it's tough to ignore him when you're studying other guys." We think it is fairly nuts of the NFL to talk about a future prospect when some might not even be in their current position at that time. Even if it is noticing his talent from afar, we have seen second year play spur negativity thanks to preseason expectations. No matter what, Darnold is extremely talented.


Darnold would definitely be the prize if he plays well(he should) and declares next season. He and Rosen and Josh Allen could all battle for #1 overall pick. Next year QB class could be special. I really hope we're in position to draft one of them.

Glad Kap is opting out of his deal. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Less distractions next year.

Kyle Shanahan presser at combine on right now.

I still have my reservations about the guy and hope to be proven wrong but he talks a good game. Definitely a smart dude and knows his X's and O's.

Hopefully he can handle the people part of the position just as well as he handles calling plays.

Did you watch the Rose Bowl? He was a monster in that game

Very impressive first season starting. I get the hype.

Rosen kind of had a let down year but it was more injury related so we'll see if he rebounds. Josh Allen's numbers aren't great but if those improve dude can definitely get some NFL GMs chubbed up.

Those guys are your prototypical QBs, big, good arms, good in the pocket and aren't straight up statues. I hate rooting against us before the season even starts but long term getting more draft picks and addressing other needs this year and tanking next season makes us a better team long term.

And hopefully when we lose next year we're in all of our games but just don't pull it out in the end

Sign Hightower and a couple of other guys in FA.

Trade down to get another 2nd rounder and 1st next year - Buffalo I'm looking at you.

Draft something like

1. Corey Davis - WR
2a. Haason Reddick - OLB/MLB
2b. Forrest Lamp - C/G
3. Nathan Peterman - QB
4. Jordan Willis - DE
4b. Carlos Henderson - WR
5. Josh Harvey-Clemons - SS/OLB
etc…

Then it's all about top QB on our board next year.

I still like Rosen. He has a lot less to work with than Darnold whose OL usually gives him more time in the pocket. I still like Darnold more but Rosen wouldn't be a big downgrade imo; hopefully we get to see them both play a full season this year.

Would love if they signed Hightower and just went mostly defense in the draft and FA. Looks like a good opportunity to beef up the front 7. I also like corey davis, he can really get up there from what i've seen. Maybe sign a low risk high reward WR e.g Josh Gordon (if eligible), Thielen, T. Gabriel, Stills.

I heard we may target Alshon. Would definitely be a good signing but not sure we should give him a huge deal given the injury history and suspension last year but would be nice to have a competent receiver on the outside again.

And I like Rosen and he definitely could jump right back into #1 overall talk. I just hope it won't be another year where we need QB but we manage to win just enough games to push us out of a chance to draft one of the top guys.

Next year's QB class is going to be top heavy though and even if Rosen and/or Darnold don't declare it could be pretty nice with Luke Faulk and Mason Rudolph being first round types. Of course Rosen, Darnold and Allen will be the elite prospects. Would love to land any of them.

****n (Why is the word C O L I N censored on this website?) Kaepernick will now "Stand" for the National Anthem.


What an absolutely disingenuous, goddamn scumbag. He's a free agent and knows nobody will touch him so he and his agent announce he'll stand. Fuk this guy. Seriously. I hope he rots.

At this point we pretty much have to draft a QB right? Not happy about that being the case. Not happy that Baalke left this team totally ****ed at the QB position and now we're left with this situation.


Also, I don't follow college as much as others so I can't comment on many players but I hope we can draft Mike Williams and also Christian Mcaffrey. More-so Mcaffrey and I think that is a more realistic pick cause I doubt we take Williams at #2 but Williams will likely be a solid receiver in the league and Mcaffrey has all the ability to be successful if he's used the right way.

My wife texted me earlier telling me that. What a joke. I've never turned on a player like this before, don't understand wtf happened to the down to earth kid who we drafted. Dude definitely let the early success get to his head and his girl totally turned him into a chump.

brb "it's not about the money, I'm here to support people who don't have a platform"
brb "i promise i'll be good, give me some money"

We do have to draft a QB, we don't have to draft one at #2 overall. John Lynch is doing his job right now by basically saying all the QBs in this class are surefire studs.

The more and more I think about it our goal should be to improve the team as much as possible this year with the goal of finding our QB in 2018. Whether it's the draft or free agency.

Assuming Pats don't actually extend Jimmy Garoppolo or trade him this offseason(still think he gets moved) in free agency alone we're looking at Jimmy Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins as possible available guys. We know Shanahan is high on both. In the draft it could be one of the best QB drafts in some time.

The absolutely best thing that can happen for us is to watch Mitch Trubisky blow the roof off the combine. He's already started doing good things just by measuring in over 6'2 with decent hand size. There were rumors going around he'd measure in under 6'1. One thing he doesn't have to worry about.

Mitch is from Cleveland and has made it known he'd love to be their guy. If he can shine during the combine and his pro day and really interview well i hope it forces the Browns hand and Myles Garrett falls to us at #2 and we're able to land our QB next year.

I'd see if Patrick Mahomes is available in the second round this year or Nathan Peterman in the 3rd round. Hell see if one of the Watson/Kizer guys drops to our 2nd rounder. Just because we have no QBs under contract doesn't mean we should panic.

Let's be honest if we want to sign a few QBs we can. Schaub is more than likely going to come here. Whether he's a starter or not will be determined later. Honestly I don't want someone good enough to get us a ton of wins next year lol. It's sad to say but I really want one of those QBs in next years class.