The San Francisco 49ers shook up the offseason when they made a big trade with the Miami Dolphins involving numerous draft picks for the 2021 NFL Draft.
The 49ers gave up their #12 pick in this year’s draft along with a 1st and 3rd round pick next year and a 1st round pick in 2023 for the Miami Dolphins #3 pick in the upcoming draft.
San Francisco gave up a lot of draft capital to move up nine spots in what many pundits feel is to select a quarterback. However, they already have Jimmy Garoppolo as their starting quarterback which makes this trade even more dramatic.
Let’s huddle up to examine who the 49ers will take with the third overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft and predict whether or not Jimmy G. will be the Week 1 starter for the 2021 season.
Dolphins – 49ers DRAFT TRADE 🚨
Dolphins get: No. 12 overall pick, 2021 third-round pick, first-round picks in 2022 and 2023
49ers get: No. 3 overall pick
The 49ers still have “no plans” of trading Jimmy G 👀 (per @AdamSchefter) pic.twitter.com/Leirv0buMh
— Overtime (@overtime) March 26, 2021
Who Will Be Selected 3rd Overall by the 49ers?
- Mac Jones (-190)
- Justin Fields (+130)
- Trey Lance (+450)
- Zach Wilson (+2500)
ESPN’s NFL Draft experts Todd McShay and Mel Kiper both have the San Francisco 49ers taking a QB. NFL Network’s top draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah also believes that San Francisco will draft a quarterback.
Not only do NFL Draft gurus believe that the 49ers will draft a quarterback with the third overall pick, but there are stats to back up this belief as well.
According to ESPN, the last four times a team has made a trade to move up to #3 in the draft, a quarterback was selected.
With that in mind, we can now turn our attention towards which QB the 49ers will select with the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
McShay commented on the 49ers thought process heading into the 2021 NFL Draft:
“San Francisco had to make the decision to move up from 12 to 3 with the mindset that Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson were gone. Maybe something changes but if you’re John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan you have to make the decision to move up with that assumption. We’re really talking about North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, Alabama’s Mac Jones and Ohio State’s Justin Fields.”
Surprisingly, all three draft pundits mentioned above feel that the 49ers will select Mac Jones over Trey Lance and Justin Fields.
Jones led Alabama to the National Championship in his only full season as a starter. Yet, his performance throughout the season was fantastic.
His stats were eye popping as he finished with 4,500 yards, a 77.4 completion percentage and a 10-to-1 TD to INT ratio with 41 touchdown passes to just four interceptions.
In the National Championship game, Jones went 36 of 45 for 464 yards and 5 TDs. That’s one of best statistical games in this history of the National title game. And he did it against an elite opponent in Ohio State.
Jones fits well with the 49ers’ offensive scheme as he can throw from the pocket and is a solid play-action passer. Furthermore, he has a great deep ball accuracy and can make just about every throw.
Of the three QBs that McShay mentioned (Fields, Jones, Lance), I believe that Justin Fields has the highest ceiling. He’s also a step above the other two regarding athleticism.
With that said, all signs are pointing towards the 49ers taking Mac Jones. Although there’s no value with this pick, the smart money is on Jones heading to the Bay Area.
Who Will be Selected 3rd Overall? –Jones (-190)
Will Jimmy Garoppolo Be the Week 1 Starter?
- Yes (-150)
- No (+110)
With there being no doubt that the 49ers will select a quarterback at the #3 spot in the upcoming draft, all attention now turns towards what the team will do with the incumbent QB Jimmy Garoppolo.
There have been conflicting reports about what the 49ers will do with Jimmy G. We’ve heard both GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan come out and reiterate that Garoppolo is their starting quarterback, but that hasn’t muzzled the buzz over a potential trade of Jimmy G.
As of this writing, there are still many pundits who believe that the team is quietly shopping Garoppolo ahead of the draft. It seems that San Francisco is asking for a 1st round pick for Jimmy G. Currently, no other team is willing to meet that asking price.
It’s believe that we should see some movement on Garoppolo by April 29th when the 1st round of the 2021 NFL Draft gets underway.
It’s long been speculated that the New England Patriots would be the perfect destination for Garoppolo as they probably should’ve never traded him in the first place to San Francisco back in 2017.
Nevertheless, New England doesn’t view Jimmy G. worthy of giving up their first round pick in this year’s draft. Especially since they could possibly give up less and grab Justin Fields or Trey Lance if either slide down in the 1st round.
#49ers Upgrading From Jimmy Garoppolo Goes Beyond Health Concerns https://t.co/JuHWhoGfQH via @JSanchezSI
— All49ers on SI (@All49ersSI) April 8, 2021
This Jimmy G. drama will unfold over the next few weeks and it could have a big ripple effect over the 2021 NFL Draft and the rest of the league.
A big reason to keep Garoppolo is the fact that the 49ers have a roster that can compete for a spot in the Super Bowl this year. Having a veteran quarterback like Garoppolo will ensure that the team can fulfill their overall potential and expectations.
Conversely, if the team viewed Garoppolo as the man to lead them to the promise land then they wouldn’t have given so much draft capital over the next three drafts to move up to the #3 spot.
Now that we’ve examined both sides of this issue, let’s make our pick.
I see the 49ers keeping Garoppolo for this season unless Mac Jones somehow beats him out over the summer. Since the odds of that happening are very slim, Jimmy G. should suit up as the Week 1 starter in the 2021 season.
All we must do is look back at what the Chiefs did in 2017 when they drafted Patrick Mahomes while having a quality starting QB in Alex Smith.
KC let Smith lead the team in 2017, but then traded him in the offseason as they gave the reigns over to Mahomes and never looked back.
The 49ers will have Garoppolo as the veteran this season then trade him in the offseason and hand over the reigns to their rookie QB who will almost certainly be Mac Jones.
Will Garoppolo Be the Week 1 Starter? –Yes (-150)
Rick Rockwell
As a longtime freelance writer, avid sports fan, former athlete, and experienced sports bettor, Rick Rockwell has risen up the ranks at GamblingSites.org to become the self-professed “King of the Blog” in his first year with the site. …
