49er Fumbles, Draft Questions; NFL Draft Notes; Swinney Sees Super League

Coming off an embarrassing 6-11 season, the 49ers continue to stumble and fumble. 

In a belt-tightening move last month, you'll recall, they released, traded or lost to free agency nine starting players, including five who have either been named All-Pro or selected for the Pro Bowl.

Many were understandable and/or cost-efficient. One was unforgivable.

They let one of their best and most inspiring players, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, go to free agency and sign with another team because they underestimated his value and the respect he commands throughout the league.

Greenlaw's injury in the second quarter of the 49ers' 2024 Super Bowl loss to Kansas City completely changed the game. Until then, he was the dominant force on a defense that was shutting down Patrick Mahomes and company.

Now he's gone.

And after all this budget-cutting so they could afford to pay quarterback Brock Purdy the market price for a top ten quarterback, they've dragged their feet for the past four months. Negotiations apparently have been few and far between.

What's going on, John Lynch? Paraag Marathe? Jed York?

Purdy has been the most underpaid player in the NFL the last two years, earning less than $1M as a star quarterback.

C'mon, guys! Give him his $50 million and move on!

Rating Purdy: I like Purdy, but in my mind, he is not an elite quarterback. He throws too many untimely interceptions and has too many balls batted down at the line of scrimmage. 

He's a good, solid player, made much better by the incredible talent around him--the league's best running back, Christian McCaffrey, the league's best offensive tackle, Trent Williams, the league's second best tight end, George Kittle, the league's best fullback, Kyle Jusczyzk, and one of the league's half-dozen best wide receivers, Brandon Aiyuk.

To this observer, Purdy ranks behind the seven top quarterback in the league--Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Justin Hebert, Jalen Hurts and Jayden Daniels. He's part of the second-tier with Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailoa, Dak Prescott, and perhaps C.J. Stroud.

And in today's market, where top quarterbacks are scarce, he's worth $50 million. In fact, Prescott makes $60.

Plus, there's no one else available, other than old, inconsistent Kirk Cousins, who might give the 49ers a better chance to win.

In recent years the 49ers' brain trust has been unable to finalize deals with some of their best players--think Nick Bosa and the now-departed Deebo Samuel--until just days before the season opening. The disruption affected team chemistry and readiness, and ultimately, both players had poor seasons.

They can't afford to make the same mistake with Purdy.

49er Draft Questions: Speaking of mistakes, the 49ers have made plenty of them while drafting defensive linemen in the Lynch-Shanahan era.

Consider: 

• 2017, first round, No. 3 pick, Solomon Thomas, Stanford; has played 8 years, 4 with Niners, as a part-time starter/reserve; has only 18 sacks in 8 years, well below expectations for a No. 3 pick.

• 2018, fourth round, Kentavius Street, NC State; drafted after tearing ACL in pre-draft workout; played 7 seasons, 3 with niners, never started.

• 2019 first round, No. 2, Bosa, Ohio State, home run.

• 2020 first round, No. 14, Javon KInlaw, South Carolina; 4 undistinguished injury-plagued years with Niners, now with Jets; bust.

• 2022 second round, Drake Jackson, USC; played little in 2 injury-plagued years; looks like another bust.

  
  

One out of five isn't a very high percentage.

This year: With the No. 11 pick in the draft the 49ers chose Georgia edge Mykel Williams. Williams was a better pick than the other defensive lineman the 49ers were eyeing, Texas A&M's Shemar Stewart, but he's no sure thing. 

Experts gave the Niners anywhere from an A to a C for the pick, because Williams has a high ceiling with his size (6-5, 267) and athleticism. One uninformed columnist from the Bay Area News Group actually wrote that he was the best player in the draft, which is absurd. 

The facts say otherwise. In three years at Georgia, Williams started only 17 games out of 40, recorded only 14 sacks and played only about 30 snaps per game. 

I agree with Nick Saban's strategy: "take the size, speed, talent guys later in the draft...if we develop them, we hit something big. But take the production guys early on.” 

Williams is not a production guy.

Unrecruited QB Is No.1 Pick: All the scouts and "experts" and recruiting services in college football blew it on Cam Ward. 

As a high school senior in Texas, he averaged only 12 pass attempts per game playing in Columbia High School's Wing T offense. He enrolled at tiny Incarnate Word in San Antonio, his only scholarship offer.

As a freshman at Incarnate Word Ward won the Jerry Rice Award as the best freshman in Division 1 FCS. In his sophomore season he passed for nearly 5,000 yards, 47 TDs and 10 Ints, and caught the eye of Washington State.

He had two fine seasons with the Cougars, throwing for 7,000 yards and 48 TDs, before transferring to Miami for his final year, leading the Hurricanes to a 10-3 record, passing for 4900 yards, 39 TDs, 7 Ints and a 67% completion percentage, earning consensus first-team All-America honors.

On Thursday he was the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. Quite a story.

Other notes:

• The SEC and Big Ten combined for 26 of the 32 first round picks. 

• The top two picks were former Pac-12 players--Ward (WSU) and Travis Hunter (Colorado).

• Ohio State had 14 players drafted. That's why the Buckeyes won the national championship.

• Saban, as noted above, was the surprise star of the draft analysis.

• Draft guru Mel Kiper, on the other hand, went completely off the rails, ranting and raving about how "clueless" the NFL GMs were for not drafting Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders, who he rated the No. 1 prospect. 

• Sanders wasn't drafted until the No. 144 pick, fifth round, a consequence of his own arrogance, his father, Deion's threats to only allow his son to sign with certain teams, and the fact that many GMs and coaches knew they'd be walking on eggs with Deion looking over their shoulder and second-guessing their every move.

  
  

Support for Super League: Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney agrees with us about where college football is utlimately headed. 

Asked last week whether a super league will or should happen, Swinney replied: "Both. It's not sustainable the way we are. It's just a matter of time."

Swinney, like us, envisions 40-50 programs in the super league. "Eventually money's going to win the day. I just think people are eventually going to see the business opportunity involved, and it's going to come down to brands, and TV viewership and that type of stuff. Eventually that's where it'll get to, probably sooner rather than later...Call it whatever you want to call it, but I think the NFL's a good model."

The two-time national championship coach still believes academics must be a part of any super league: "98% of these kids aren't playing pro football, so we need to really help them maximize their opportunity here. We need to equip them for life."