49ers HC Kyle Shanahan Seems Locked in This Year
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan gave a lot of insightful answers at the NFL owners meetings.
Out of everything he said during his availability on Tuesday, it was his comments about the 49ers’ process in previous drafts that stood out the most.
“We’ve gone into drafts these last few years, not as much last year, but especially the two years prior to where you look at our board, and it’s like, man, we don’t really have to find a starter anywhere,” Shanahan said. “You’ve got to find depth because quickly there’s a starter with an injury. I remember going into it three years ago and felt the only starting position we could find was a kicker because we were so solidified.”
This is insane. The 49ers weren’t going into previous drafts before 2024 looking for starters. No wonder the roster is so depleted.
The 49ers’ draft process has been extremely flawed. What Shanahan said perfectly encapsulates why the 49ers had atrocious drafts in 2022 and 2023.
Rather than take an excellent/promising player, they thought drafting Jake Moody was the best move. Anytime you get a chance to take a kicker over another promising player, you have to do it.
This is just baffling of the 49ers, but thank goodness that process is gone. It allowed them to have a successful (so far) 2024 draft class. Whatever the process was last year, it needs to remain.
The NFL draft should always be where teams look to find starters. It should almost always skew towards taking the best player available.
Instead, the 49ers were going into the draft with a free agency mindset: adding for need.
Shanahan’s comments weren’t even directly related to a draft question. It was about the potential competition atthe center position.
Shanahan then went on a tangent about how competition is the theme for the 49ers going into OTAs and training camp, with countless spots open.
“We’re going to go into this draft and hopefully add 11 people,” said Shanahan. “We’ll see how this plays out, add them into our OTAs, and hopefully we have some really good competition into our training camp.”
As insane and laughable as the 49ers’ previous draft process was, it is also a positive in a way. Before Shanahan spoke, it looked like a massive risk to bank entirely on this year’s draft.
However, given their 2024 draft class, it doesn’t appear they use that mindset anymore. Because of that, it is a little more encouraging that they have 11 draft picks this year.
There is reason to have a little more faith, despite it being a relatively massive risk. So, maybe, just maybe the 49ers will find several starters and key players.