New head coach? Check. New GM? Check. New quarterback? Well, not yet, and that’ll garner all the attention the next few months for brand new hires Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch down in Santa Clara.
Bob Fitzgerald and Matt Kolsky presented Trent Dilfer with three 49ers quarterback options Tuesday on KNBR, and they asked the former 49ers quarterback to pick a scenario.
A) Draft Mitch Trubisky, Deshaun Watson or DeShone Kizer with the No. 2 overall pick
B) Pull off a massive trade with the New England Patriots for Jimmy Garoppolo
C) Find a stop-gap quarterback like Brian Hoyer or Matt Schaub and then draft a quarterback in the middle rounds like Davis Webb or Chad Kelly to groom for the future.
Dilfer was adamant about his answer: Trade for Garoppolo.
“This area, this region needs hope at the quarterback position,” Dilfer said. “I think Jimmy Garoppolo gives you that hope. I think he’s the real deal. I polled a bunch of GM types this week at the Super Bowl, just basically a conversation I had with everybody. And I asked them all kind of the same thing. If Jimmy Garoppolo knew the amount of football that he knows now coming out — so if he would’ve gone to a USC, a Washington, if he would’ve gone to a school like that — and was groomed with transferrable information. Then take his traits and what pick of the draft would he have been? And I got No. 1 – No. 5 on everybody. That’s why I believe.
“I went back and looked at my scouting report on Jimmy Garoppolo and I said top of the first round talent, unknown football IQ. Unknown on how long this development is going to take. Well now, we’ve seen him develop. We’ve actually seen him play. We’ve seen him play behind maybe the greatest competitor (Tom Brady) of all-time. He kind of knows it now, and he’s got all the traits.”
What if it costs the 49ers their No. 2 overall pick, a third and a fifth rounder to obtain the 26-year-old’s services away from Bill Belichick?
“I think there’s not a price tag too high to go get Jimmy Garoppolo,” Dilfer said. “Even if you have to overpay, the odds are that he’s going to be a very good quarterback. But more importantly he’s going to give this region some hope.
“I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think Bill is going to keep him as long as he can. Or he’s going to hold everyone else hostage. I’m not saying it’s doable; I’m saying I’m doing everything I can to do it.”
Shanahan and Lynch will be introduced together Thursday afternoon in Santa Clara, where they are expected to field questions about the quarterback position.