The San Francisco 49ers are 0-4, and while they have lost their last three games (all against NFC West opponents) by a combined eight points, their record still ties them for worst in the league with the Browns, Giants, and Chargers.
With a quarterback-rich draft in the pipeline for 2018, 49ers fans are split on whether the team should try to be competitive this season, or simply tank for the No. 1 pick, with which they could draft one of the heralded incoming prospects.
Marcus Thompson of The Athletic Bay Area joined Murph & Mac Tuesday morning, and shared his thoughts on whether the team should tank for a pick.
“I don’t think they should go 0-12 (the rest of the way),” Thompson said. “You get the pick and all, but you do create a bad culture that you just have to recreate anyway next year. If cats start just losing every week and that becomes the thing, now you start taking shortcuts, now you stop caring as much. Losing breeds losing. That’s just the bottom line. So if they do that this year, they kind of have to start over next year.”
Thompson added that a few wins would not hurt the 49ers’ draft standing greatly.
“I think they gotta win a couple. Maybe they don’t get the No. 1 pick, but you’re going to get (a top-five pick) anyway, so what does it matter if you win four games? So I think they do need to win something.”
If the 49ers do drop to the No. 5 range with their pick, odds are that a quality quarterback will still be available. USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Washington State’s Luke Falk, and Wyoming’s Josh Allen are all quarterback prospects that will have the option to declare for the draft this year, making 2018’s draft potentially the best quarterback draft in a generation.
Listen to the interview below. To hear Thompson’s comments on the 49ers, skip to the 2:22 mark.