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This week, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is preparing to face Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. If the QB Bills had come out a year earlier, it looks like Shanahan may have prepared Allen to play Buffalo on Monday Night Football.
At a press conference Thursday, Shanahan was asked about the team’s research on Allen during the writing process. The 49ers head coach went so far as to say he didn’t do much research on Allen in 2018 because the team already had Jimmy Garoppolo at that point, but added that he had hoped Allen would come out in the 2017 NFL Draft.
“That was him with a number of other guys,” Shanahan said. “The guys that I was hoping would come out sooner but they didn’t and so we looked at the guys more that year and next year we had Jimmy (Garoppolo).”
You can see the full answer below.
Shanahan could have taken any quarterback he wanted in the 2017 NFL Draft, as the team originally held the No.2 pick, but it’s possible he was looking for a late goal from the day one or two to cast with San Francisco having lots of holes fill up on the defensive side of the ball.
Instead of taking a quarterback in the first round, the 49ers went from No.2 to No.3 so the Chicago Bears could draft Mitch Trubisky in exchange for four draft picks. San Francisco took Solomon Thomas at No.3 and Reuben Foster at No.30 in the first round before joining cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon with their first pick in the third round (No.66). Their second choice in the third round, No.104, was quarterback CJ Beathard.
Would Allen have fallen all the way to No.104 if he had declared in 2017? Probably not based on his skill set, but dropping on day two wouldn’t have been out of the question, with Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson being considered the draft class. Shanahan may have even considered Allen at the end of the first round where he selected Foster.
Allen would have been a great choice for Shanahan’s creative offense, but it just wasn’t meant to be. The quarterback’s decision to return to Wyoming likely helped his draft status and it’s hard to argue his pick based on his third-year success with the Bills.
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