49ers’ QB gamble could be latest NFL Draft misstep, is NFC East the Giants’ for the taking?

San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch is staking his reputation and the team’s future on a bold trade to acquire … the third-best quarterback in this year’s NFL Draft class

The NFL, as a whole, has a quarterback problem.

There’s a reason that four quarterbacks could be chosen in the first four picks for the first time but five signal callers could possibly hear their name called in the top-10 for the first time ever.

Not only is there a scarcity of high-level quarterbacks across the NFL, but the league’s power-brokers seemingly make the same mistakes evaluating and over-valuing the position in the NFL Draft.

General manager John Lynch and the San Francisco 49ers, two years removed from a Super Bowl berth with Jimmy Garopolo behind center, decided that the 29-year-old isn’t the answer.

With sights set on five years of control at the position, Lynch traded the No. 12 overall pick, a 2022 first-round pick, and a 2023 first-round pick to the Miami Dolphins for the right to draft who they believe to be the third-best quarterback in this class after Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence goes off the board to the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New York Jets take BYU’s Zach Wilson.

Lynch is gambling his future and the trajectory of the franchise on Alabama’s Mac Jones, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance or Ohio State’s Justin Fields developing into a top-five quarterback in this league.

There’s no other way to put what is at stake after trading that kind of draft capital.

If Jones/Lance/Fields develop into the next Derek Carr, the trade was a failure. If they’re the next Jimmy Garopolo, it’s a colossal disaster.

“This has the chance to be really dumb,” an AFC scout tells FanSided. “Because there’s a chance that guy could’ve been there at No. 12. Why would you trade for a guy whose at his ceiling the minute he walks in your building?”

In the past 15 years, 29 quarterbacks have been chosen in the top-10 picks, but only Matt Ryan, Patrick Mahomes, and Cam Newton went on to enjoy First-Team All-Pro honors, even once.

Of those 29 quarterbacks chosen, only Mahomes won a Super Bowl.

Statistically speaking, Lynch and the 49ers traded 6,785 points on Jimmy Johnson’s NFL Draft pick value chart for a player who is more likely to develop into Matt Leinart than even Matt Ryan.

Meanwhile, including Dak Prescott (who was suffered a season-ending injury in Week 5 last season), Mahomes is the only quarterback chosen in the top-five who was a statistical top-10 quarterback last season.

Taking Tom Brady, the ultimate unicorn as a sixth-round choice off the table, Russell Wilson, a third-round pick won a Super Bowl. So too, did third-round pick Nick Foles.

So, why do teams keep doing this?

“Everyone thinks you have to have Patrick Mahomes in order to win,” the scout says. “Mahomes won on his rookie deal, just like Russell Wilson did. Once you have to pay them, it cripples your ability to build a team.”

Why would the 49ers trade a bounty of picks to take Garopolo’s replacement, when the risk is becoming the Jets, who will now be taking a quarterback in the top-five picks for the second time in four years far outweighs the likelihood of that quarterback leading them to a Super Bowl?

“Once you have a quarterback, you have to invest heavily on offense because there’s where the money is,” the scout explained. “It’s hard to build on both sides of the ball the way the league is set up now, and need to do it around your young quarterback.”

The New York Jets thought they had their quarterback, in Sam Darnold, only to trade him to take another four years late. So, too, did the Arizona Cardinals, who chose Kyler Murray No. 1 overall 12 months after taking Josh Rosen 10th.

Maybe it works out for the 49ers, maybe Fields or Lance or Jones go on to win multiple Super Bowls and pick up the baton that Joe Montana and Steve Young long ago dropped along the bay. But, rest assured, not Lynch nor any general manager in the league would trade three draft picks for the right to choose the third-best player at any other position other than quarterback.

Lynch better be right, or some other general manager will be trying to pick the 49ers’ next franchise quarterback sometime between now and 2024 … The next time they own a first-round selection.

Why NFC East could be there for the taking … by the Giants

Eagles fans were given an unsettling peak behind the curtain this week in a bombshell report from The Athletic‘s Sheil Kapadia, Zach Berman and Bo Wulf, revealing just how involved owner Jeffrey Lurie is in the day-to-day football operations of the franchise, and how dysfunctional the organization has become.

Here’s a sampling from the outstanding reporting, on just how overbearing and influential Lurie has become, and what former head coach Doug Pederson was up against in his five seasons, that included Philadelphia’s first Super Bowl championship:

"The Tuesday tribunals with team owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman were a weekly occurrence during Pederson’s five-year tenure as Eagles head coach. In the meetings, Lurie and Roseman questioned Pederson about all aspects of his game management the week prior. Fourth-down decision-making, play calling, personnel choices — everything was on the table."

Any delusions that Lurie is any different than Dallas Cowboys owner and de-facto general manager Jerry Jones were squelched with the revelation of weekly second-guessing sessions over the head coach’s in-game management.

Between criticizing the decisions of the coach he pays to make them on Sundays, and reportedly removing autonomy over the assistants he hires on his staff, The Athletic paints a picture of Lurie as an overbearing and omnipresent force looming over all key football decisions the franchise makes.

It’s difficult to win that way.

It’s also easy to see how it was possible for the Eagles to regress each season since winning the Super Bowl in 2017 to scraping the bottom of the barrel with last season’s 4-11-1 disaster that led to Pederson’s dismissal.

Lurie also seems to be the rule, rather than the exception in an NFC East division that houses not only Jones, but one of the most dysfunctional franchises in professional sports; Daniel Snyder’s Washington Football Team.

The exception, it would seem, would be John Mara and the New York Giants.

Ownership stability and synergy from the owners box to the sideline is critical to success in the NFL.

After initial missteps by embattled general manager Dave Gettleman, the Giants seem to have found a bountiful partnership between the 70-year-old GM and second-year head coach Joe Judge.

Last offseason, the Giants signed linebacker Blake Martinez and James Bradberry in free agency, two players who developed into cornerstone players on a burgeoning defense. New York also chose starting safety Xavier McKinney in Round 2, in addition to Andrew Thomas with the No. 4 overall pick, whom the Giants hope is the franchise’s left tackle for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the Giants pushed all the chips into the center of the table this offseason, signing premier free agent wide receiver Kenny Golladay and going shopping at the top of the cornerback market adding Adoree’ Jackson, plugging another significant need.

If Daniel Jones develops into an elite quarterback, which remains to be seen if he can, these past two offseasons under Gettleman and Judge will have been the foundation.

In a division that features’ Jones’ volatility and heavy-handedness, Lurie’s overarching control, and Snyder who could tip over what is becoming a potentially dominant apple cart in its own right under head coach Ron Rivera and a talented young core the first time Rivera looks at the enigmatic owner side-eyed, John Mara’s Giants seemingly stand alone above that fray.

Mara has overseen a franchise that has fallen on hard times, posting a meager 18-46 record since 2017. Over that stretch, the rest of the division owns a .449 winning percentage, with the Eagles adding their first Lombardi to their trophy case.

On the surface, it seems, Mara and the Giants have built a power-structure that for at least the past two years has been working in lockstep towards a turnaround.

With a young core built around a young quarterback, Mara’s Giants seem to be building a roster — and a power structure — capable of sustained success.

Mock Draft

The NFL Draft will kickoff in just three weeks, and based on conversations around the league, this is how I think the top-10 shakes out … As of today:

1. Jacksonville Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson
2. New York Jets: Zach Wilson, QB, BYU
3. San Francisco 49ers: Mac Jones, QB, Alabama
4. Atlanta Falcons: Kyle Pitts, TE, Florida
5. Cincinnati Bengals: Penei Sewell, LT, Oregon
6. Miami Dolphins: Ja’Marr Chase, WR, LSU
7. Detroit Lions: Jaylen Waddle, WR, Alabama
8. Carolina Panthers: Rashawn Slater, OT, Northwestern
9. Denver Broncos: Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State
10. Dallas Cowboys: Patrick Surtain, CB, Alabama

Podcast

Final thought

America has reached a crisis-point, on multiple fronts, be it police brutality against unarmed black men or an epidemic of mass-shootings, with 22 mass-deaths through the first 13 days of April, alone. But, athletes, teams, and leagues are finally taking the lead to help find tangible solutions.

Sunday, a familiar nightmare unfolded once again, when a 20-year-old black man named Daunte Wright was shot by Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter after she repeatedly shouted “taser, taser, taser” prior to discharging her firearm into his ribs after Wright attempted to evade police following a traffic stop for hanging an air freshener from his rearview mirror.

Wright also had an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor, because his summons for a court appearance was returned to sender as the state wrote the wrong address on the envelope.

The system failed Wright at every level, and now another family of another black man in America has an empty chair at the table. And, perhaps most tragically of all, a nearly two-year-old boy will grow up without a father.

Unlike times of unrest in recent decades, sports are taking a leadership role in aiming to bring about tangible societal change and reform in the way police departments serve minority communities.

Monday night, the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Timberwolves canceled their games.

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t mince words when it comes to how they view Wright’s police-involved death:

Much like members of several NFL teams across the league opting to cancel practice last summer in lieu of holding team meetings or meetings with community leaders in the aftermath of Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, killing him, teams are now stepping to the forefront in advocating that the citizens of the communities they reside be protected and fairly policed.

From gestures such as walking out of practice, canceling games, and statements from teams to the work done by the Players’ Coalition advocating for legislation reforming policing and advocating for bail and mass incarceration reform, sports are taking a leadership role in combating the biggest impediment to equality of our time.

Their actions are commendable.

Players and teams using their platform to advocate for equality might make some uncomfortable.

So, too, apparently does players taking a knee in protest of Black Americans who look like them being statistically three times more likely to be killed during an encounter with police officers than their white counterparts, but that shouldn’t stop athletes from taking a stand.

Whether it is revoking qualified immunity for police officers involved in the killing of unarmed citizens, or turning routine traffic stops over to a civilian force, or instituting policy that requires departments to mirror demographically the precinct they police, we are seeing before our eyes that the status quo and its deadly consequences for people of color cannot continue.

“You find a way to de-escalate a situation with an armed individual who is an active shooter and has KILLED multiple people,” Lions linebacker/fullback Jason Cabinda tweeted Monday. “But can’t seem to de-escalate a traffic stop of an unarmed black man? Make it make sense”

Unfortunately, Jason, it doesn’t.

Sports and athletes being front and center in this fight is the kind of welcomed leadership that extends far beyond the field, the locker room, the court, or the ice. And in the fight for reform and equality, it carries far more significance than the points on a scoreboard.

Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL