With the third pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, are the San Francisco 49ers locked in on a new quarterback?
Signs point that way as multiple reports indicate the team brass of general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan will be in attendance for the second pro day workouts of prospects Trey Lance (North Dakota State) and Justin Fields (Ohio State).
Fields has his second pro day on Wednesday and Lance is scheduled for his second showing April 19 (Monday), just 11 days before the draft.
Fields is staging another workout in part because the 49ers were in Tuscaloosa, Ala., watching the Crimson Tide draft class that could produce a record number of first-round picks later this month. That includes quarterback Mac Jones.
Interest in the 2021 quarterback class is through the roof and speculation points to the top three or four selections in the draft being spent on QBs, starting with Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence at No. 1 to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
DraftKings lists Lawrence as a -10000 favorite to be the top pick in the draft.
Lynch was in attendance for BYU quarterback Zach Wilson’s pro day right before the franchise acquired the No. 3 pick in the draft from the Miami Dolphins.
The Dolphins secured the 49ers’ first-round pick (12th overall) in 2021 as well as first-round picks in 2022 and 2023. They also received a third-round selection in 2022.
That 12th overall pick didn’t stay with the Dolphins for long. Miami sent it, along with the 123rd overall pick and a 2022 first-round selection, to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for the Nos. 6 and 156 overall picks in 2021.
The Dolphins initially acquired the third overall pick as part of the trade that sent left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Houston Texans in September 2019.
While Miami has Tua Tagovailoa as its starter, the trade put the 49ers in play to land one of the top-tier QBs of the draft.
Lawrence is the presumptive No. 1 pick, while the New York Jets traded their own starter, Sam Darnold, and at No. 2 would have a choice from among Wilson, Fields, Lance and Alabama’s Jones.
Drafting a quarterback third overall could create additional draft dominoes considering the 49ers have Jimmy Garoppolo in the fold.
Garoppolo, 29, was acquired in a trade from the New England Patriots in October 2017 and guided the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance following the 2019 season. Garoppolo signed a five-year, $137.5 million contract extension with the 49ers on Feb. 8, 2018, and his cap hit this season is $26.4 million.
