Content available exclusively for subscribers
If you look at it this way, it might not make sense
Former NFL GM Michael Lombardi believes the San Francisco 49ers are interested in trading for Sam Darnold.
“Would they have an interest in Jets quarterback Sam Darnold?” Lombardi wrote for The Athletic. “Yes, for sure. Why? Because Darnold fits the profile that Shanahan loves at the position: athletic, can throw moving to his left or right, and has the arm strength to make the defense defend every blade of grass on the field.”
And a USA Today writer, responding to this rumor, wrote: “San Francisco has an infrastructure in place, along with head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive scheme, that would potentially elevate Darnold to a higher level of play than he’s reached so far in his career.”
But here is the strange twist to this story:
There is all this talk about Darnold being a great fit for the 49ers’ scheme. But this just in, the Jets are installing the 49ers’ scheme under long-time San Francisco assistant Mike LaFleur, who was with Kyle Shanahan, not just in San Francisco, but also in Atlanta.
“Shanahan’s system, you create a lot of easy opportunities for the quarterback,” said former NFL scout Bucky Brooks. “You just need to be mobile enough to get to the edge on the bootleg. With all the play-action, they make it easy.”
So if he’s such a good fit for this system, why would the Jets trade him?
You get what I’m saying?
The only difference might be that Shanahan is obviously much more advanced as a play-caller than LaFleur. Now LaFleur has a lot of potential as an NFL player-caller, but we won’t know good he will be, until he does it.
The last time he called offensive plays was at Davidson College in 2013.
So I guess you could make the argument that perhaps Shanahan could get more out of Darnold, in this system, than LaFleur, at least initially, as LaFleur gets comfortable in his play-calling skin.
What would it take for the 49ers to acquire Darnold? Probably their 2021 second-round pick, which is currently selection 43.
The concept of the Jets getting a first-round pick for Darnold is probably far-fetched. His body of work so far probably doesn’t merit that. Let’s not forget, the other teams are watching the same game tape as the Jets.
And something else we need to consider here is that Shanahan might not be as interested in Darnold as the rumors would lead you to believe.
Lombardi has great sources, but that quote above sounds perhaps more like speculation than a scoop.
There are a lot of rumors this time a year, before the start of free agency and the draft, that turn out not to be true. A lot of stuff thrown up against the wall this time of year.
This isn’t a criticism of Lombardi, who is very plugged in, and might not have even been presenting the above statement as a scoop, but more a logical guess.
March 8, 2021
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Tuesday.