KhalilSackDaddy wrote:wab wrote:KhalilSackDaddy wrote:wab wrote:cblaz11 wrote:Heard Shanahan state in an interview that there were numerous people trying to move up to the 2nd pick...that’s the first I heard someone from the 49ers comment.
John Lynch said it too. He said the Bears wanted to move up but that Pace wouldn't tell him who they were taking. Lynch said he was shocked when they took Mitch because he would have sworn they were taking Thomas.
Chicago and teams behind Chicago also stated they were taking calls for trades that went quite after the Bears drafted Mitch. You also had it as common knowledge that Cle was willing to move up as high as thee 2nd spot for a qb also.
So you have SF, Cle, Chi and the teams behind Chi all stating teams were looking to move up.
Still to this day I believe that the Niners were going to take Mitch at #3 and the Bears screwed them.
That actually makes 100% sense. If they really thought the Bears were going to take Thomas, and that's who SF took, then they wouldn't have been willing to risk that for a few extra picks. They said their real target was always Foster, but they didn't take him at 3. If Foster was the target they would have taken a better trade to drop back a little farther, or just drafted Foster at 3.
I think you are dead on and SF was likely planning on taking Mitch and just hoping to get a few other picks out of Chicago by making them think Lynch wanted the def player the Bears wanted. Bears not only got their guy, but froze out both Cleveland and SF from getting the their qb for a very small sum of 3 mid round picks.
Yep. If Foster was the real target they would have taken him at 3.
Lynch was convinced that they were taking Thomas so he thought he'd squeeze a couple of picks out of the Bears, still get Mitch and then get Foster later (as they did). So Pace pulled one over on them, they panicked and took Thomas because of his perceived value, and missed out on drafting a QB all together. All told, they turned the trade into 6 players:
Solomon Thomas - 4 career sacks...basically a bust at this point
Reuben Foster - cut, suspended, and on his way out of the NFL
Fred Warner - decent player
Adrian Colbert - special teams level player
Dante Pettis - has some potential
D.J. Reed - had like one good game as a returner
There's no way I'll ever be convinced Mitch would have been there at #3 for the Bears.