2021 NFL Draft Is the 49ers' Only Way out of a Hellish QB Situation

The San Francisco 49ers can now look back at the trade for Jimmy Garoppolo and realize they made a mistake. Not in sending a second-rounder to the New England Patriots for a quarterback Bill Belichick believed could be his successor to Tom Brady—that was a calculated risk midway through the 2017 season that most general managers would make.

The mistake was to pay Garoppolo, after just five starts, like a top 10 quarterback and not have a viable option on the roster as a replacement once the quarterback missed 13 games in 2018 due to injury.

Now, one year after a 13-3 season and run to the Super Bowl on the back of the league's most talented defense, the 49ers sit with a decimated roster due to injury, poor planning and a quarterback situation that looked increasingly bleak before Garoppolo was injured again. Per ESPN's Nick Wagoner, head coach Kyle Shanahan said the injury is worse than the QB's previous sprain of the same ankle that limited him after Week 2. The recovery is expected to take four to six weeks; however, surgery would end Garoppolo's season.

This isn't a time to look back and reflect on the moves general manager John Lynch made—we can assuredly say the 49ers should have drafted Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson with the No. 2 overall selection in the 2017 class instead of trading back one spot for Solomon Thomas, but that type of hindsight does the team no good today. Wishing you had drafted Mahomes doesn't fix the roster you have right now.

The only way the 49ers can fix it is to admit their mistakes and move on. With a roster plagued with season-ending injuries, they may actually lose enough games to be in position to draft a replacement for Garoppolo.

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

Drafting a replacement is indeed the only option, too, given the contract the 49ers handed Garoppolo before the 2018 season. The five-year, $137,500,000 contract locks him in with yearly cap hits over $26 million for the 2021 and 2022 seasons and makes trading or cutting Garoppolo nearly impossible. With the team's cap situation already perilous, making a move to acquire Kirk Cousins or Matt Ryan isn't viable. Which means Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan must devote serious time to scouting a 2021 draft class of quarterbacks that features an impressive collection of talent.

Clemson's Trevor Lawrence anchors the 2021 draft class. He's a Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck level prospect who is the overwhelming favorite to be the first pick in the draft and a player the 49ers likely can't lose enough games to have a shot at. But while Lawrence is the top of the crop at quarterback, there are others to be excited about who are possibilities. Those start with Ohio State's Justin Fields.

Fields, who dominated the Big Ten in 2019, is back and playing better than ever throughout the early portion of his junior season. A big, athletic passer with awesome intermediate accuracy, Fields looks quicker and faster this season thanks to his recovery from a knee injury that looks to have affected not only his mobility but also his ability to drive the ball as a passer.

With Fields playing like a top five pick, the 49ers may be in position to land him, and one scout who works against the 49ers thinks he's a fit. "If you put Fields in that offense, it's going to be scary. He'd tear up the crossers and intermediate stuff but give them a run element that's definitely missing with Jimmy," an NFC West area scout said.

Fields isn't the only option, though. North Dakota State's Trey Lance, who played just one game in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is another athletic quarterback the 49ers could fall in love with when looking at ways to expand an offense that's become predictable.

Lance burst onto the scene in 2019 during a season in which he threw for 28 touchdowns, rushed for 14 and threw zero interceptions while showing a run-pass ability that gave scouts visions of a cross between Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson.

Bruce Kluckhohn/Associated Press

One area scout who has done extensive work on Lance actually compares him to Watson. "I gave them the exact same grade," he said. "Watson was a little more accurate but Lance is bigger and I think he's faster. But that's how I see his NFL transition working."

The 49ers would love an offense where the quarterback can work off the fantastic pre-and-post-snap motion in the Shanahan run game. It's hard enough to figure out where the running backs are going in this scheme, if you mix in a running quarterback behind them, the options are endless.

Fields and Lance are expected to be top 10 picks, but the 49ers' record at the midway point of the season and the loss of Garoppolo and George Kittle for an extended time (if not the entire season) could push them down in the win column enough to have a serious chance at the elite quarterbacks not named Trevor Lawrence in the 2021 draft class.

If it's a pick outside the top 10 when the 49ers' come on the board in late April, there are still quarterbacks talented enough to intrigue the team.

BYU's Zach Wilson, Florida's Kyle Trask and Alabama's Mac Jones are each putting together seasons that should excite scouts with the traits and production to warrant first-round consideration.

If the 49ers do indeed focus on a mobile quarterback who can impact the offense as a runner and passer, it's Wilson who will pique their interest. Wilson has played like a Mountain West version of Baker Mayfield or Johnny Manziel as a slightly shorter quarterback (6'3") who is scrambling around throwing deep balls and keeping defenses on their toes.

Trask and Jones are more traditional passers, but each possesses downfield passing traits that would still open up the 49ers' offense in ways it's not right now. Trask, at 6'5" and 240 pounds, has the big body and big arm to push the ball down the field. He's experienced, talented and does a great job getting the ball to his playmakers. Jones, in his first full season starting at Alabama, is a master of the deep ball with touch and timing that's allowing him to fully utilize the offensive weapons around him.

Both would be an upgrade over the conservative, checkdown-based offense the 49ers are rolling out each week. And both would be available outside the top 10 picks of the first round should a late season revival push San Francisco down the draft board.

Matt Miller covers the NFL and NFL draft for Bleacher Report.