Rumors about Sam Darnold’s availability in the commercial market will only increase as the year of the new league and the NFL draft approach. The 49ers were linked to a possible Darnold deal in several hypothetical deals, but nothing substantial was reported about San Francisco’s interest in the quarterback.
If they were thinking about making such a move, it wouldn’t come cheap.
Peter King of NBC Sports wrote in his Football Morning in America column that there is interest from the entire league in Darnold, which would cost at least one high choice in the second round.
From King:
No team in the next 14 months will have a better draft than the Jets. They currently own a decent quarterback property in Sam Darnold. He is worth at least a good runoff choice in this draft – 39th overall for Carolina, perhaps, or 40th for Denver, or 43rd for San Francisco. (The 49ers are my favorites.)
The 49ers makes sense as a landing site for Darnold, since much of the struggles of the ex-No’s choice. 3 in three years with the Jets can potentially be attributed to organizational failures around them. San Francisco has an infrastructure, along with coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive scheme, which would potentially elevate Darnold to a higher level of play than he has achieved so far in his career.
On the other hand, changing a run-off choice for him means that the team probably wants him to start this season, as he is in the final year of his debut contract. Using a second-round choice on a backup that you could leave the following year at a free agency is probably not a prudent use of a premium choice for a team with as many holes as 49ers.
We theorize that the club could move a choice in the middle of the round for Darnold to place him in the building as a reserve and see what he can do in practice before offering an off-season extension. It would be worth making a selection in the middle of the round to find out what Darnold looked like in Shanahan’s attack. A second round choice presents a much greater risk.
Ultimately, 49ers need to identify a player who could be their long-term answer if Garoppolo doesn’t improve his game or stay healthy in 2021. If Darnold is that player, it makes sense to pick him up – even for a second round to choose. If there is any doubt about it, the choice would be best used on a rookie without a history of underperformance in 38 NFL games.