Kim Klement-SUA TODAY Sports
It seems that Fields is the defender who best checks the boxes arranged by Shanahan. It is big, fast, strong and can fit in your pocket and make throws. His athleticism is an added asset, not the quality on which most of his success is based. Fields has a great arm and uses it out of his pocket and on the move when games break. The ability to create outside the program when needed could easily help outweigh any advantage another defender might have out of pocket.
The added speed layer would be a nightmare to worry about defenses against a 49ers game that is already difficult to defend. Putting another number in the combination would allow Shanahan to perform more actions that would create inconsistencies for the 49ers’ offensive line.
An interesting wrinkle to watch will be how Lance gets to participate in the discussion. It is the most experienced game-action passage with the back to the defense. ESPN’s Nick Wagoner posted a series of numbers on Twitter Lance’s willingness to run an action game just as Shanahan is superior to other signal callers who expect to be available when the 49ers choose. Lance checks many of the same tapes that Fields makes, but the 17 FCS beginners make his professional training a significant question mark. However, it would not be a huge surprise if it became the third selection in this year’s draft.
While the differentiation between Lance and Fields comes down to different aspects, what really stands out is the place where Jones is missing in the areas presented by Shanahan. It’s neither the biggest, nor the fastest, nor the strongest, and its pocket game isn’t so substantially better than the other two that it makes sense to put it in front of the pack.
Jones seems to fit the form of Cousins that Shanahan mentioned when he said he is a defender with whom he can win a team. Jimmy Garoppolo is that too. The 49ers are clearly looking for something more than that, and if they weren’t, they could have sat at number 12 to see if Jones fell or found a prospect they liked in Round 2 to try. to connect.
So, while Shanahan may not have given us enough to tell us who he will be, he seems to have presented some qualities that tell us who he will not be.