Sports Illustrated’s Peter King offered a rare glimpse behind the curtain of the San Francisco 49ers’ blockbuster draft in his recent Monday Morning Quarterback article. In the “MMQB,” King shared his observations during his time embedded in the Niners’ 2017 NFL Draft Room. The article is full of interesting anecdotes and interactions between John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan, Paraag Marathe and others, but also leaves a number of questions to be answered.
Last week, King’s MMQB piece was the top trending article on the 49ers NFL Draft, and for good reason.
In the football world, fans choose to don the jersey of their favorite player for an assortment of reasons — whether it be a quarterback’s history of game-winning drives, or a linebacker’s consistent hard hits over the middle — one thing first has to be true; the player has to play on the fan’s favorite team.
King’s look into the San Francisco 49ers Draft Room shows how a perfect storm is needed before a specific player is drafted by a specific team. If any number of loosely-related variables happen to slightly change, so does a player’s future, and so does the Sunday jersey on your back.
Fans of the NFL love to see how the sausage is made, and the Niners happily obliged. Perhaps after years which lacked transparency, there’s an HBO’s Hard Knocks season in the San Francisco 49ers’ future.
If you’re a 49ers fan, and you haven’t read King’s article, you should do so. You’ll learn a lot about the relationship between owner, coach, general manager, and other top individuals in the organization.
Follow-up articles from other sources reiterate a number of positive and interesting stories from King’s article, from Reuben Foster hanging up on the New Orleans Saints phone call, to Marathe’s wheeling-and-dealing with trade partners. We enjoy all the recent positivity, but it’s important to take some time to read between the lines in order to identify potential deficiencies in the 49ers draft process.
It’s difficult to finish King’s MMQB piece and not come away with a content feeling about the San Francisco 49ers organization going forward. Once the team completes their victory lap, they should stop to analyze their draft decisions and strategy, and answer the difficult questions that could potentially keep them from future success.
About the Author: Chris Wilson
