The 49ers had the No. 2 overall choice in 2017 and didn’t have a long-term answer at quarterback after moving on from Colin Kaepernick. They did not draft Patrick Mahomes.
San Francisco instead traded down to No. 3 and selected defensive tackle Solomon Thomas.
“I didn’t look into [Mahomes], obviously, as much as I should have,” Shanahan said Tuesday, via Cam Inman of the Mercury News. “We definitely looked into him and studied his tape. He was a freak and could make any throw.
“We had the second pick and based on the intel, it didn’t seem he would go that high. . . .With the situation we were in, we didn’t want to be that risky, with the second player in the draft.”
The 49ers were planning to pursue Kirk Cousins in free agency in 2018.
”I felt very confident that he wasn’t going to stay [in Washington],” Shanahan said, via Matt Barrows of TheAthletic.com.
The 49ers, though, ended up trading for Jimmy Garoppolo at the trade deadline.
The rest is history, with Garoppolo going 5-0 in his December debut with San Francisco in 2017.
“He blew all our minds with the success he had out there,” Shanahan said.
The 49ers committed to Garoppolo with a long-term deal; the Vikings signed Cousins; and Mahomes became an MVP with the Chiefs.