San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan says there’s no truth to a recent report that the Patriots reached out about acquiring quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo before the draft.
Asked today about the claim in Seth Wickersham’s book It’s Better to Be Feared that the Patriots contacted the 49ers before the draft and suggested trading a second-round draft pick for Garoppolo, only to have the 49ers say they wanted a first-round pick, Shanahan said there is absolutely no truth to it.
“No. None. I’d also like to not keep answering questions about a book. I promise, if that was the case, I would have talked to their head coach,” Shanahan said.
The 49ers ended up drafting quarterback Trey Lance after trading three first-round picks to move up to No. 3 overall for him. The Patriots drafted quarterback Mac Jones, without having to trade up. It’s way too early to say whether Jones or Lance will have the better career, but the Patriots appear to have handled the quarterback situation better by getting the quarterback they liked without having to give up any extra draft picks to trade up, while the 49ers paid a fortune in the trade-up for Lance and are also paying Garoppolo’s $24.1 million salary this season.
