Getty San Francisco 49ers prospect Mac Jones.
Heading into the 2021 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers had a tough decision to make about the future of their quarterback position. With Trevor Lawrence all locked up to go first overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Zach Wilson expected to follow close behind as QB2, Niners GM John Lynch was afforded a chance to pick his next signal caller from a trifecta of pass throwers with a premium grade: Trey Lance, Mac Jones, and Justin Fields.
While there were a few Fields supporters at the time, the consensus among fans largely came down to the choice between Mac Jones, the Alabama product who seamlessly took over for Tua Tagovailoa in Tuscaloosa, and Trey Lance, the toolsy FCS prospect who took over for Carson Wentz in North Dakota and produced electrifying tape in his place.
Famously, Lynch chose Lance, but after watching Jones excel as a rookie, it became clear that the duo would be linked forever in the minds of Niners fans in the same way Wilson and Lawrence would be to Jaguars Nation.
And yet, that doesn’t have to be the case. No, what if the duo eventually stop being rivals and instead become teammates?
Crazy? On paper, maybe a little bit, but after extensively being benched for Bailey Zappe in the New England Patriots’ Monday Night Football loss to the Chicago Bears, David Lombardi of The Athletic jokingly asked, “does this mean Mac Jones is available?” When some took his words a bit too seriously, Lombardi clapped back to fully make his intentions known.
“You’re all laughing now,” Lombardi wrote. “But won’t be when the 49ers roster a Trey Lance-Mac Jones QB room in 2023. The true end times.”
Will Jones be on another team in 2023? Only time will tell, but unless the faith in Lance’s ability to return severely diminishes over the next few months, it’s hard to see San Francisco as a viable landing spot.
Bill Belichick Had A Creative Reasoning For His QB Change
When asked about why Jones was benched in favor of Zappe, Belichick declared that it wasn’t, in fact, a benching at all, as transcribed by CBS Sports.
“I told the quarterbacks that we were going to play both of them, and that’s what we did,” Belichick said. “That’s not what it was, but you can write whatever you want to write. That’s not what it was.”
Is that really what happened? No one will ever really know, but it certainly adds an additional wrinkle of intrigue to an already interesting situation.
The San Francisco 49ers Have Traded For A Pats QB Before
Would the 49ers trade for a Patriots quarterback? Well, they’ve done it before, as, in 1976, San Francisco traded multiple first-round picks plus further draft compensation for Stanford quarterback Jim Plunkett.
While that particular trade didn’t turn out great for San Francisco, as Plunkett was released just two years into his tenure back in the Bay, that doesn’t mean a New England-drafted quarterback couldn’t succeed in San Francisco, even if the franchise ultimately drafts their replacement a few years later.