Schefter confident 49ers will draft Jones with No. 3 pick originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Get ready for three more weeks of Mac Jones rumors, 49ers fans.
ESPN's Adam Schefter sure sounds confident the 49ers will select the Alabama quarterback with the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
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"It'll be Mac Jones," Schefter said Tuesday on the "DiPietro, Canty & Rothenberg" show when asked who will be the third QB taken in the draft with the 49ers' pick.
The closer we get to the draft, the more the 49ers have been connected to Jones. But coach Nick Saban did say Tuesday that Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch didn't ask him about Jones during the Alabama Pro Day.
"[Shanahan] didn't ask me a thing," Saban said Tuesday morning on the "Dan Patrick Show." "Didn't ask me a thing. I said hi to him, John Lynch too. They did not ask me a thing about him. They didn't ask me a thing."
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However, the reason might have been because of NFL rules.
"Maybe they thought they weren't allowed to, because out there on the pro day floor, which is where I saw them, I don't know all their rules but I think the rule is they're not really allowed to talk to me," Saban said.
Schefter further detailed what he believes will be the 49ers' plans in keeping Jimmy Garoppolo and drafting Jones when asked if this pick would spark a Jimmy G trade.
"No," Schefter said on a Garoppolo trade. "Not right now. ... I believe, that in the end, they will pick Mac Jones at 3. That'll be the pick. And they will keep Jimmy Garoppolo this year. ... They believe they have a Super Bowl-caliber roster, a playoff-caliber roster and they want to draft a quarterback and have him sit on the bench, learn, get acclimated, even though some people say that Mac Jones is ready to play right away.
"Then after the season, you move on from Jimmy."
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That seems to be thinking around the league right now. Garoppolo will remain the 49ers' starting QB in 2021 while the 49ers draft their quarterback of the future. Will that be Jones, Justin Fields or Trey Lance?
Schefter is going with Jones.
