Nick Saban: 49ers 'didn't ask me a thing' about Mac Jones at Pro Day
There's a lot riding on the San Francisco 49ers' first-round draft pick. They traded up from No. 12 to No. 3, giving up their first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 to get that prime spot. With those first round picks gone, they have to get this one right.
The Niners have been frequently connected to Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, so you'd imagine they'd want as much info about him as possible if he's going to be their No. 3 overall pick, right?
If the Niners are looking for more perspectives on Jones, they didn't ask the most obvious guy on the planet: Alabama coach Nick Saban.
Saban appeared on the Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday and revealed that during Alabama's Pro Day, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch didn't ask him a single question about Jones.
“[Kyle Shanahan] didn’t ask me a thing. I stood right next to him. I said hi to him. John Lynch too. They didn’t ask me a thing. Maybe they thought they weren’t allowed to." - Nick Saban discusses Mac Jones' pro day on @dpshow
— Andrew Perloff (@andrewperloff) April 6, 2021
It doesn't seem likely that two seasoned football men would think they weren't allowed to ask questions during Pro Day, so what reason could they have for not asking Jones' college coach questions about their potential draft pick, who just might be the future of their franchise?
It's possible they didn't want to give anything away. Maybe they thought their draft plans would be too obvious if the media saw them asking Saban questions during Jones' Pro Day. Considering how secretive NFL coaches are about, well, everything, that makes some amount of sense.
Then again, the Niners have the third overall pick. Just two teams are picking ahead of them, and one of them is definitely picking Trevor Lawrence. Forgoing useful information about a potential draft pick because you're afraid someone might guess your incredibly obvious draft plan is both self-defeating and stupid. Unfortunately, "self-defeating" and "stupid" aren't words that usually make an NFL coach stop and consider what he's doing.
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