Actually no.
The Lions had a preliminary deal done with Carolina. As a matter of fact, after getting back from Cabo, Stafford was preparing to fly to Charlotte to take his physical when the Rams upped the offer and won out. Carolina was more than a little upset, but it was all done fairly.
Preliminarily, the scuttlebutt was that the 9ers were willing to offer 2 x 2nd rounders and as we can see, that was nowhere close to being an appropriate offer. That would have left the Lions with no QB and not nearly enough draft capital to get a QB AND the pieces he'd need as they were losing both Marvin Jones and Kenny Galladay.
If anything, had the Rams not stepped up, the order was Charlotte, Indy, LA... and SF never really got serious no matter how much Kyle ran tape on Stafford. LA won out because we had Goff and we offered among the most picks (I think Charlotte's offer was slightly better, but didn't have Goff which will allow the Lions focus on team building. Turns out this is a GREAT draft if you don't need a top of the draft QB and the Lions can make do with Goff ).
However, they were seriously holding out for a chance to get either Rodgers or Watson and when neither proved possible, they shot their wad on Trey Lance... they spent more than you'd spend on a legit, franchise overall #1 pick and got a project...
I don't wish the kid ill, but I'm not upset that they used all of that draft capital and it looks unlikely to work out which will set them back for 4-5 years at least... and no way Kyle Shanahan survives with his record on a steady diet of "we're super injured" and "tough division".
Actually... Here's what The Sporting News reported:
On a recent episode of
The Ringer's "Flying Coach" podcast, Shanahan explained just how close the 49ers were to making a move for the former Lions quarterback on the night that he landed in a Rams uniform.
"You don't want to get me started, dude. That was frustrating. I was actually in Cabo, I was watching it all. I had never studied Stafford that hard. I remember looking through it and everyone was telling me it was a possibility. Stafford's the man, I studied him hard coming out of college, and we always used to play against him, so you know how good he is. But to know he might be available, and then spend two weeks really watching him, Sean? Yeah. He's better than I had realized. He was the man, and he's underrated to me. …
I was trying to get involved in it. Someone who had knowledge on the situation — I was talking to (Tom) Condon and everyone to find out when it was happening. I remember on Saturday, I was so stressed out, and finally we talked to someone and it was like 7 at night, and they were like, "No, nothing's happening at the earliest till tomorrow. So you can finish your night." So I'm like, "All right, I'm done." Put my phone down, talk to Mandy, "Let's go out to dinner, let's have some drinks."
A half an hour later, a buddy of mine calls me, he's like, "I'm just telling you, if you want Stafford, you need to get ahold of him right now." And I'm like, "What do you mean? We just talked to people, I can sleep on this, we'll talk to 'em tomorrow." "I'm just telling you, you need to talk to him right now." And I knew it, and I turned on my phone, and it was all over. It wasn't fun."
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl...ed-matthew-stafford/aolw3248sfnl16i9vma8gcmy9
And actually... The Niners could have out bid us had they wanted to since they held the 2021 #3 pick they used on Trey Lance and had a starting qb they could have unloaded. And the Niners had to have known they were not getting Rodgers or Watson (at that time) or Stafford for two second round picks. They were just too slow to act when it counted.
www.49erswebzone.com
