Golden Nuggets: McVay thought the 49ers might draft Kyle Pitts

Your daily San Francisco 49ers links for Thursday, July 8, 2021

The 49ers found their replacement for Bog Lange on Wednesday. The team announced Corry Rush has been named vice president of football communications. Rush spent the past seven seasons with the New York Giants.

Kyle Shanahan reveals 49ers weren’t his first choice on paper

“It was an interesting time,” Shanahan said on The Ringer’s “Flying Coach” podcast. “I mean, San Francisco wasn’t my first choice, on paper.”

“I almost canceled San Francisco,” Shanahan said. “The reason being — it had nothing to do with San Francisco — it was just my whole goal in life was to be a head coach and stay a head coach. It wasn’t just to become one and say I got there.

“So, that was always my goal, is to wait until I had a good enough year and got an opportunity with that. And so, I didn’t want to be tempted on anything wrong. I mean, you get so excited for the chance to be a head coach that a lot of guys will accept anything, which I just had learned, and I had watched my dad go through it the hard way. That’s not what my goal was.

What Joe Montana and Steve Young Were Like as Backups

“Now, Steve Young was a backup for a long time to Joe, I think that was much more complicated. I want to say that neither Joe nor Steve ever said a bad word about the other one to me. Ever. I don’t know that they liked each other very much, but they were always very respectful. For example, I once asked Joe how he feels about Steve. This was years after they were retired. He said, ‘I treat him with the respect I would treat any former teammate.’ Which is a very interesting thing to say.

Sean McVay thought 49ers might draft Kyle Pitts, not Trey Lance, at No. 3

“I thought there was a possibility that Kyle was gonna go Pitts at three,” McVay said on The Ringer’s “Flying Coach” podcast. “In all seriousness, because he’s such a visionary. I’m telling you, I didn’t think it was going to be a crazy thought because you go back to when New England had the two-tight end set and they were doing things totally different. You think about what (George) Kittle — and then the thing that makes sense is, hey, Jimmy’s (Garoppolo) produced all the way. This isn’t a production thing. This is an availability thing.

“So if it’s not Mac Jones — and I hadn’t studied Trey because there wasn’t a lot of film exposure going back a couple years and we weren’t in that market, so I didn’t know other than watching him throw at his pro day that you’re saying, ‘Alright, you can see a lot of the things that you like and that would make sense.’”

Don’t expect 49ers to explore trade for WR N’Keal Harry

Harry, even at the low cost of a late-round pick, hasn’t done enough to warrant attention from the 49ers. Shanahan hasn’t been enamored with big, athletic receivers with upside, favoring instead the ability to consistently separate and affect games from multiple spots.

The college version of Harry could do that, but his game hasn’t translated to the pros. Perhaps there’s still a Pro Bowl caliber player there. Harry is immensely talented, but the 49ers aren’t in a position to take on a project. They’d need a player who could help them right away if they’re handing out another draft pick.

If the market is limited and Harry can be had for a late-round pick swap or a future sixth or seventh-round pick, then maybe the 49ers get involved. Barring that specific situation though, Harry won’t likely be the player San Francisco aims for if they do want to upgrade their receiving corps.

Kyle Shanahan breaks down 49ers’ Trey Lance vs. Mac Jones choice

“There’s so many things that go into it and you’ve got to make that decision. But I didn’t blame people at all for thinking it would be Mac Jones. Because Mac Jones deserves that. He’s that good of a player and he put it on tape for a whole year, and everyone did want to relate me to Kirk [Cousins] because that’s the only guy that I was openly going for as a free agent, so people talk about him. But Trey brought another element. And it doesn’t mean he’s better or worse. It just means he brought another element that over the course of us studying it really intrigued us, and that’s a direction I would love to go and have always wanted to go.

“But the guy has got to be able to do it all, and Trey sold us that he could and that’s why I’m excited to work with him and it’s up to us to get him to do it.”