Is #3 pick still in play as Fields set for 2nd pro day … Interesting day on the pre-draft schedule coming up on Wednesday as Ohio State QB Justin Fields will throw again for NFL teams at the school’s second pro day. And according to reports, the San Francisco 49ers who have the 3rd pick overall at this month’s draft, will be directing Fields’ workout. Niners’ G.M. John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan will also both be attending after they missed Fields’ first pro day to attend Mac Jones’ pro day performance at Alabama’s pro day. For the record, both Atlanta and New England are also supposed to be in Columbus for Fields’ pro day on Wednesday, while the 49ers have already committed to attending Trey Lance’s workout at North Dakota State’s second pro day on Monday
And if the 49ers’ intense scouting of Fields and Lance seems a little odd for a team that supposedly traded up to the 3rd pick so as to acquire Alabama’s Jones, well it is! In fact, it appears that the 3rd pick may, in fact, be still in play as ESPN reporter Adam Schefter, who broke the original story about the 49ers leaning to Jones, appears to be backtracking somewhat. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle earlier today, Schefter indicated on a 49ers fan podcast that while he still thinks Shanahan and company will take Jones with the 3rd pick that they actually “like all three and that there are going to be a lot of meetings, there are going to be a lot of discussions. They’re going to be attending workouts. What happens between now and then? I don’t know. We’ll see.” Of course, the rest of the league has been scratching their heads a little since it was first reported that the 49ers were going to take Jones. The big question everyone was asking was why the 49ers would have traded away three first-round draft picks to get all the way to the third pick when Jones was clearly going to available deeper into the top ten.
Its also interesting that Atlanta will also be at Wednesday’s pro day at Ohio State to check out Fields a second time. The Falcons have the 4th pick and with QBs fully expected to be taken with the three picks ahead of them, the buzz around the league is that ‘the real 2021 draft starts at #4.’ Of course, the Falcons could always make it 4 QBs in row by taking one themselves. However, the feeling around the league is that the Falcons may have decided to stick with veteran Matt Ryan, who is going on 36, but is coming off a very productive year. Instead the Falcons may look to build to build up the roster around Ryan either by taking the best non-QB in the draft, or by trading the 4th pick for a package of picks. By attending the Fields workout the Falcons could just be doing some due diligence, or they could be trying to drive up the price of the 4th pick by trying to make other teams think they could still take a QB themselves there and maybe have him sit behind Ryan for a year or so. Stay tuned!
