Are the Rumors Connecting Justin Fields to the 49ers a Smokescreen?

Do teams change their minds this late in the draft process? Did the 49ers suddenly have an epiphany about Fields?

Grant Cohn | Apr 18, 2021

For weeks, the betting favorite to get drafted by the San Francisco 49ers with the No. 3 pick was Mac Jones. Now it's Justin Fields.

What happened?

Fields had another Pro Day, that's what. He was the center of the media's attention for a week. Simple as that.

When Jones was the betting favorite, lots of fans said he was a mere smokescreen. The 49ers don't leak their intentions, they said. The fact that so many reputable reporters thought the 49ers would take Jones only proved they won't take him, they said.

And then, a couple weeks before the draft, Fields suddenly became the odds-on favorite to go to the 49ers. And most fans didn't question this new development, because most fans want the 49ers to draft Fields.

But if any report is a smokescreen, wouldn't the one that comes out right before the draft be it? Everyone in the know thought for weeks the 49ers would take Jones, and then right before the draft the say the 49ers have changed their minds?

Do teams change their minds this late in the draft process? Did the 49ers suddenly have an epiphany about Fields? Are we to believe Kyle Shanahan sat in his room and lit candles and fasted and came to the realization that he was all wrong about Jones and that Fields was perfect for his offense?

I don't think teams work that way.

This all reminds me of two years ago when everyone knew for months the 49ers would take Nick Bosa, until two weeks before the draft when some experts changed their mind and projected Quinnen Williams would be the pick. Bosa had liked some politically-incorrect social media posts, and people wondered if the 49ers would draft him.

The 49ers drafted him.

Sound familiar? Mac Jones seems to be this year's Bosa.

So why the Justin Fields smokescreen, if it is a smokescreen?

It seems to me the 49ers' preferred outcome is to trick the Jets into drafting anyone but Zach Wilson. If the Jets take Fields, good. If they take Jones, good.

But if the Jets take Wilson, I'm guessing the 49ers will draft Jones, just as the experts predicted before they changed their minds.

Published Apr 18, 2021

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.