Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes aims to remind 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan of his biggest mistake

Hindsight is always 20-20, but especially in the NFL, where the margins between the Super Bowl Champion and the team picking first overall are a lot thinner than people think.  And for the San Francisco 49ers and HC Kyle Shanahan, they have been one of the best teams in the league for the past half […]

Rob Gregson — NFL News Writer

Feb 11, 2024 2:39 PM EST

Hindsight is always 20-20, but especially in the NFL, where the margins between the Super Bowl Champion and the team picking first overall are a lot thinner than people think. 

And for the San Francisco 49ers and HC Kyle Shanahan, they have been one of the best teams in the league for the past half decade, all without a franchise player at the QB position. 

But if they lose to the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes on Sunday, missing out on another Super Bowl, their decisions in the 2017 NFL Draft will come back to haunt them:

What Could Have Been

In the 2017 NFL Draft in which they held the second overall pick, the 49ers did not study Patrick Mahomes because they believed they would be able to sign Kirk Cousins during 2018 free agency and reunite him with Kyle Shanahan. Those plans were scuttled when the Patriots and offered and traded Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers in October 2017. But the one QB the 49ers did trade up to get in the 2017 draft was C.J. Beathard, whom they selected in the third round, 104th overall. Beathard eventually left San Francisco to sign with Jacksonville and, in return, the 49ers got a compensatory 2022 7th-round pick that they used on … Brock Purdy.
–Adam Schefter, ESPN

In fairness to the 49ers, they were one of nine other teams that passed on Mahomes, with the Bears being the only team that took a QB before Mahomes at 10, using their second overall pick on Mitch Trubisky. 

San Francisco used their third overall selection to take Soloman Thomas, who is now on the New York Jets. 

So it goes without saying that they would like to have that pick back. 

All the discourse surrounding the 49ers and their current QB situation would be mute had they taken Mahomes. 

But if he beats them again for the second time in only five years to hoist his third Lombardi, the conversation will only get louder, and what could have been will start to creep into the Bay Area. 

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