LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 05: Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers (L) and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs stand on stage during Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night at Allegiant Stadium on February 05, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images)

ESPN’s Adam Schefter has sent the NFL community into a frenzy over the past 24 hours after telling a Hollywood-like story on how the San Francisco 49ers wound up with Brock Purdy as their starting QB.

Appearing on the “Pardon My Take” podcast (h/t Jillian Nachtigal of Pro Football Network), Schefter reflected on the 2017 NFL Draft, where the 49ers held the second overall pick.

According to Schefter, the 49ers didn’t bother to “do any work on” future Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes because they were highly confident they would sign Kirk Cousins in 2018 free agency:
“And this gets better and better, so Kirk Cousins is leaving Washington, they thought that he would want to be there (San Francisco), they would want him there, and it’s a layup, so there’s no reason to do any real work on the quarterbacks in the 2017 draft so why do you need to work on Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson when you know you’re going to get Kirk Cousins.”
The 49ers wound up scrapping the masterplan for Cousins because Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots made an offer that they couldn’t refuse ahead of the 2017 trade deadline, as Schefter explained:

“Well, what happens is New England calls up San Francisco that Halloween and is like, ‘Hey, we got to move on from Jimmy Garoppolo, just give us a two [second-round pick],’” Schefter added. “Well, they do that, so that blows up the Kirk Cousins plan.

With the No. 104 selection in round three of the 2017 draft, the 49ers selected Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard. As Schefter noted, when Beathard signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021, the 49ers were granted a seventh-round compensatory pick for the 2022 Draft:

“And with that compensatory seventh-round draft pick, that they got from the draft in which they bypassed Patrick Mahomes, they took Brock Purdy.”

And there you have it.

The 49ers passed on Mahomes, selected Beathard, acquired Garoppolo, ditched the plan to pursue Cousins and sold the farm to move up and take Trey Lance third overall in 2021. All of this to eventually wind up with Purdy as their new long-term guy.

What can we say? Truth is often stranger than fiction.