Day 2 of the NFL Draft was a pretty busy one for the San Francisco 49ers, and it started long before they were on the clock.
The day began with a trade that send tackle Trent Brown to the New England Patriots and a 2018 fifth-round pick to San Francisco. Then came the two-year contract extension for safety Jaquiski Tartt. And then came the draft, where they began by trading up to get wide receiver Dante Pettis.
Pettis is a versatile receiver who will be another important weapon for Jimmy Garoppolo. Linebacker Fred Warner brings versatility and depth to a position that is very much in flux right now for the 49ers, while Tarvarius Moore is a safety who can and – according to general manager John Lynch – will play corner.
All in all, it was day of players who fit the 49ers’ scheme and fit what they are trying to do.
Here are some things Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan had to say about the day that was.
Trent Brown Trade
John Lynch told the media last night “Never say never” regarding a Trent Brown trade. It turns out never was today.
Yeah, my fingers were crossed last night when I was walking to you. I did say never say never. We had agreed in principle. But, part of these deals, you’ve got to see them through and obviously there was an injury and he had to go pass a physical. You know, I had spoken to Trent last night and we had talked to him. He got on a plane. He went out to New England, passed the physical and there we were.
Dante Pettis: A Guy Can Help from First Down to Fourth
Kyle Shanahan
It starts with the tape and he’s extremely talented, a very good route runner, he can separate and has extremely good hands, very quick, fast enough to run all the routes, and when you meet him you see how smart he is, how hard he works, and you get why he’s the full package.
We just feel he fills a lot of spots for us, not just, we’re happy with our group. We’ve got a lot of good players. With our group before we got Pettis, who have a lot of different traits. We can use them all differently. We think Pettis does a little bit of everything. I think we can use him sometimes similar to how we use [WR] Marquise [Goodwin], if need be. I think we can use him inside similar to how we use [WR] Trent [Taylor] if need be. I think he has the hands and toughness, we can use him similar to [WR] Pierre [Garçon]. In the meantime, I think he’s going to be a very good punt returner too. So, he’s a guy that adds a lot of versatility to our team and when I speak of someone with those type of traits, he’s a guy who can help you out an all four downs, not just third down, not just first or second and then also special teams.”
Fred Warner: Solid Football Player, Solid Person
John Lynch on Warner the Person
[W]e always talk about football character but in general, character. Fred is a good guy. I think that’s when the visits, sometimes there’s certain times where we talk about guys you really don’t need a 30 visit. Fred wasn’t necessarily that. But, I would say that [regional scout] Reggie Cobb did a great job scouting them but then we go down to the Senior Bowl and he just kind of looks good against that quality of player and so you feel a little bit better, so let’s learn a little bit more about him. We brought him in and I think we all just had a really good feel once he was in the building and all those things in the community, he’s a good kid and a really good football player.John Lynch on Warner the Player
We saw a number of examples where he lined up in the slot a lot but he also played what we call stack backer. We love the fact that he’s done them both…[W]e play a lot of zone defense. You have to read the quarterback. You have to see the quarterback and when that hand comes off, you break. There’s just numerous clips that kind of fit what we do, and he’s a guy we just all really appreciated the more and more we watched. Then he’s just kind of got that same makeup.
Tarvarius Moore and the 49ers’ Cornerbacks
John Lynch
He’s a guy who played safety at Southern Miss. We think he has an opportunity to play some corner for us. We’re going to check that out and see if it is, but we know that he can play safety. This is a guy who ran, I really credit our scouts, [regional scout] Darrell Moody and [regional scout] John Stevenson and [national scout] Justin Chabot who went through there and really identified him as an elite athlete. He went on at his pro day. He didn’t go to the Combine. He went on his pro day and just blew the doors, ran a 4.32, jumped over 40 inches. He’s a special athlete, but he’s also a guy on tape who shows up and gets the ball.
Kyle Shanahan on Jimmie Ward
We’re keeping him at corner for now. Jimmie is going to be starting at corner in OTAs and with the number of guys out there, we’ll put Moore right behind him with some other guys and we’ll see how the competition goes. You know, we know we’ve got a good safety, who can play in this league as a safety. We think he can play corner. We’ll see. But, we also know we’ve got a guy who can run really fast and doesn’t mind hitting people, so that usually translates to a good special teams player, also. I think we’re very fortunate to get a player like that where we did.