Winner: John Lynch roped Ryan Pace into trade for Mitch Trubisky, lands two of draft’s top defenders
San Francisco 49ers rookie general manager John Lynch brilliantly roped Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace into giving up a ton of draft capital for a player the 49ers weren’t going to take (details here).
Granted, other teams were looking to move up to No. 2, so Lynch had all the leverage. But Chicago gave up far too much to move up one spot for Mitch Trubisky — a quarterback who likely won’t start for Chicago this year unless Mike Glennon gets hurt.
Even all by itself, it’s an iffy deal on the surface.
The Bears gave Mike Glennon $18M guaranteed and a month and a half later used 3 picks to move up 1 slot to take Mitch Trubisky.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 28, 2017
To have given up so much to land Trubisky — especially since the Niners weren’t going to take him in the first place — was just horrible. Chicago isn’t good enough everywhere else to have given up so much to bring in a guy who cannot help right away and who has just 13 career college starts under his belt.
What’s even more stunning is the 49ers ended up getting Solomon Thomas, a guy they were already targeting and were planning on taking at No. 2 if they hadn’t worked out a trade. The Niners even trolled the Bears afterwards with a vicious tweet (look here), and they weren’t the only ones, as NFC North rival Minnesota threw a bit of shade their way as well.
So to break it down one more time, the Bears gave up three valuable mid-round picks to move up one spot to pick a guy who wasn’t going to be the No. 2 pick, and the 49ers landed their targeted guy in the process.
Then at the end of the first round, San Francisco traded back up to nab the No. 31 pick from Seattle for Reuben Foster — a guy most considered to be a top-three defensive talent in the draft. He would have been considered at No. 2 overall if not for some red flags.
Lynch is a huge winner here, as are the 49ers.