Niners normal supervisor John Lynch’s day began with the rumor that he was able to commerce defensive lineman Solomon Thomas a mere two years after drafting him with one of many 4 picks the Bears gave up within the Mitch Trubisky commerce.
By dinnertime within the Bay Area, he was telling reporters that the defensive lineman would “absolutely” play for the 49ers this 12 months.
Apparently, so would kicker Robbie Gould.
Coach Kyle Shanahan stated the crew wouldn’t commerce the kicker regardless of his calls for to take action earlier this week. While Lynch stated he hoped to work out a long-term deal, Shanahan stated he understood Gould didn’t need to be there long-term.
Still, he stated he’d play for the 49ers in 2019, a sobering assertion for Bears followers hopeful the crew would commerce a choose for the privilege of paying Gould round $5 million a 12 months to return on a white horse.
“Pretty excited to have a good kicker this year,” Shanahan advised reporters.
Bears normal supervisor Ryan Pace, in the meantime, didn’t spend the primary evening of the NFL Draft taking pictures down rumors or participating in a public confrontation with, of all folks, his placekicker.
Pace didn’t have followers roll their eyes at him Thursday evening, the best way Raiders followers did when NFL Network guru-turned-GM Mike Mayock shocked the league with the participant he picked No. Four total.
He didn’t do something. Consider Pace’s gradual day a reward for a job effectively achieved, then.
The Bears have been and not using a first-round choose due to their commerce for out of doors linebacker Khalil Mack final 12 months, and will likely be and not using a second-rounder Friday due to the deal for wideout Anthony Miller.
Pace and Bears scouts have been holed up within the new draft room at Halas Hall on Thursday to plan for his or her first choose on Friday evening: a third-rounder, No. 87 total. They’ll eye a working again to switch Jordan Howard — regardless of Pace’s insistence in any other case — or a cornerback to line up behind Prince Amukamara and Kyle Fuller. They might use a blocking tight finish or an edge rusher, too.
That they don’t have to fill a single beginning place, although, speaks to the steadiness that adopted the Bears’ 12-Four season.
The draft began with chalk — Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray to the Cardinals, Ohio State edge rusher Nick Bosa to the 49ers and Alabama defensive deal with Quinnen Williams to the Jets — earlier than the Raiders steered it off the tracks.
Five years after drafting Mack fourth, the Raiders took one other pass-rusher on the identical spot. The difficulty: it wasn’t Kentucky’s Josh Allen, however moderately Clemson defensive finish Clelin Ferrell, who most anticipated to be picked within the second half of the primary spherical.
No choice all evening was extra stunning.
It’s unclear if Pace lived as much as his promise to look at Mack highlights whereas the Raiders have been on the clock with the Bears’ choose later within the draft. No one would have blamed him.
Part of the motivation for the Raiders delivery Mack to the Bears on Sept. 1 was the assumption the crew could be unhealthy sufficient to make a 2019 first-rounder significantly invaluable.
It was not.
When the Raiders lastly spent the Bears’ first-round choose, No. 24 total, they selected Alabama’s Josh Jacobs, thought of the highest working again within the draft regardless of beginning just one sport final 12 months.
He’ll be the reply to a trivia query sometime: the primary a part of the Raiders’ return for a person who, relying on his subsequent few years with the Bears, might go down as among the finest defenders the sport has recognized.
That ought to have given Pace a lot to smile about whereas the Raiders have been on the clock.