Kyle Shanahan Says Drake Jackson Has the Best Tape of All the Rookie D-Linemen
Sometimes Kyle Shanahan says too much.
Two years ago when the 49ers traded up for Brandon Aiyuk, Shanahan defended the move by saying Aiyuk was the best receiver in the draft -- even better than Cee Dee Lamb, whom Shanahan mentioned by name.
No pressure, Brandon.
This year at the 49ers' State of the Franchise, Shanahan was asked about rookie second-round pick Drake Jackson. Shanahan could have something vague and general about him, but that's not in his DNA. He likes to talk and be specific and share his opinions. So here's what he said about Jackson:
SHANAHAN: "Drake has been great. We're just getting him in there. OTAs are always different. We're not doing as much O-line/D-line stuff, so you don't get to see as much as you want from those guys. But when he has been in, he has been exactly as advertised. The movement, what he can do -- I like to joke that we like to stockpile D-linemen here and we'll worry about the offensive pieces and everything else later. Like, are you sure we need an 18th defensive lineman? If they're that good, yes you do. Nothing else matters. When you sit there at pick No. 61, the odds are very small (of drafting a good d-lineman). You don't see many guys who jump off the screen that don't go in the first 20 picks.
"The way I watch the draft -- these guys spend a lot of time on it throughout the year, but then they put these tapes together and I spend a month doing it, and the first time we watched Drake, he was the 10th or so D-lineman we watched because we were going off their projection of where they might go, but his tape was better than the nine we saw before him. It was a highlight tape, so you're watching the best stuff possible, but it shows the potential of a guy. There are some things as to why we got him at 61, but when you see the full amount of what he's capable of doing, I'm not trying to put pressure on him or anything, but you see the ability to be one of those top guys. And to have that advantage at 61, those are the things that change teams."
For the record, Shanahan said Jackson had the best tape of all the defensive linemen in the draft. It's always nice when a head coach shows confidence in a player, but this puts unnecessary pressure on Jackson to be better than a late second-round pick.
Let's see if Shanahan is right.
