Justin Smith has left the building; No Bruce in sight

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch was fairly blunt when talking about quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in January. "As for the quarterback position, Kyle (Shanahan) and I both have spoken, and spoken fairly directly as to the fact that we expect Jimmy to be our quarterback," Lynch told reporters during an end-of-season press conference. "That's consistently met with other stories, but that's not of concern to us." That hasn't stopped a significant amount of speculation surrounding the quarterback's future. The 49ers have been linked to nearly every quarterback trade rumor. They reportedly inquired about Matthew Stafford and Carson Wentz, but there is no

NFL Media analyst Charley Casserly released his first mock draft and has the San Francisco 49ers landing his top-rated pass rusher, Kwity Paye of Michigan, with the No. 12 overall pick. It is noteworthy that Casserly has quarterback Justin Fields of Ohio State enduring a massive fall in Round 1. In fact, he is available when San Francisco makes its first selection within this mock draft and is passed on by general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan. Casserly has Fields falling all the way to the Pittsburgh Steelers at No.

ESPN's Mel Kiper had the San Francisco 49ers selecting cornerback Patrick Surtain II in his first mock draft. His latest mock draft has general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan landing a quarterback with their first selection — the No. 7 overall pick. That's right. Kiper, who never includes trades in his mock drafts, is doing so for the first time. He included three in his latest first-round mock. "I've always stayed away because it's

NFL Network analytics expert Cynthia Frelund released her first mock draft of the year and has the San Francisco 49ers bolstering an important area of need on defense. Frelund's mock draft, which she refers to as a "simulation," differs from those presented by her NFL Media colleagues. It is not attempting to predict what organizations might actually do during the draft. "My analytics-based mock is based solely on a contextual, data-driven model that aims to do one thing: maximize each team's potential to win as many games as possible in 2021," explains Frelund. The analytics expert also used past projections, results, and input from