The 49ers' tour of draft prospects last week included a meeting with Deshaun Watson.
San Francisco GM John Lynch told Up to the Minute Live on Monday that San Francisco worked out the Clemson quarterback last week. Lynch also attended North Carolina and Notre Dame pro days last week, where he had a chance to get another look at QBs Mitchell Trubisky and DeShone Kizer.
There are plenty of skeptics when it comes to whether any of this year's QB prospects are worthy of a pick early in Round 1, but Lynch stood up for the signal-callers on Monday, saying they're getting "a bad rap."
Lynch also raved about Kizer at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The news of the Watson workout might be the latest signal that Lynch is serious enough in his interest in the QBs that he's still evaluating whether any of them are worthy of the 49ers' selection at No. 2 overall. The position remains one of the club's biggest needs.
However, no analyst has San Francisco going in that direction in the most recent mock drafts posted to NFL.com. Interestingly, NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein has the 49ers trading down from the No. 2 spot to No. 8 in a trade with the Carolina Panthers in the mock draft he posted on Monday.
With needs across the board, it behooves the 49ers to at least keep up the appearance that they're open to any and all options at No. 2 -- doing so will only help their leverage in any potential trade talks leading up to the draft.
If they do like Watson or any other QB enough to take him in the first round, they might be able to trade down and still be the first team to pick a QB.
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