When Kyle Shanahan took over as the 49ers coach in 2017, one of the first things that he tried to do was make a trade for Kirk Cousins, a tidbit of information that was revealed earlier this month by Shanahan's dad, Mike.
According to Mike Shanahan, the 49ers offered the SECOND OVERALL PICK in the 2017 NFL Draft, but the trade didn't happen because Washington wouldn't return any phone calls from the 49ers.
Up until now, no one on Washington's end had confirmed any portion of the story, but that changed this week when former Commanders coach Jay Gruden did an interview with 106.7 The Fan in D.C.
First, Gruden said he heard from the 49ers directly, so he knows for a fact that they were interested in getting Cousins.
"I won't say who contacted me, but I was contacted by someone over there who told me they were very interested. He was getting ready to go on his second franchise tag, and I know they wanted him," Gruden said, via Audacy.com. "The Shanahans love Kirk and he loves them, and I don't blame them; they brought him in here and taught him some good ball, and we were fortunate to keep Kirk and work with him."
Kyle Shanahan and Cousins were familiar with each other because Shanahan was Washington's offensive coordinator during Cousins' first two years in the NFL (2012-13).
So did Washington really refuse to pick up the phone? If the 49ers were willing to trade away the second overall pick for Cousins, you'd think the Commanders would have been more than eager to try and get a deal done, but nope.
According to Gruden, the trade didn't happen because former Washington owner Dan Snyder and former team president Bruce Allen "didn't like the Shanahans and didn't want them to get Kirk."
So there it is, that's why the Commanders didn't return the 49ers' calls. Snyder's pettiness kept the Commanders from landing the SECOND OVERALL PICK in the NFL Draft. The crazy thing is that Gruden actually thinks that Washington could have gotten even more compensation from the 49ers if they had opened up trade talks.
"They would've given up way more than that [pick] -- you're talking about a $150 million quarterback, you're going to get two ones and a player, or two ones and a two," Gruden said. "You look at all the teams that are struggling, what don't they have? He had opportunities to go to San Francisco, the Jets, Minnesota -- we could've traded him and made our team better, instead we got a compensatory third round pick … it makes no sense."
Gruden was Washington's head coach from 2014 thru 2019, so he knows a thing or two about the organization, and he thinks rejecting the Cousins offer was the "worst decision" in franchise history.
"It's a shame. We had such a hot commodity, a young talented player with a bright future ahead of him, and we got nothing for him. That's the worst decision we made as a franchise," Gruden said.
If the Commanders had made the trade with San Francisco, they would have needed someone to replace Cousins. In that case, it would have opened the door for them to draft someone like PATRICK MAHOMES or even Deshaun Watson, who were both selected in the top 12 in 2017. Instead, the Commanders ended up landing Jonathan Allen with the 17th overall pick.
As for the 49ers, they did end up making a trade, but it wasn't for a quarterback. On the day of the draft in 2017, they sent the second overall pick to Chicago in a deal that allowed the Bears to draft Mitchell Trubisky. The 49ers ended up with the third overall pick, which they used on Solomon Thomas.
If Cousins had landed in San Francisco, the 49ers would have been set at QB. However, with no Cousins, Shahanan has now cycled through six starting quarterbacks in his time as the 49ers' coach, although he might now have finally found his QB of the future in Brock Purdy.
