Report: Shanahan doesn't tell 49ers assistants his QB evals

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With the 2021 NFL Draft a little more than three weeks away, all eyes are on the 49ers at No. 3 overall.

Ever since the 49ers pulled off the blockbuster trade to move up to draft a quarterback, speculation has run rampant about which signal-caller Kyle Shanahan has his eyes on.

But the fact is that nobody knows what Shanahan is thinking. Not even his assistants.

"When Kyle Shanahan went to assistant coaches Mike McDaniel, Rich Scangarello and Bobby Slowik, among others, for assessments on the quarterback class in January and February, as he and John Lynch mulled a big move up the draft board, he didn’t share his own evaluation with those guys," The MMQB's Albert Breer noted in his column Monday.

The 49ers want to keep things as close to the vest as possible. Any whispers about Shanahan preferring Mac Jones or Trey Lance or Justin Fields isn't coming from Santa Clara.

It feels like we probably won't have a good sense of what the 49ers' board looks like until the week of the draft, and even then, it's not likely to be the full picture.

RELATED: Day dismisses 'crazy' pre-draft critiques of Fields

Jones, who many believe is the ideal quarterback for Shanahan's system, is firmly in the mix. My colleague Matt Maiocco believes Jones is the one Shanahan has targeted, and the quarterback and coach showcased why they could be the ideal pair during separate press conferences last week.

But Fields has the highest ceiling of any quarterback in the class and the pre-draft critiques of him don't hold much water. Like any prospect, Fields has things he needs to work on, but the questions about his work ethic and processing speed should be easily dismissed. Fields has elite athleticism and top-level arm talent. He has great arm strength, is very accurate and is a fierce competitor. He fits perfectly with Shanahan's past comments on dual-threat quarterbacks and what makes the great ones so special.

Lance also will have a part to play in the 49ers' decision, although it feels like he's the third fiddle at the moment.

The choice will be Shanahan's and Shanahan's alone. His future will be tied to whoever he selects. With three weeks remaining, no one knows who he has his eye on.

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