NFC Notes: 49ers, Saints, Seahawks

49ers

One NFL GM tells Peter King that the biggest gap between two players taken in this year’s draft was Roquan Smith going to the Bears at No. 8 and the 49ers following that by taking OT Mike McGlinchey.

“The biggest gap of our grades between any two picks in the first round was Roquan Smith at eight and Mike McGlinchey at nine,” the GM said. “That’s a premier player followed by a need pick of a good player.”

• According to King, the 49ers were trying to trade RT Trent Brown all spring before they agreed to the deal with the Patriots.
• King says that the 49ers didn’t view Brown as a system fit for them in a zone-rushing offense.

Saints

Saints HC Sean Payton explained that finding a player capable of putting pressure on quarterbacks was among their top offseason targets and they felt Marcus Davenport was worthy of making a big move up the board to get.

“One of the offseason targets was a pressure player and that might come as a guy who lines up inside, it might come from a player that lines up outside,” Payton said, via NewOrleansSaints.com. “But before we check that box we have to feel like he can affect the quarterback and in our league, there’s a premium on a few different positions, one of them is that, one of them is a corner. We saw the quarterbacks and the tackles. We can’t find those guys when the season is over with and we start free agency. They’re generally players you have to draft.”

According to Payton, they were in talks with another team about a potential trade up for Davenport, but a player that the other team was targeting happened to be there for them.

“There were just other teams on the phone. We were close with one other team,” Payton said. “A player fell for them. Oftentimes it will be just wait to see if our player is there. It is pretty normal. So without going into [who] all the other teams are, it’s not unusual.”

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll says they plan to work hard to get first-round RB Rashaad Penny up to speed in terms of his pass protection in order to pave the for him to be a three-down running back for them.

“We’re gonna work real hard with his pass protection and make sure that he’s up to speed there,” Carroll said, via the Tacoma News Tribune. “We’d like to see if we can make him available to us on all three downs. Kind of like we use Chris [Carson].”