49ers
49ers GM John Lynch spoke about his decision to trade back in the draft, moving out of the first round and eventually selecting WR De’Zhaun Stribling with the first pick of the second round, who is notably the nephew of former professional wrestler Don Muraco.
“I think it’s the way the board fell,” Lynch said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “There were a couple of — a few — players that we would’ve taken, had they been there. That didn’t happen. We had done our due diligence. Probably about this time last week, we started making calls, ‘Hey, if we were to get back…’ And I think the reason why, I think this was a draft where a lot of people were trying to move back. And so, you wanted to get ahead. We had a couple of deals secured. The second deal was from a team we didn’t have secured, but we had made contact with. We were able to swap a fourth for a third in one deal. We were able to pick up some things to move back three spots.”
Rams
The Rams made a shocking move up to pick No. 13 to select Alabama QB Ty Simpson, who was surprised as well and is looking forward to learning from HC Sean McVay and QB Matthew Stafford.
“Learning from Sean McVay and then Matthew, who is obviously one of the greatest of all time, I’m looking forward to it,” Simpson said on NFL Network after being picked. “It was really brief. I met with some scouts at Bama, and that was really it. They talked to my agent, but it was really not much…This was my first time talking to Les, tonight. This was my first contact. I haven’t talked to Matthew yet, but I’m super pumped to be in the room with him and learn from him. He’s one of the greatest of all time. We watched his film all the time when I was with Bama, the stuff he did, the stuff the Rams did with Coach McVay, so the fact that I can soak up all that knowledge, I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”
Rams
Rams GM Les Snead gave a glowing review of USC WR Makai Lemon and said that his hands and consistency made him a reliable target.
“He’s a fun player to watch being right here,” Snead said, via Rams Wire. “I have a daughter at USC. … I’ve lived and died some Trojan football. I can say this: As a fan and as a father with two kids there, it was fun when you saw the ball go up and it was heading toward Lemon’s hands, you always felt like he’d bring it down.”
Snead also provided a positive update on WR Puka Nacua amid his offseason drama.
“You know what, Puka’s doing really, really well. It’s really, really cool to see,” Snead said. “We’re in a profession where, hey, young men are probably … people that are carrying the most responsibility, right? They’re players on the field and they have the most responsibility for an organization. So, where a lot places, the people in your organization who are carrying the weight-bearing load are often older, more experienced, a little wiser. So, the neat thing in this business is to be there when someone does have a hiccup, someone does stumble, and to go, you know what, been there, done that, we can get off the mat, we can apply some lessons, we can get better and see them become. I always say, they’re young men becoming men. And I’m 55 years old and I’m still becoming. And I’m not sure I’ll ever get there, but we’re always striving to do it.”
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