What Peter King of Sports Illustrated is to Monday, Michael Lombardi of National Football Post is to Sunday. Make sure to check out his latest Sunday at the Post here.
Lombardi: The Chiefs are really trying to move down
The most telling item is his fifth one. Here’s a snippet:
5. Kansas City: The Chiefs are trying, and I mean really trying, to move down. My sources tell me they’ll be willing to go down as far as 15 for the right deal because they feel they can find a player in that range.
Lombardi contends that it will be a team trying to move ahead of Cleveland to select quarterback Jimmy Clausen, even though Lombardi says the Browns won't take the Notre Dame signal caller.
We can reasonably eliminate New York (Eli Manning), Seattle (traded for Charlie Whitehurst), Miami (going with Chad Henne), Denver (they like Kyle Orton and traded for Brady Quinn) and Oakland (trying to figure out Al Davis is like trying to explain physics to a first grader).
That leaves San Francisco, Jacksonville and Buffalo. The Jaguars currently only have six picks, so lets eliminate them from contention.
San Francisco and Buffalo each have nine pick in this year’s draft. With two first-round picks, the 49ers might be more apt to dealing up. In theory, they could trade pick No. 13, pick No. 79 and a throwaway late-round pick for pick No. 5 to select Clausen.
Clausen might not even be the quarterback Buffalo is after. Many believe it’s Tim Tebow in the second round.
San Francisco beat writers have begun saying that if Clausen is there at No. 13 that he’s almost certainly the choice. Starter Alex Smith is in the final year of his contract, and is no sure thing as a starting quarterback.
If the 49ers believe Clausen can be a franchise quarterback, don’t be shocked if they give Kansas City a call on draft day.
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