When you think about Thursday evening and the San Francisco 49ers' role in it, you end up realizing that a lot of people thought Kyle Shanahan was in the beginning stages of his great reinvention, when as it turned out he did the same thing the same way with the same thought processes.
You may decide for yourselves the efficacy of the approach, but it is a reminder for next time that Shanahan is who he is, and does what he does.
He did not reach for Mac Jones, and he did not trade Jimmy Garoppolo. He drafted Trey Lance and decided on an orderly transition at quarterback that may or may not even happen. He had John Lynch, FS (Faithful Sidekick) call the Green Bay Packers once about Aaron Rodgers' availability, got told no and stopped his tire-kicking before the rest of the world became overheated about it. Frankly, we're surprised he hasn't called about Patrick Mahomes, just because due diligence never dies.
We have all erred on this 49er draft, all but those who saw Trey Lance as the choice from the start of the specuprocess. We knew it was Justin Fields until we knew it was Mac Jones until we thought it might be Rodgers. And in the end, what we knew was nothing. Shanahan did what he always does, hide in plain sight, and for all the people who claimed to have access to Shanahan's thinking, whatever the hell that is, damned few thought he would slowly and rationally, with Garoppolo remaining first among equals until further notice. He will be forever condemned here for not being made of adamantium, and for not hitting Emanuel Sanders in stride, but that is standard fan behavior and as such not to be trusted. Shanahan has stayed the course, which is to be mindful of future developments while not rashly discarding what doesn't need to be discarded yet.
True, by taking Lance he did cause some agita among the commentariat and teams like the Bears and Patriots, who leaped to fill their quarterback voids with Fields and Jones, but none of that is Shanahan's problem. He still isn't sure that any of us will be alive on Sunday, but we'd like to think he said that more in hope than probability. In terms of information, he was as useful as he would have been if he'd slapped "Kick Me" signs on every member of the NFL's Gasbag Army, and since he doesn't have to work in service to any of them, he did fine.
Of course, the clock now starts on the topic of when Lance should take Garoppolo's job, which we can safely assume will start well before Labor Day, but that too is not Shanahan's concern. He showed us all how he views draft noise by slapping two sets of buds in each ear and going about the business. It's a helpful reminder for next year, one that won't be heeded, because most draft nerds would rather have the noise. Now there will still be Rodgers blowback stories because those are more fun than OTAs (and while we're at it, breaking all the metatarsals in both feet is more fun than OTAs), but that's Lynch's problem, since he's the guy who drops the dimes on Shanahan's behalf.
But in general, we got all the answers we needed Thursday, when the 49ers passed on yet another chance for quarterback regime change and opted for stability that comes from better blocking, running and catching all around. Shanahan isn't old, but he is fashioned, and those remain the fundamentals of the sport. Noise doesn't come up much as a factor, except to the outside world.