Friday, June 14, 2002

Niners trade for fool’s gold

Despite what some experts believe, San Francisco won’t resurrect McNown’s career

By Andy Hanacek, Associate editor

That’s the way it’s supposed to be, I guess. I guess none of you readers out there would like your local paper to proclaim, "Titans pick up useless roster filler," or "Seahawks sign flawed player." So the media has to sugarcoat a lot of things.

Take, for instance, the recent trade of QB Cade McNown to the 49ers. Many media outlets have talked about how this move could be good for McNown — that it could help him develop into the quarterback the Bears saw when they selected him in the first round of the 1999 draft. But I just don’t see it.

Being a lifelong Bears fan, I was excited way back in ’99 when Chicago took McNown. I would have preferred that the Bears had traded up to get Donovan McNabb, but I was happy with the selection at the time.

I thought McNown would be at least a solid quarterback for the Bears. I may have had delusions of greatness about him at first, but those were probably minor. I didn’t think he was the next Joe Montana, but I thought he would be quite good.

Of course, that didn’t pan out. The Bears traded McNown on Aug. 22, 2001, to the Dolphins in a deal that included a couple of late-round picks. By now, the expectations for McNown were much lower. Most folks knew McNown wouldn’t do much in the 2001 season, since he joined Miami so late in the preseason.

And how right they were. McNown clearly wasn’t impressive enough to stay with the Dolphins, who cut their losses earlier this week and gave McNown a third chance with the Niners. They received a late-round pick in exchange for him.

In San Francisco, McNown joins former UCLA head coach Terry Donahue and former Bears front-office man Bill Rees. Why is this worth mentioning? It’s not as though Donahue and Rees are coaches — they’re both in the personnel department. Sure, McNown ran Donahue’s offense very well as a Bruin, but I seriously doubt 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci will be handing the reins over to Donahue.

McNown will have to learn Mariucci’s offense, which will be his third offense in two years. It’s a West Coast-style offense, which is what Donahue ran, but it’s certain to have its own details that McNown will have to pick up.

Some people talk about how San Francisco is the perfect place to send a quarterback to resurrect his career. But, really, I haven’t seen it in recent years. Rick Mirer was there. Jim Druckenmiller was there. Giovanni Carmazzi was there. Jeff Garcia didn’t resurrect his career there — he was already good. You just didn’t know about him because he played north of the border.

So what are the odds that a player who has failed so often in the past will suddenly be the cream of the crop because he went to the Niners? Not very good. And in McNown’s case, I think the odds are even worse.

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