Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey was on the board when the 49ers were on the clock with the No. 3 pick of the 2017 NFL draft. The team opted to take his Cardinal teammate, defensive end Solomon Thomas, instead. That was all part of the plan, coach Kyle Shanahan said he joked to McCaffrey when the two met for the first time on Friday, after the team’s monumental trade for the star running back late Thursday night.
“I told Christian this was our plan all along,” Shanahan joked Friday, when asked about passing on McCaffrey in 2017, per The Athletic‘s David Lombardi. “We wanted to build a D-line first and then add him five and a half years later.”
