49ers HC Kyle Shanahan thinks NFL Draft should happen before free agency

Every new NFL year begins in March with the start of free agency, when reported deals and trades become official and when available players who haven't yet had contact with would-be employers can meet with teams as they wish. 

More than a month separates the beginning of free agency and the opening night of the NFL Draft, which will occur on April 28 this year. While speaking at the league's annual meetings this week, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan explained why he wishes the draft came before free agency on the football calendar. 

"It would be awesome. It would make too much sense," Shanahan said, according to David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. "The draft, you'd love to take the best player. You'd always love to do that. And then what would be the neatest thing, if you could just study the heck out of everybody in the draft, which we all do, and whoever comes to your spot, and just take that. And then you can look at your board when it's all said and done and be like, 'Wow, we don't have this position. Let's go pay for it.'

"So then, if you are going to overpay—which, that's what free agency is, you have to overpay to go get those those [players]—it kind of defeats the purpose of the draft right after it. I feel, if it goes the other way around, you do the draft, you get all those guys, and you go overpay because you have to overpay, because you know where you're at."

It's unlikely the NFL Players Association would ever sign off on switching the schedule. Players know team executives are always looking for cheaper options as they try to build winning rosters while staying under the salary cap, and holding the draft before free agency would almost certainly limit how much cash some veterans would earn on the open market.

Besides, history has shown the NFL usually embraces an "if it's not broke, don't fix it" approach to such matters.