Baalke hired as 49'ers GM

**ReaderM** · 05-01-2011, 12:58 AM

Originally Posted by darvon

Bring back Eddie.

You need to draft a good owner.

Boy it feels good to not to be on the bottom.

I had a week 1 joke about a lose to the Bucs all set and ready but the Lions scare me like crazy right now and I can't afford to have karma against them also in that game lol

**msclemons** · 05-01-2011, 01:00 AM

Originally Posted by ReaderM

So Clem tell us how you really feel about the draft

I can't. This is a family site. If I cut loose with all the expletives Cris' head will explode.

**msclemons** · 05-01-2011, 01:15 AM

Good Lord, Copernicus can't even figure out how to change his twitter handle. Please kill me.

**dandrea** · 05-04-2011, 05:39 PM

1- I love the Aldon Smith pick - if kiper and mcshay projected this everyone would feel differently. truth is, he has little less explosion/athleticism than Quinn but without the terrifying health concern and year off. hes a smart guy who loves football. my favorite thing to see in a draft is when a team picks the guy they want, regardless of what everyone else says. he wouldve been gone 5 picks later to the texans, so how is this that much of a reach?

2- a lot of people are saying CK is the best pick in the draft. let him sit for 2 years and learn under harbaugh, put together a package to utilize his legs in the meantime. have to be excited about this one.

3- i thought culliver was their worst pick. there were a couple other higher impact CBs available, but this was a low risk low reward pick. seemingly, hes a guy they can 100% count on to be a nickel back or a #2 cb...but they can count on him.

4- hunter, loved this pick. his carries will increase throughout the year, long term replacement. you knew they would take a rb, but hes the total package - injury/fumble concerns dropped him big time. you can fix fumbling and theres another guy who had major injury concerns that the niners drafted 6 years ago...worked out well.

5-10: first, i never have a problem drafting depth across the line..it always pays off. second, of course you never heard of these guys, thats why theyre in the 5th round. third, ronald Johnson is being brought in to do what ginn couldnt...stretch the field, return kicks. most of these guys are drafted for special teams and depth, and thats how you have to evaluate them. youll get a paryls haralson once every few years, but thats very rare.

**Andy Freeland** · 05-04-2011, 06:17 PM

Now we know that dandrea is an optimist. The first 2 picks were boom or bust. I've never been a big fan of boom or bust picks, they tend to congregate on the bust side.

Smith is very athletic and young. He needs to add weight, but as we all know that's not a hard thing to do as you grow older. I wasn't impressed with him on tape, at all. But there's a caveat, he broke his leg early in the year and I saw one of his first games back. He didn't hustle in the game I watched. He made a move to the QB, if the initial move didn't work he slowed down. He didn't chase plays down from behind like Jordan, Clayborn or Watt. But again, he was coming back from the broken leg, maybe he wasn't in shape yet.

I didn't like Kaepernick as much as most people did. I realize he's a great athlete, great arm, great speed, but I'm not so sure all of that will translate to the next level. He has a long, slow throwing motion. His mechanics will have to be completely torn apart and rebuilt from scratch. He had over 4000 rushing yards in college, but he's a straight line runner, not a scrambler. Add to that the fact that he played in the 'pistol' offense, which is a modified option, and I think he's risky. He was definitely worth drafting, but he went a little high for me.

**mkocs6** · 05-04-2011, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by dandrea

2- a lot of people are saying CK is the best pick in the draft. let him sit for 2 years and learn under harbaugh, put together a package to utilize his legs in the meantime. have to be excited about this one.

4- hunter, loved this pick. his carries will increase throughout the year, long term replacement. you knew they would take a rb, but hes the total package - injury/fumble concerns dropped him big time. you can fix fumbling and theres another guy who had major injury concerns that the niners drafted 6 years ago...worked out well.

5-10: first, i never have a problem drafting depth across the line..it always pays off. second, of course you never heard of these guys, thats why theyre in the 5th round. third, ronald Johnson is being brought in to do what ginn couldnt...stretch the field, return kicks. most of these guys are drafted for special teams and depth, and thats how you have to evaluate them. youll get a paryls haralson once every few years, but thats very rare.

I got to watch a decent amount of Kaepernick, and I'm not sure how I feel about his as a pro prospect. He was a really good college football player, probably the best player in the WAC over the last four years. Even though he weighs in a 6'4", 233, I never once thought he was actually that big watching him on the field, and I'm not exactly sure why. I'm willing to admit I'm not sure about this one.

One thing I'll say is that Stanford and Nevada have shared some common opponents these past three years. San Jose State about every year, Notre Dame, Cal. Kaepernick wasn't universally successful against them, but I'd wager Harbaugh had watched tape of him a few times before he took the 49ers job and liked what he saw.

I was really hoping the Browns would pull the trigger on Kendall Hunter, I think you got a good back there. I don't think this is that bad a pick, Clem. After Frank Gore, there isn't much in your backfield after the sudden retirement of Glen Coffee. Remember, you picked up Brian Westbrook in free agency in the middle of last season. Good value here.

I'm not sure what Ronald Johnson really adds. I'd say if there was one thing Ted Ginn could actually do, it's return kicks.

**msclemons** · 05-04-2011, 11:43 PM

I feel slightly better about the draft after reading more. I suppose I'll wait and see how it turns out.

Not drinking the Harbaugh kool-aid though. I drank the Singletary kool-aid and that son of a gun peed in it.

**dandrea** · 05-05-2011, 02:40 PM

it takes a lot of fun out of it for us draft nerds, but one common theme every year in every draft is that we have no idea whats going to happen. Andy hit it spot on, these were boom or bust picks. i think potential to boom and danger to bust has a lot to do with coaching as well. harbaugh has a lot of boom or bust in him as well, opposed to singletary who was like a nj strip club, bust only. i wouldnt have touched that koolaid if i was dying in a desert. im more excited about Aldon Smith when i realize hes going to spend his career watching Patrick Willis prepare.

bc the entire draft is so boom or bust, i think its important you have something specific in mind when youre scouting. they have 1 specific thing in mind for aldon smith, go get the qb. hes going to be a tough assignment for years to come. how he manages to perform in coverage and against the run is going to dictate how often he can stay on the field. with CK, he has a rocket arm, great athelticism, hes smart, loves football and hes a gamer...i love the idea of letting that develop for a few years.

to take harbaugh's fav phrase, we have some plutonium grade raw material here...in the right hands it could really blow up, but in the wront hands it could..well, blow up. harbaugh elicits trust i havent had since the days o' mooch