Paint it black, stupid girl. I’m high and dry. You are under my thumb, so doncha bother me. Well, the flurry of craziness around the draft is over, and the wait for the meaning of football life once again goes into hibernation mode. So, the only thing to do is debate the selections. Here’s the list of players the Niners took.
1 (1st round) Reid, Eric FS
2 (2nd) Carradine, Tank DE
3 (2nd) McDonald, Vance TE
4 (3rd) Lemonier, Corey DE
5 (4th) Patton, General WR
6 (4th) Lattimore, Marcus RB
7 (5th) Dial, Quinton DE
8 (6th) Moody, Nick OLB
9 (7th) Daniels, BJ QB
10 (7th) Bykowski, Carter OT
11 (7th) Cooper, Marcus CB
UDFAs include last place finisher in the Olympic discus toss, Lawrence Okoye; and Luke Marquart, a converted TE-to-lineman who is raw. Both these guys got aome amount of coverage as being anywhere from 3 to 7th rounders in the draft, and both are seen as projects with strong upsides.
So, the practice squad at the least looks to be replaced entirely. I really didn’t think they’d draft 13 guys, But I didn’t think they’d draft 11 either. As NJ pointed out (I think) though, the Niners already have 10 selections slated for next year. They can’t very well pack next year’s draft too heavily without missing out on some players this year. Plus, the last three guys are fringe at best anyway. And Marcus Lattimore will not see the field this season, and the jury is out on Tank Carradine as well. The team has told him to ease off on his intense rehab. In essence saying he has time to recover, don’t push it too hard. So that means there’s a little flexibility in teh decisions these guys make regarding who goes and stays.
All in all, I think they did about as good as they could have. Quibble about the players as you will, they addressed their needs with players they feel fit their system (Reid, Tank, Patton), can be coached up (Vance, Lenomier), or were added for depth (Lattimore, Dial, Okoye, Marquart). The casualties in all this appear to be Cam Johnson, Darius Fleming, Dan Skula, Michael Whlhoite, among a few others. Scott Tolzein will be in a fight with BJ Daniels for the 3-spot in the QB depth chart. BJ is more in line with the new direction of the 49ers QB situation, so the more Smithlike Tolzein may be eased out/traded. The thought being that these guys don’t pass up Colt McCoy as the 2 guy.
