We’re getting closer to March, so that means the draft is coming. As you can see from the slider on the right, Ballke has had a pretty varied draft record. Last year netted a lot of guys that contributed immediately: Jimmie Ward, Carlos Hyde, Bruce Ellington, Chris Borland, Aaron Lynch, Dontae Johnson, and to a lesser extent, Marcus Martin, all played solid to spectacular. Borland and Lynch came in on fire, and D Johnson played well due to an injury-ravaged defensive backfield. 2013 was a little more hit-and-miss. Reid was as good a pick as could have been made. Carradine, VMcD, Lemonier, and Dial, have not lived up to their promise, but the jury is still out on the D line guys at least. Lemonier is gone, as is the shot-in-the-dark Lattimore. 2012 is the low-water mark for Baalke, with OL Joe Looney being the only one left from that draft. 2011 was as equally impressive as 2012 was bad. Aldon Smith, Colin, Cully, Kilgore, and Bruce Miller are all a big part of the team, and all are solid starters. His first draft as overseer, 201o saw the addition (with Sing’s help) of two O linemen Anthony Davis, and Mike Iupati. Also, of course, the all-world NaVorro Bowman.
That being said, this is an important draft, and Baalke once again has stockpiled picks to the tune of 9 guys to pick. Areas of need are, in order, D line, WR, O line, DB, LB, RB. The first two are up for debate, and Baalke will probably go BPA at decision time.
The combines are just about done (DBs today), and some guys have raised eyebrows, and some have merely stayed the same, while some have dropped. Chris Conley, a WR from Georgia, made the biggest splash with a 4.35 40 time, and a vertical leap of 45″. Almost enough to reach the top of the slat slapper.
As far as the 49ers go, our first 2 selections are, to me at least, and a few million others, cast in stone. Wide receiver and defensive tackle. The top three WRs, in semi-particular order, are Amari Cooper, Kevin White, and DaVante Parker. Cooper didn’t disappoint in his combine performance. He’s smooth, fast (enough), and is the real deal. Kevin White, however, laid down his own blistering 4.35 40 time , and he’s a beast at attacking the ball in flight. The knock on him is that he only had one good year. Cooper had 2 1,000 yard seasons in his three years.
Problem is, Neither of these guys will be available at 15. DaVante Parker may not even be there, what with the Rams, Raiders, and Vikings all looking for WR help. This means we look to the D line for help. Problem there is, there are likely 9-10 defensive linemen taken in the top 20. After Leonard Williams, the picture gets muddy. Gone for sure is NT Danny Shelton, as new Bear DC Vic Fangio takes his plugger for his newly installed (gasp!) 3-4 defense. Brian Urlacher, Mike Singletary, and Dick Butkus must all be spinning in their graves. If they were dead. Too many guys out there to even give a remotely accurate guess. Malcom Brown, DT from Texas, is the name I hear a lot for us, for what that’s worth.
So, the falloff after the top 3 WRs is fairly precipitous. Funchess doesn’t look very smooth out there, and ran pretty stiff. Sort of common for bigger guys, but that bothers me. Green-Beckham is a beast, but had major off-field issues. Pot and domestic abuse apparently. He may fall to the 2nd. He talked a bit about it and said he’s not going to blow his shot, but talk is cheap, and the team that spouts winning with class may shy away. Breshad Perriman didn’t participate as he has a hammy issue, but he’s kind of an under-the-radar pick that Baalke might go with. He’s got size, speed, and separates well from defenders. Raw, though. Not a great route-runner who relies on athleticism. Still, a big red zone target that would help the imminent loss of Crabs.
So my best guess is Brown and Jalen Strong first two picks . . .
Forty Niners Forever 
What Seattle did last year is take away certain parts of the field. They had the speed routes covered against everybody. Our offense was not designed to find the weakness and exploit it. Usually they gave the middle for passing and many lanes for Kap to pull the ball down and run. Kap needs to read that better but that is difficult when the coaches don’t see and coach it up.
Sometimes I felt like our coaching staff treated Kap like he was a 10 year veteran and forgot to coach him up. I think it was just poor design and play calling more so. Out tendency was the deep out and the Seahawks sat on it. Better design will be better than more speed. Having said that, I always like speed. Thing is, RoBaugh didn’t use speed, they were more 50/50 balls and plodding. We already have speed on our offense, more would be good, as long as the play calling takes advantage of it. If RoBaugh were still coaching here I would say forget the speed players. Maybe the new coaching staff will utilize that part of the game? I sure hope so.
What killed Seattle is they NE found ways to exploit them with Gronkowski. Our coaches showed zero ability to call plays like that. We have a new staff. Hopefully they are a lot smarter.
The reason I want Funchess is he is a play making TE. He worked out with the WRs. I think he did that because WRs make more money. I’m OK with that, it shows he’s a smart kid. But he is a TE IMO. Get him in match-ups with LBs and is could be fat city. His draft stock fell at the combine as a WR but he did nothing to hurt his stock as a TE. He probably helped it.
Vernon is not a good route runner and does not have good hands. He is bulldozer with speed. That is a good thing. Match him up with Fuchess and a WR or two, a LB will have top guard either Vernon or Funchess. Did I mention fat city!
Loser of the day at the combines:
WR JJ Nelson who ran the fastest 40 at 4.28, but did not win 100k cause it was sponsored by Addidas and he wasn’t wearing their shoes!!!
Now I’m thinkin if im a burner and they have a 100k prize on the line for the 3 fastest times, im wearing them even if I don’t care for them!!
This guys draft stock just went down big time for being a “DUMBSHIT”
You could be right but it is also possible he doesn’t want to sell his future for a possible 100K. He might have a better deal in the works elsewhere, or maybe he just wants to keep his options open? If he thinks he is going to be really good in the NFL 100K is not that much.
Looks like the NFL is thinking about making pass interference a 15 yard penalty. Without the ability to challenge the call it needs to cut to a 10 yard penalty. A PI penalty could be a 50 yard swing. I think it is ridiculous it can’t be challenged. Making it a 15 yard fine is better but I’d still like to see it challengeable.
Malcom Brown did not do that great in the barbell reps. He doesn’t have especially long arms so he can’t use that excuse. I still like him but you like to see a first round DT put at least 30 reps to show good upper body strength. It probably explains what I saw of him on video. He shoots gaps fairly well and has a little bull rush in him, just the opposite of what you would expect from a 320 pound player. Problem I saw is when he bull rushes he gives up too soon. Sometimes looking disinterested. He doesn’t give up, he just doesn’t have the same enthusiasm as other plays. When he shoots a gap or beats his man he’ll chase a play down. I’d still take him because when I saw him play I was expecting about 25 reps and not 30. He will need to get stronger as do all young D-linemen but don’t expect him to be playing any NT in the NFL. He’s a 3 or 5 technique. He reminds of Ricky Jean Francois but stronger and more willing to hold the point.
The reason I still like him for our pick is he shows a great ability to engage and not take his focus off of where the play is at, and then he gets to the play. He will get more physical by just being in the NFL but the ability to locate plays and disengage is something that is difficult to learn and he already does that.
Actually he plays a lot like Tank Carridine. Both of them show a good ability to one gap. Both bull rush a little. Tank shoots gaps better and has a speed rush. Brown is more of a plugger. If Cowboy retires I think somebody has to step up besides Dial. IMO, Dial is going to a good 3-4 DE. A defensive line needs depth if you want a pass rush in the 4th quarter. IMO, Brown could do that in year one and probably be a starter in year two.
Right, Bergs. if they are going to call illegal use of hands all the time, they need to stop that from being an automatic first down. They should go back to only calling the real bad ones as that shit happens just about every play.
What kills me is they called the Super Bowl much differently than they called the reg season games.
They’ve fucked this up beyond recognition.
It used to be offensive holding was the penalty the refs could call on any play and now a penalty could be called on just about any defensive play. It really is fucking up the game. If it went evenly across the board maybe it would be understandable but when penalties are blatant and not called it makes you wonder.
Berger my verdict is in on the debate regarding Arik Armstead as a possible 5T DT.
I’m going with Henry Anderson from Stanford.
About even in terms of size but, Anderson has the edge IMO.
He’ll make my final cut.
Malcom Brown still stays as well.
Bench numbers can easily improve with proper training methods.
His arms are over 32″ which is perfectly acceptable.
For me, it’s about motor on the DLine.
Malcom is certainly worthy of a selection IMO.
Is he worthy at 15? That I don’t know.
Given the nature of our needs at WR, it wouldn’t kill me to see Baalke make a move up if he feels the right guy is valued there, ala Eric Reid.
I’m sold on Byron Jones too. Unfortunately, he’s going to cost a LOT more now that everyone has seen his agility and size.
I’m also sold on Utah CB Eric Rowe as well.
Good size, excellent speed to go along with his College production numbers.
Combines answered a lot of questions for me.
Now, it’s time to try to figure out, where Baalke might be shopping.
I’ve also replaced TCU CB Kevin White with Ohio St CB Doran Grant.
NJ- How come last year when I wanted Kelvin Benjamin the knock was he was a one year wonder but this year that is not being considered for Kevin White?
With everybody talking about the draft I don’t hear what we are going to do with our cap issue. We are 4th worst at about 1.5 million under the projected cap. That even includes a 4 million carryover from last year. This is why Harbaugh not winning the Super Bowl when the window was open is such a bummer. The window might be shutting. They don’t usually stay open for long. This roster was built without worrying about the cap but it looks like it is a big factor now. I always heard this was Paraage Marathe’s department. Looks like he has his work cut out for him this year.
Don’t forget that Kaep got paid last year.
There’s definitely some budget adjustments coming.
That’s why we’re hearing about the possible release of Brooks.
I’d expect some adjustment efforts with Stevie, maybe even some efforts with VD, Boone or Willis/Bowman too.
Staley got reworked last year so, maybe Boone can be tweaked as well?
Aldon has a Cap number this year eclipsing $9Mil as well.
Top Cap Hits for 2015 –
Kaep – $15,265,753
Aldon – $9,754,000
Patrick – $8,268,000
NaVorro – $7,654,000
Brooks – $7,055,000
Vernon – $6,967,920
Anquan – $6,909,000
Justin – $6,436,667
Boone only accounts for $3,790,000 this year but, this is his final year.
They reworked him with a clause that prevents him from being tagged at the end of the year too.
Whether they see him as a long term Contract guy is the Cap question.
For that reason, I don’t rule out an OT being picked high this year.
Baalke stashed a couple of OGs thus far for depth, not the case at OT right now.
Seeing as my favorite OT, Cedric Ogbuehi from TX A&M got injured, he’s gonna drop out of the 1st RD.
Might be an excellent time to pluck him.
Red Shirt him, as they did with OG Brandon Thomas last year?
Alleykat- Looks like you were on to something. JJ Nelson wants his 100K.
Good old Corporate Sponsorship Deals at work.
Forgot the link –
http://tinyurl.com/jwcyqtv
“Sorry kid. We had no idea we should have even thought to offer you the deal.”
He was under the Adidas radar. He should work out a deal with Nike. Show him run a better time in their shoes.
“Adidas made me fast. Nike made me faster.”
I think we are at the point we can’t stash draft picks on the IR. 9 picks or not. Unless he’s down there around 5th or 6th round. I’m sure Baalke will be wheeling and dealing anyway.
Maybe use it on the NJ’s Texas AM OT in Rd 3 or 4.
Speaking of CBs here’s a kid I hadn’t heard of. Quentin Rollins played one year of college football, and instantly became a lockdown corner. He played 3 years of basketball.
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2015/01/nfl_draft_2015_if_he_slips_to.html
New thread is up.