FWIW, and yeah, this shit is total shit because you really can’t tell how a draft goes for a good 3-4 seasons have gone by, but that doesn’t stop the talking wonks from shitting all over a given team’s draft. I mean who can forget the glowing accounts of the first draft done by the new regime in 2017? It was pretty much unanimous As across the board.
We all know how that turned out. Solly Thomas was a solid 3rd round pick, not a #3 overall. Reuben Foster did his best Aldon Smith impersonation, Joe Williams never got on the field, etc. Kittle was the steal of that draft.
This draft? Pretty much Cs to Fs from the prognosticators. Why? Who knows? Brown at Safety was a pick for need. Antonio Gipson is 33 and was solid, but getting a younger stud guy there fits our need. Moody? Sure, using a 3rd round pick on him might be seen at a little high, but 2 things.
- It was a comp pick, so you can call it a 4th round pick
- He’s a starter. Unless something goes horribly wrong, he’s the starting kicker. Getting a starter in the 4th round is usually thought of as a good thing.
Latu? A reach? Maybe, but he’s a guy in the mold of Kittle who didn’t have huge numbers, but did enough things (blocking, route running, being a nuisance) well enough to take a shot on. Beal seems to be a bona fide playmaker who has something that jumps off the tape, and that’s his first step to the QB. The rest are what they are. Until they get into camp and train, all this is pure guess work.
And, given the track record of the success this front office has with day 2 and 3 guys, I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. For now.
And a shout out to Ronnie Lott, celebrating his 64th birthday. The man was a joy to watch and I saw countless games at the Stick where he was throwing himself around with reckless abandon.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
I could watch these all day long . . .
Two games that stand out that I saw at the Stick are the ones where Lott hits Bobby Duckworth of the Rams, and the one where he causes the fumble against the Redskins that Hicks returns for a touchdown.
The play on Duckworth, Lott was playing medium deep at safety, and he covered about 30 yards when the ball was in the air to reach Duckworth. He arrived perfectly at the moment the ball got there. Watching that play develop was absolute poetry in motion.
The Redskins play was just one of many many examples of Lott driving through a guy like he was made of paper. But that play was a harbinger of what was to come. That was game 5 of the 1981 season, and after a shakey start, this game put the league on notice that the 49ers were for real and their turnstile defense was a thing of the past.
And if the league didn’t notice then, the 42-14 win over Dallas the next weekend served as a HUGE wake up call.
Never got to see the 81 skin game I was helping my wife’s grandpa pull a motor out of his old Plymouth. But I had it on the radio and remember how happy I was even being under the car.
I was at the stick for the Cowboy game. That was a game for the ages. No one thought we would do that to Dallas.
We also put another motor in that car that morning.
Shit, I loved that Skins game. Until I saw the Cowboys game. REALLY wish I went to that one. The Redskins game we had cheap seats in the end zone upper deck (56?) and we just walked to the upper boxes on the 50. That whole season the games were pretty
383? Or the 318? Or that old slant 6 that ran forever? Buddy of mine had a 1972 Valiant slant 6 that had over 300,000 miles on it. Never got you anywhere fast, but it always got you there. He could never fix the sticky choke tho. Whenever we went to Tahoe he’d have to shove a pen into the carb to keep it open until it warmed up.
it was an old 61 slant 6.
RIP Joe Kapp. Tough SOB and a hell of a fun guy to watch. Or, as SI dubbed him, “The NFL’s toughest Chicano.” Love those old single-bar helmets.
There was a real nice article in the Athletic this morning with Peters going over this years draft. The overview of it all is that everyone who was picked were high character players who played the game with lots of physicality and heart. They all have a lot of potential and who knows.
GIven our success at the bottom of the draft, we should simply trade down every year.
Looks like a pretty tough schedule this year. We have the second most travel miles with only Seattle a little ahead of us. Philly sandwiched between both Seattle games are gonna make or break us. Just hope we can stay healthy and play 49er football.
New thread is up.