San Francisco 49ers Forever

Still not much to report on here in Ninersforeverland, but all my favorite bands in the 70s seem to be losing members left and right. Gregg Allman is the latest to hit the highway to hell (or stairway to heaven) depending on your faith (or lack of it). Saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers last weekend, speaking of old rockers, and while it was a pretty damn good show (Tom’s band still has its chops), Tom is getting a bit long in the tooth himself. Other than that, we are looking at safety Jairus Byrd. And as we all know, the Byrd is the word.

Rest in peace, Led Rhode. Great O lineman from back in the day. He was part of an outstanding line that gelled in 1970 to become one of the best in the league, and was instrumental in the 70-72 playoff run. Rhode in particular was squared off many times against Deacon Jones of the Rams, and more often than not, Jones was the one left beaten and dismayed. The team in this era was the team I grew up watching. My first game was in 1968 at Kezar, and these guys were etched in my mind as my favorites. Sure there was Brodie, Gene Washington, Ken Willard, and Bob Windsor, but Len Rhode at left tackle, Brodie’s blind side protector, center Forrest Blue, guards Woody Peoples and Randy Biesler, and RT Caz Banazek anchored the team through their agonizingly close to Super Bowl-glory days.

Dude went out at 79, and played in 208 consecutive games, so he apparently weathered his career unscathed.

“As an offensive tackle, there aren’t too many individual stats you can hang your hat on, but I guess playing in 208 games, winning the Len Eshmont, the NFC West, going to the Pro Bowl and the sack record aren’t bad.”

Not bad, indeed. A sky-point, and a drink raised in your honor . . .

Until there is something to report, well I guess we can post music. Other than that I got nothing. . .

Sooo, to kick things off, this is one of the craziest live guitar solos ever put to the earth, sky, and heavens . . .

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpdqdz_jimi-hendrix-star-spangled-banner-purple-haze-live-at-woodstock-1969_music

The rain has stopped anyway. And a new dawn has broken over 4949 Centennial Blvd in Santa Clara. At least that’s how it feels after this draft. Sure, we won’t know how well these picks are for a couple years, but the deals John and Kyle pulled off to get Thomas (the guy they wanted anyway) and Foster (to trade past NO) were stellar. Foster was a top 5 pick in just about everyone’s book. As was Thomas. Ending up with both is a huge shot in the arm for the defense. Throw in a lanky press corner in Witherspoon and the team looks a little better. Given that, they still managed to gather an additional 2nd and 3rd round pick next year. Handy for trying to get their next and future quarterback. Next year’s class is much better than this one, so the picks will come in handy for trades up, or even to get Kirt Cousins,

And, it’s not like this teams doesn’t need everything, so every pick is worth some value. But beyond the 10 picks they drafted, the Niners already inked a few highly touted UDFAs in Cole Hikutini, KD Cannon, and Noble Nwachukwu among others. As I said, the roster was a wasteland of limited talent and ACL guys, so this looks to be a pretty big bloodletting for the incumbent players.

Parity being what it is (hi, Flying V67!), fortunes change quickly in the NFL. And with the parity factor built in to the schedule, we have an easier row to how schedule-wise. What does this mean for the 2017 season? Well, we’ll see.

UD Free agent signings:

Cole Hikutini, TE, Louisville
Donavin Newsom, LB, Missouri
Victor Bolden, WR, Oregon State
K.D. Cannon, WR, Baylor
Lorenzo Jerome, S, Saint Francis
JP Flynn, OL, Montana State
Matt Breida, RB, Georgia Southern
Nick Mullens, QB, Southern Miss
Jimmie Gilbert, LB, Colorado
Erik Magnuson, OT, Michigan
Darrell Williams, OT, Western Kentucky
Jon Toth, C, Kentucky – per his agent
Kendrick Bourne, WR, Eastern Washington
Jihaad Pretlow, CB, Fordham University

Of note is Sou Miss’s QB Nick Mullens. Skinny kid who can make throws. 6’1″ 187 lb. Doubtful but worth a shot. Joe part II? Right.

From NJ, some write-ups on some of these guys:

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2017/profiles/lorenzo-jerome?id=2558206
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2017/profiles/kd-cannon?id=2557975
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2017/profiles/jimmie-gilbert?id=2558776

Adrian Colbert:

3. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(from Bears)
Solomon Thomas, DE
Stanford
Thomas is going to make an immediate impact on the defensive line. Rule of Tree said his best comparison in the NFL is the Seattle Seahawks’ Michael Bennett, who can play multiple ways on the defensive line effectively.
RECAP REACTION

31. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(from Seahawks, via Falcons)

Reuben Foster, LB
Alabama
For the year, Foster recorded 115 tackles, including 13 for loss, five sacks and two passes defended. He was a force against the run, clamping down on opposing ball-carriers in Alabama’s historic season of defensive dominance.
RECAP REACTION

66. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
Ahkello Witherspoon, CB
Colorado
RECAP

104. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(compensatory pick, from Vikings via Chiefs)
C.J. Beathard, QB
Iowa
RECAP

121. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(from Colts)
Joe Williams, RB
Utah
RECAP

146. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
George Kittle, TE
Iowa
RECAP

177. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(compensatory pick, via Broncos)
Trent Taylor, WR
Louisiana Tech
RECAP

198. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(from Ravens)
D.J. Jones, DT
Mississippi
RECAP

202. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(from Broncos)
Pita Taumoepenu, LB
Utah
RECAP

229. SAN FRANCISCO49ERS
(from Saints)
Adrian Colbert, CB
Miami

Not a bad haul. And nary a knee injury among the group, although Reuben Foster is a bit of an injury risk. But if he’s playing to form, we got 2 of the top 3 players on a lot of draft boards in Salomon Thomas and Foster.

Beyond that, the Niners have two 2nd round picks and two 3rd round picks for a total of 10 picks again in 2018.  So a good looking haul and a great looking job of moving around for picks next year.

These guys get an A for the first day only. Getting the guy they wanted and gaining 4 picks was an absolute steal. The rest is gravy.  This looks to be a good start to the new front office.

Well, yesterday by all intents and purposes couldn’t have gone much better for John Lynch. He traded down one spot, got 4 picks, and still got the guy he wanted in Salomon Thomas. And for some reason Reuben Foster, the #1 rated LB in the class fell to the 31st spot, which the 49er promptly traded up to snag. With the help of one of the picks (#111 in the 4th round) they got from Chicago.

All in all a fairly outstanding first go-around in the draft. Jonathan Adams may have been my favorite guy but I figured they would take Thomas. But getting Foster is gravy upon gravy. There is no way anyone thought he would fall so far. But, the odd thing is this is the 3rd defensive lineman ion a row the Niners have drafted. First there was Arik Armstead, then DeForest Buckner, the bookend Ducks. Now we have fellow Pac-12 DL Salomon Thomas.

They say you build from the lines out, right?

As for day 2, what do y’all think? We need some offensive help, and we have picks 66 and 67. Then again, we need safety depth and there are still guys like Melifonwu, Budda Baker, and Marcus Williams. Then again DeShone Kizer is still around but he won’t likely fall to the 3rd. WR Chris Godwin? We do need guys that can catch the ball . . .

Hey, it’s something. This draft gives me a lot more hope that the last few as Trent (I’ve never met a knee injury I didn’t like) Baalke isn’t asleep at the switch this year.  Granted we have the ambiguously inexperienced duo but bring it on!

Or this guy . . .

I wish all the draftnosticators would have post mortem shows to give us all the scoop on how well (terrible) they did with their draft picks. Short of the top 5 (and maybe not even that this year) these guys go off the rails by pick 8 in round 1.

Far be it from me to complain about the draft hype, because it does keep the NFL within earshot of everyone in the world, but it has jumped the shark at this point. Changing cities? Ooooh. Aaaah. Philly gets the nod this year, and the crowing nabobs will be out in force. ESPN, corporate sponsors, and the hype machine behind it has made this a giants freak show greed-head extravaganza. Coming from the good old days when Pete Rozelle would rent a non-descript conference room in a New York hotel for 6 hours and roll through 12 rounds, the draft is now huge business (although the rookie cap threw a little shade on the process of making tens of millions of dollars for the players. The owners couldn’t have THAT. You know, saving the owners from themselves). Thing is, though, it IS a fairly important activity for a lot of teams who are struggling. Dallas went from  also-ran with a fragile QB to an instant contender when they drafted Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott. Yeah, they had a decent team before, but their jump was entirely unexpected by everyone. Especially when fix-me-again-Tony went down with his latest and last injury.

So here we are, three days from the first draft of the new regime. Newly minted (and unexperienced) GM John Lynch and newly minted (and unexperienced) HC Kyle Shanahan are poised on their first foray into the Wide World of NFL Hypedom, the NFL DRAFT!!! Reading between the lines of obscurity around the NFL, the 49ers appear to be in the hunting and gathering mode. They are looking like they will wait for Kirt Cousins to dislodge from the Washington Redskins and forego the QB spot this year. At least with a high draft pick. So that leaves the option of trading down. Something I’ve advocated for a while now, but with little consensus as to who the two should be, the demand for that pick may not be a strong one. Still, Cleve may pull the trigger to ensure they don’t lose out on Truebiscuit boy and trade with us for the 2nd pick. That’s the hope anyway.

Lynch and Shanny appear to be fairly balls-out in their dealings so far. Nothing earthshaking, but they aren’t sitting on their hands like Baalke did all free agency last year. So I think they do try to gather as many high picks as they can.

Far be it from me to spread rumors, but there’s nothing else to talk about, short of the local baseball team’s inability to beat up on their brethren of the NL West. Four series with AZ, Colo, and SD netted one series win, and a 5-9 record. Subpar  pitching and the usual anemic hitting has led to the state of that team.

The 49ers? Well, they have a better chance of getting better in the short term as the NFL draft is a lot more immediate and impactful than the baseball draft. And with that comes the news from Peter King that the 49ers are “antsy” to trade out of the #2 spot. So are the Bears apparently, but we are 2, so we get the better return. As a side note, the vaporous nature of the Mitch Trubiscuit rise up the draft board is a great thing for the 49ers as the fact they are willing to trade out means they don’t want to take that shot.  Huzzah. Next year’s class is deeper in QBs, and the stand to get Kurt Cousins from the suddenly discombobulated Redskins at a reduced rate. Snyder may try to sign Cousins long-term, but his actions in recent memory make me think he wants to hang with Shanny rather than Gruden.

Cleveland stands to make the move to get MT with their 12th pick (and more) as bait for the 49ers, thus guaranteeing they get their guy. Thing is, the Bears might just be trying to deke the Browns into not making a deal so they can draft Trubisky.  Or they could sweeten the deal that we offer in order to get the 3rd pick if they feel we won’t draft him(we won’t). Who knows? There are still a ton of possibilities, but I think we trade out. Lynch and Shanahan are looking to make immediate progress and this is a way to get more oicks to stock the team. Short of getting Garrett, trading out is the right idea. And we are hopefully looking at Corey Davis or Mike Williams to add to the anemic WR corps. The 49ers haven’t had a legit threat since, oh the Terrell Owens days.  I don’t care who’s throwing to him at this point, just that we have a bona fide weapon.