49er Draft Grades by Round

If Aldon Smith returns a 10+ sack season within the next two years = A

If Colin Kap turns into the franchise QB within 3 years then = A+

if these two things don't happen then the draft is a bust regardless of how much I liked the upside of the picks of Hunter and Kilgore.

Culliver is a 'trust' pick - he has the measureables to make the pick look ok but not the college production. Do you trust the coaching staff to turn him into a solid CB and a starter (at nickel initially)? if so then this is a good pick in the 3rd round. if the first two picks pan out and Culliver pans out then the draft could be superb with Hunter rounding out the first 4 picks .....if the top two crap out then Culliver succeeding won't help and if he doesn't it only serves to underline the 'bust' nature of the draft.

Its all about the pass rusher and the QB. Everything else is a side show.

Everyone's all over Hunters nuts giving him an A draft, which is okay but just wondering if there was no one else even worth considering at that pick. The guys talented but he's also undersized and a lot of teams passed on him. I give it a B selection. Worth picking up at that late round but guess I'm just not as excited as everyone else.

This years draft class was very weak compared to the last 6 years. Therefore, a number 3 or 4 pick will not be as good as previous years. I think the niners picked a lot of players to fill a few needs. Usually a team can draft one guy who has 3 or 4 types of skills they need. This year they had to draft 2 players to cover those 3-4 skills. Most of these guys are just bandaids or "it would be nice if" kind of players. Drafting a DE to play FB was just finding a body type and skill set that they hope can be converted to FB. It smacks of recruiting high school players for college. Many hi schoolers get moved to a new position in college but they have 3-4 yrs to develope.

Originally posted by smashmouth51:
This years draft class was very weak compared to the last 6 years. Therefore, a number 3 or 4 pick will not be as good as previous years. I think the niners picked a lot of players to fill a few needs. Usually a team can draft one guy who has 3 or 4 types of skills they need. This year they had to draft 2 players to cover those 3-4 skills. Most of these guys are just bandaids or "it would be nice if" kind of players. Drafting a DE to play FB was just finding a body type and skill set that they hope can be converted to FB. It smacks of recruiting high school players for college. Many hi schoolers get moved to a new position in college but they have 3-4 yrs to develope.

Many NFL players played a different position in college. Especially fullbacks.

"a number 3 or 4 pick will not be as good as previous years"

You know this how?

Originally posted by Walsh:
Everyone's all over Hunters nuts giving him an A draft, which is okay but just wondering if there was no one else even worth considering at that pick. The guys talented but he's also undersized and a lot of teams passed on him. I give it a B selection. Worth picking up at that late round but guess I'm just not as excited as everyone else.

I think he was a steal. He is undersized, but tough. I think he has a chip on his shoulder because he dropped to the 4th because of his size. I like undersized players that are overlooked.