Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
I don't do mock drafts, instead choosing to focus on our needs. OL ,OG in particular, was of paramount importance. CW says you can draft a good OL in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rds, but I look back at Snyder and Baas, both non first rounders, and we got 2nd , 3rd and 4th rd material...which was insufficient to fill our needs, ie a rock solid OL. So sure, I would love to have seen us trade up for one of the 3 or 4 OL guys. I had really hoped for deCastro or zeitler.
Generally, all pro OLs come out of first rd, and there is enough of a fall off after that to suggest if you need OL, go for it in 1st rd, even if you have to draft up. I suspect, B& H feel their in-camp-waiting-in-the-wings OL (Kilgore in particular) is plenty good enough to improve over snyder. Obviously they got security in later rds, which many of us wondered about. But make no mistake, this draft was not about particular players, this draft was about making our glaring weakness a strength. Those faulting the AJ pick, might be interested in looking at his hands compared to GOAT, Jerry Rice. If anything they are bigger. Coach Zook felt that AJ has great speed, soft but strong hands that resemble peach baskets, moreso than hands, (is not great with RAC), but overall, will end up being our #1 wR. It is just a matter of when, but probably this season.
As for the glaring weakness, it is obviously 3rd down and in RZ. At end of yr we had vernon and craps, which really means just vernon. Crbtre disappeared at end of season and in playoffs. So the 9ers drafted for situation, not players(altho obviously related), and with LaMichael split out and AJ , vernon, mario, maybe moss, Delanie, maybe williams (but that would be a surprise), and lastly craps , all of a sudden our glaring weakness appears well on the way to being fixed. Depth on D filled out the slate, but to say we got a D or F grade with AJ is just mystifying. My guess is he plays better than Hill, Floyd, et al,and that our coaches knew that...and we don't. I think AJ ends up being the O mirror image of ALL DONE. La Michael gives us that extra dimension, eliminates the box 8 permanently, and was drafted primarily to fix our 3rd down failures. I believe Aj and LaMichael will do just that. On basis of those two picks alone, I give baalke and Coach an A for the draft. The rest was just insurance...depth, if you will, on D.
My one prediction this draft was that we would take early on, guys I had never heard of or those I knew but never imagined in the gold and red. Baalke and Harbaugh did not disappoint. Mad dog, you did a yeoman's job on your draft work, but came up short on your grading. Put me down for an A.
Thanks for your comments. Time will tell who is right, although it usually takes years. You know I will be around.