Originally posted by Gore_21:
Definitely not saying that we have to have a pre-draft visit. I am sure we have picked guys who we have just watched workout. Probably some we didn't show any interest in at all. When they draft a player imo it's like the stars have to align or everything has to fall into place. In the past I have heard Baalke and/or Haraugh say we wanted to draft guys like Marecic, Sherman, Baldin, etc and other non-Stanford players but it just didn't fall into place. Think about us drafting... 1 the player has to be around at our pick obviously 2. it has to be the right round and the right spot... (value) 3. He has to be the highest rated on our board or the highest player at that position. 4. the need has to be there along with best player available (bpa)... not saying we wont get guys that are bpa even if it isn't a need but it's unlikely. Like we wouldn't take a ILB in the 1st round just because he is the BPA. 5. he has to fit our system 6. he has to be our type of player/person... we will cross off many guys who don't fit our scheme, our player type/person type. Some teams automatically cross of troubled players. Some teams don't. Some like smaller faster players, some like big strong players... (ex: small quick CB vs a Richard Sherman type). So that's a lot of things that have to add up. It just isn't we had a pre-draft visit we will get him if he is there. Or we didn't have a visit or watch him workout we won't pick him. Baalke is very hard to predict... we hold our cards tight. So anyways, it's a lot of stars aligning for a player to be picked.
Just an example how a draft can change like that... let's say we were next on the board and were ready to pick Datone Jones at 31. The team in front of us picks him. All of a sudden we went from ready to take a DE to taking a TE. Our (#2 or whatever) ranked DE was rated below the FS we are taking now. So we totally changed positions... and let's say at 61 we don't feel the DE's left are worth value... now we went from De at 31 to DE possibly at 74... big difference. I am sure it's happened where we were dead set on a player. He was taked the pick before or a few picks before. We feel the player we have #2 on our board will still be there so we trade down or maybe even give the pick away for a higher round pick next year. We did this with bowman in 2010... We were picking in the 70s I believe. We thought he would still be there in the 90s so we traded down and got San Diego's 4th rounder next year and still got our man. It's a lot of risk... we probably had the list of teams between us and SD and said they aren't likely to take a LB.
A great read !! All I can say is drafting is as much a science as it is an art !! Very interesting.
One last one if I may, have you noticed any tendencies at all with the types of players the 9ers tend to pick ?The only thing that I can think of is they don't like to draft divas. They like down-to-earth guys, may be not to the extent of high-character, but definitely easier going type folks. I suspect they see that as a trait for being a great locker room guy and they seem to value a lot in that locker room. Anything else you might have noticed ? Small speedy backs and wideouts as opposed to big, tall physical guys perhaps ?
