What we learned from the 2013 Draft

Originally posted by CorvaNinerFan:
Nice rundown, Drust. I thought we'd take a CB earlier, but with signing Asomugha, the FO apparently thought they were good for the coming season. We also don't know if they have long-term plans for Brown...if they do, that'd add to the reasons they only drafted Cooper late. BTW, since he played w/Logan Ryan at Rutgers, he most likely gained some very good experience, since he was undoubtedly picked on quite a bit. Like his size and speed, not to mention his strength (20 reps X 225 lbs). WRT to McDonald, some fans have apparently forgotten that Walker wasn't a good blocker at first, but improved over the years. With his size and strength, he can be coached up to be the blocker they need him to be. Good point WRT interior OL, particularly C. Can't tell you how many mocks, both in this forum and a ton of others had us taking a C, some as early as the 2nd rd! I agree, it's going to be Looney. The man's a real bad-ass and could be the kind of dominating C Newberry was in his prime. For OT, I like Marquardt's chances. Dude came from a small school, but was projected to be drafted 5th-6th rds. I figured we'd draft an OLB if for no other reason than Haralson's only signed for 1 yr. I like the Lemonier pick. Mayock and others were talking about how he could line up opposite Aldon in the hybrid to pressure the QB. I was calling for Baalke to pick Da'Rick Rogers, but he went undrafted and signed w/Bills. I'm very happy we got Patton, though. Dude's an excellent receiver with no baggage...NFL.com draft profiles compared him to Reggie Wayne, yes! I understand Moody's a ST demon, so coupled w/Skuta, Coach Seeley should have fun with those two. Again, very nice rundown.

I was with you on Da'Rick. I just really shows you that this FO values character just as much as 40 times. I didn't know much about Patton at the time of the draft. I've been reading up on him ever since and really like what I hear. He's another one of those hard working team leader types this FO covets. Here's a good article I read about him at the Senior Bowl =

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/02/senior_bowl_review_louisiana_t.html

And a scouting report prior to the draft

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1527130-getting-to-know-quinton-patton-the-most-overlooked-wr-in-the-2013-nfl-draft

((( With his consistent play at Louisiana Tech, Patton's peers have taken note. After Patton's junior year, Mississippi State cornerback Johnthan Banks showered the wide receiver with praise. "I feel like (Patton) from Louisiana Tech is the best receiver I've played against since I've been here," said Banks in an interview with Chris Low of ESPN.com. "I've gone against some good ones in the SEC, too, but he's probably the most complete." )))))

That's some high praise from a great college cover CB. With the 9ers track record over the past decade, I will pump the brakes, but it seems like we may have picked a gem in the 4th.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by DRUSTOPO:
Totally agree NCommand, I went with the B+ because with my own team, Im like the Russians in Olympic figure skating, Im a tough judge...lol

I touched on your back 4 in the other thread, I would LOVE Asomugha and Chris to take the starting gigs and have Brown beat out Carlos and move him into a dime competion with Cox ( who I think is a solid cover guy ). I want to replace Dante real bad, he gave up way too many big plays last year, but he is the QB of this D. It would be hard to trust a rookie and new guy with getting everyone set up. I think Charles can do that though since he played in the same D at GB and is a smart vet. I think it would help out the pass coverage though and this staff really does try and put the best 11 on the field at all times. We shall see!

LOL, nothing wrong with that!

There may be some concerns about our matchups against great slot WR's (Harvin and Austin) and against power-running teams d/t smaller sized, one-gap NT's (and not having a 2-gap NT to collapse the step-up lane) but "scheme" appears to intimate that our "personnel" is fine.

Yeah I'm real nervous about our run D without Soap. He was an unsung hero on that line who allowed our All Pro LB's plenty of space to operate. Will be interesting to see if these guys can fill those sizable shoes.

Great post imho. I think you, Ncommand and Corva have really nailed it. Plus I don't see us resigning Crabs next year for the money he will want and I think Patton is basically the same receiver who will take his spot.

Originally posted by DRUSTOPO:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by DRUSTOPO:
Totally agree NCommand, I went with the B+ because with my own team, Im like the Russians in Olympic figure skating, Im a tough judge...lol

I touched on your back 4 in the other thread, I would LOVE Asomugha and Chris to take the starting gigs and have Brown beat out Carlos and move him into a dime competion with Cox ( who I think is a solid cover guy ). I want to replace Dante real bad, he gave up way too many big plays last year, but he is the QB of this D. It would be hard to trust a rookie and new guy with getting everyone set up. I think Charles can do that though since he played in the same D at GB and is a smart vet. I think it would help out the pass coverage though and this staff really does try and put the best 11 on the field at all times. We shall see!

LOL, nothing wrong with that!

There may be some concerns about our matchups against great slot WR's (Harvin and Austin) and against power-running teams d/t smaller sized, one-gap NT's (and not having a 2-gap NT to collapse the step-up lane) but "scheme" appears to intimate that our "personnel" is fine.

Yeah I'm real nervous about our run D without Soap. He was an unsung hero on that line who allowed our All Pro LB's plenty of space to operate. Will be interesting to see if these guys can fill those sizable shoes.

Since it seemed teams seemed to stop running against us when Soap was in the game and ran effectively against our nickle, I believe the team wanted a more agile nose guard who could also provide pass rush. I'm with you on being concerned about how we will stand up against the run without him.

Well said.

2 biggest things we found out in this draft:

1) I think the Niners are following the Seahawks blueprint of having bigger, physical corners to manhandle receivers at the LOS while upgrading their already fearsome pass rush.

2) It's time for the 2012 draft class to make their mark, too. I think that means guys like AJ, Looney, Robinson, and Fleming are going to be expected to step up, especially Trenton Robinson (.......or FA Michael Thomas who played for Harbaugh at Stanford) at Safety.

Originally posted by Born49R:
Great post imho. I think you, Ncommand and Corva have really nailed it. Plus I don't see us resigning Crabs next year for the money he will want and I think Patton is basically the same receiver who will take his spot.

I was in the same boat as you a couple months ago with Crabs. After we signed Davis to a long term contract, I was arguing the advantage of locking up Iupati over Crabs. ( wont rehash that one....lol ). But basically another poster brought up a great point.

We don't need to do anything with Crabs next year, he's signed for this year @ 6.3M and 2014 @ 5.3M. There is no doubt that Crabtree will want megabucks, since he's about to blow up with Kaep at the helm, and we probably wont be able to sign him. But really I don't think we need to go down that road yet. Let him play out his two years and then tag him for a 3rd. The current franchise cap figure is at 10.357 for WR's. Lets say it goes up to 11-12M in 3years, we may be able to work out making room for that by then. But in 3 years Aldon and Kaep will be on big money deals, so we may not. At the worst, we get Crabs for 2 more years, hopefully guys like AJ and Patton ( plus next years pick ) will have emerged into legit threats by then.

Great OP. Agree all around. I tried to hint at Trenton Robinson's future in a couple other threads, but you put it much more convincingly!

I'm mad at myself for missing the boat on Vance before the draft. I read a TON about Kelce after it was reported that we were interested in him, and I started putting him in my mocks at #61 even when it looked like he was a 70s-90s pick on most boards. Vance slipped completely under my radar, and if you look at the scouting reports and measurables, he clearly has higher upside for all the same reasons I wanted Kelce. Soooo pumped about that pick.

Intrigued to see how Tank's rehab goes. We tend to think of Tank as much further along than Lattimore (and his pro day workout was much more vigorous), but there are hints that the 49ers are prepared to be slooooowwwww with both of them. Here's hoping we get to see at least a little bit of Tank smashing QBs in the middle of this season.

I love the Patton pick, but I would be careful about reading into it when it comes to Crabtree or Jenkins. It doesn't mean they are pessimistic about re-signing Cratbree, and it doesn't mean they have written Jenkins off. It means, (1) they recognized that Patton was a steal at 128, and (2) they love competition at that position.

Bumping my post from another thread...

Overall, I think we had a GREAT draft! We solidified our 2 glaring openings at FS and backup/2nd TE, plus added good depth/future starters at DE, OLB, WR, and RB. I can see 6 starters from this draft, which would be stellar.

QB: Waiting until the 7th round demonstrates that the FO is set with Kaep/McCoy/Tolzien. It's possible that Daniels can usurp Tolzien as our #3 QB.

RB: I love the Lattimore pick, as most of us do, but this was obviously a luxury pick. He probably wont have much of an impact this year, but he could be the heir apparent to Gore. Going forward, the backfield of Gore, Hunter, James, Lattimore, Dixon is DEADLY!!! We probably wont be able to keep everyone, but we have great talent.

WR: The addition of Patton makes a lot of sense for multiple reasons: he wont be required to contributed significantly this year, can watch and learn from Boldin, and presents some insurance against Crabtree leaving via FA. If Jenkins can step up this year, which the FO seems to have faith in, given Patton fell into their laps in the 4th round, then we can expect a Crabtree/Jenkins/Patton WR corp going into 2014.

TE: I will be the first to admit I was slightly disappointed with McDonald over Kelce, but that was more ignorance on my part. McDonald possesses game-changing ability, but has to work on his hands (remarkably similar to D. Walker). Trading up in the 2nd demonstrated the importance of the TE position to this team.

OL: Other than Bykowski and Marquardt, the O-line didn't change. We have long-term answers at 4 of the 5 positions (assuming we extend Iupati), and the lack of a center demonstrates that our FO is confident in Looney/Kilgore to take over for Goodwin.

DL: LOVE the Carradine pick!!! Heir apparent to Justin Smith! And we got an additional 3rd rounder, AMAZING! We passed over Jesse Williams several times, which tells me we have faith in Dorsey/Williams to man the NT position (although we rarely run that formation). Dial also adds some additional depth, which we sorely lacked. Okoye remains the ultimate wildcard too. We now have a bevy of depth at the position.

OLB: Again, loved the Lemonier pick. He looks very good, and will replace Haralson after this year, potentially Brooks. With A. Smith, Brooks, Haralson, and Lemonier, we have 4 really talented OLBs.

ILB: The addition of Moody represents competition for the backup ILB. Really nothing has changed here.

CB: This is one area where a lack of a new draftee speaks volumes. Obviously, or FO has faith in Culliver and our CB rotation will be: Brown, Rogers, Asumogha, Culliver, and Cox. This presents the most glaring need for 2014 draft. The addition of Austin and Harvin into our division will push our CBs, and our FO has chosen to put our draft capital into passrush (which I completely agree with).

S: We can pencil Reid in as our starting FS for the foreseeable future. He has the speed, size, athleticism, burst, and recovery speed you look for. The fact that we didn't address the SS position means that we value Whitner more than I expected and that positions becomes another 2014 position of need.

P/K: No additions, will readdress K in 2014.

KR/PR: The James / Hunter / Williams return crew most likely wont change, no draft picks seem ideally suited. Another area of need for 2014.

Baalke is a pimp

Originally posted by DaDivaRecieva15:
Baalke is a pimp

Loved watching him and Harbaugh in the post draft press conferences.

We learned fans love to speculate, creating wild hypothesis with very little evidence about the team they follow.

It's worth noting that Harbaugh said in his post draft PC that they had 2 different cornerbacks targeted, but the scenarios didn't work out. Either way it's only a minor beef of mine, our corners might not be an issue if the passrush gets cranked up again.

Very good draft by Baalke, added some much needed talent and depth AND was able to pick up a 3rd for next year. I'm a pretty satisfied fan right now, it's up to the coaches and the players to do their jobs now.

Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
Well said.

2 biggest things we found out in this draft:

1) I think the Niners are following the Seahawks blueprint of having bigger, physical corners to manhandle receivers at the LOS while upgrading their already fearsome pass rush.

2) It's time for the 2012 draft class to make their mark, too. I think that means guys like AJ, Looney, Robinson, and Fleming are going to be expected to step up, especially Trenton Robinson (.......or FA Michael Thomas who played for Harbaugh at Stanford) at Safety.

I learned this above .... and also:

• We have grown less enamored (or are completely done with) with Pac 12 / Big 10 prospects and are new lovers of the south.
• We do not covet players from Stanford especially, especially TEs - I keep hearing predictions we will take them and don't
• We like with long sleeve lengths (buncha long armed dudes) more than fast 40's

Originally posted by DRUSTOPO:
I think we learned a lot about last years "redshirt" class as well as our entire roster from this draft. Here are 10 takeaways from the draft.

4. Most people thougth we would draft a CB high. We picked up some bodies at the end, but it is clear that the 9ers staff reviewed the pass breakdowns at the end of the year and pinpointed them to pass rush, not covering. When the 9ers had the pass rush, we ranked 2nd in the league in Pass D ( still finished 1st in NFC passing yards per game ). With the 9ers investing in Tank and Corey, the message is loud and clear, the pass rush is the key. Hell the Giants have been winning for years with a great pass rush and no corners. The 9ers must also like Rogers to bounce back or Cox to step up this year in the slot.

I have to say that I loved this draft, solid B+! We wont really know how good this class is until a couple years down the line, but god I love the look of it initially.



What do you guys think? What conclusions did you come to with what you thought before and what was actually done?

That is a great point, and one that some have missed.

I had a discussion with someone in the draft thread on that very topic: It was clear the 49er staff blamed the secondary issues on the lack of pass rush, not Dante Whitner or Chris Culliver or Tarell Brown. It was a lack of pass rush. If we learned nothing else from this draft, it was that Harbaugh does not plan to sit idly by and watch teams throw the ball down the field with little challenge from the defense.

MM wrote the following piece today in which he made the same comment.

http://www.csnbayarea.com/blog/matt-maiocco/49ers-draft-evidence-pass-rush-was-problem

Sometimes the 'zone gets it right.