Mel Kiper's Early Top 50 for 2014 Draft

Screw it... let tank the season and draft Clowney! j/k... j/k...

So much can happen between now and May. My guess is CB for the biggest need or WR depending on Crabtree's recovery and if we resign him Would not hazard a guess at this point about a Niners target.

Bridgewater will be the first pick of 2014. He will be viewed as a legitimate franchise QB candidate. These guys don't come around often, see 2013 draft.

Originally posted by fister30:
Bridgewater will be the first pick of 2014. He will be viewed as a legitimate franchise QB candidate. These guys don't come around often, see 2013 draft.

I agree. He picked the Gators D apart with a not so impressive receiving core. I could possibly see Tadj Boyd getting the 1st pick. I think he has just as good of arm as Teddy.

Bridgewater is the best Prospect, Clowney is the best athlete in the 2014 crop of prospects.

Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
So much can happen between now and May. My guess is CB for the biggest need or WR depending on Crabtree's recovery and if we resign him Would not hazard a guess at this point about a Niners target.

I think that CB is going to be by far are biggest need come the 2014 draft. Personally I feel we have a better crop coming this year though. We could easily pick 2 Cbs of that same quality in the 1st 3 rounds in 2014 that were picked in the first 40 picks of 2013.

Originally posted by VPofCarnage:
Very surprised not to see Will Sutton on that top 50 list.

That was one of my very first observations. I thought that was really weird. Sutton seems like the real deal to me.

The defensive tackle class was extremely strong in 2013, but it could be even stronger in 2014.

I've read up on Clowney and he seems to be a good prospect but there have been so many "can't miss" pass rushers that have missed miserably. I'm not saying that I think he will be a bust but it's rare that you get a 2011 draft where you have Von Miller, All Done, and JJ Watt all top 20 players. Between your Mamulas, your Vernon Gholstons, and so many guys in between, pass rusher is a tough position to project.

The early 80s had a lot of great ones --- Hugh Green / LT / Andre Tippett (I know there are others).

They have been few and far between -- Haley, Derrick Thomas, Demarcus Ware, that Roided up dude with San Diego (Merriman), Freeney.

We got lucky -- Clowney might wind up being a Clown is all

Originally posted by wysiwyg:
I've read up on Clowney and he seems to be a good prospect but there have been so many "can't miss" pass rushers that have missed miserably. I'm not saying that I think he will be a bust but it's rare that you get a 2011 draft where you have Von Miller, All Done, and JJ Watt all top 20 players. Between your Mamulas, your Vernon Gholstons, and so many guys in between, pass rusher is a tough position to project.

The early 80s had a lot of great ones --- Hugh Green / LT / Andre Tippett (I know there are others).

They have been few and far between -- Haley, Derrick Thomas, Demarcus Ware, that Roided up dude with San Diego (Merriman), Freeney.

We got lucky -- Clowney might wind up being a Clown is all

Except that he has lit it up every year he has played while consistently being double and triple teamed. Clowney is not a one year wonder by any means.

Good call wysiwyg! Every year there are "can't miss" players who do. And then, there are the players who cancel themselves out w/stupid behavior.

I don't think we'll get any of the top 10-15 rated players since, IMO, we'll win the SBowl.

That said, it's really exciting to see what maneuvers Baalke will do. Up, down, parlay. He seems to find some gems along the way.

2 CB seems realistic and maybe a 2nd -4th on an OT to groom for a couple of years as Staley gets on in years.

Manziel not in the top 20

Originally posted by Frisco69ers:

Manziel not in the top 20

Tough one. Manziel has potential but his size may scare teams away.

Originally posted by gold49digger:

Originally posted by shaneblonien:
if we've learned anything over the years it is Kiper picks the mainstream names. He had Blaine Gabbert ahead of Cam Newton (yes Kaep is much better) but look how Gabbert has performed. He also had Ponder and Locker ahead of Kaep. No draft guru is perfect I get that. He's the same guy that values size over a player's true playing ability i.e. Russell Wilson. The moral of the story? Trust what you see with your eyes. Or listen to Mayock instead.

Did Kiper ever play in the nfl? what makes him such a "draft expert" smh

Originally posted by shaneblonien:
well I don't think a requirement to be a good draft expert is NFL experience. That is a good point though, how the hell did he get into the business? Could be he was just one of the first people to ever give the draft attention outside of an NFL organization.

Originally posted by gold49digger:
well not exactly nfl experience but football experience overall. I can't trust anyone that has no experience playing organized football and even if he did extensively studied the game, most of his picks are off. Like you said, he only goes for the mainstream players. Mayock is much better and actually uses film to justify his choices.

Its all a matter of timing. He got in the ground floor and manage to stick like fly on $hit. The draft wasn't as big, no internet, ESPN was in its infant stages. He does like a lot of us do, go by what others have said, then makes his own analysis based off that. He may have watched or watches some games on whatever college football tv package he has and now youtube. Even the pros are not experts on all players and have to regionalize their scouts. No way you can pick up on all of them, and even they have there spys so to speak to tip them off-hey you should check this kid out...

If maddog and some others on this board had gotten there first and managed to publicise themselves espn might have picked up on them instead. Then we would be criticing him and Bill Polian would have said who the hell is MadDog-haha.

Originally posted by 5280High:

Originally posted by wysiwyg:
I've read up on Clowney and he seems to be a good prospect but there have been so many "can't miss" pass rushers that have missed miserably. I'm not saying that I think he will be a bust but it's rare that you get a 2011 draft where you have Von Miller, All Done, and JJ Watt all top 20 players. Between your Mamulas, your Vernon Gholstons, and so many guys in between, pass rusher is a tough position to project.

The early 80s had a lot of great ones --- Hugh Green / LT / Andre Tippett (I know there are others).

They have been few and far between -- Haley, Derrick Thomas, Demarcus Ware, that Roided up dude with San Diego (Merriman), Freeney.

We got lucky -- Clowney might wind up being a Clown is all

Except that he has lit it up every year he has played while consistently being double and triple teamed. Clowney is not a one year wonder by any means.

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:
Good call wysiwyg! Every year there are "can't miss" players who do. And then, there are the players who cancel themselves out w/stupid behavior.

I don't think we'll get any of the top 10-15 rated players since, IMO, we'll win the SBowl.

That said, it's really exciting to see what maneuvers Baalke will do. Up, down, parlay. He seems to find some gems along the way.

2 CB seems realistic and maybe a 2nd -4th on an OT to groom for a couple of years as Staley gets on in years.

What can't be overlooked is the system a player plays in, is it right for him or the talent or in many cases the lack there of and of course the all well overlooked systemic problem, the coaching staff.

Originally posted by AB83Rules:
Bridgewater is the best Prospect, Clowney is the best athlete in the 2014 crop of prospects.

Bridegwater will be handing the ball off to Jonathon Dyer in 2014. Those two guys will have a monster year. Dyer got into trouble at auburn shortly after getting the BCS MVP, transfered to arkansas st and got his associates degree and is now eligible to play in 2014 and enrolled at louisville.

Bridgwater has a running threat to open up some passing lanes.