Wide Receiver Class of 2014

Originally posted by dtg_9er:

Originally posted by tjd808185:
You don't draft to beat one team. Don't get caught building to win last year's title game. It's just as likely we'll be facing Arizona for the NFC West division next year. Seattle is going to a lose in free agency and look how quickly Baltimore's unbeatable defense dropped off in 01. They'll still be great but there's going to be a drop off.

Take the best player available regardless to size. I have feeling the Jenkins and Patton picks had to do with countering Seattle's big secondary and look at the results. It takes a few years for any receiver to produce.

When you have the number of draft picks the niners have you can earmark some toward beating the best team in your division. That player will help you win other games as well but usually it's a skill player who ideally suits a particular need. Not sure that people are saying to draft someone and keep him on the bench until the Seattle game! The niners need both big, physical receivers and fast, nifty receivers...they currently have neither.

Exactly....it's the lack of certain skill-sets/talent that Seattle is exploiting in every game we play. They know we have no WRs who can threaten deep so they press Boldin/Crabs, play single safety high and drop their LBs about 5-10 yards into coverage. And other than Kap taking off from the pocket, we have no real answers for it. Football 101.

So we can either keep doing the same things against them and hope it works, or we can adjust by adding talent that can specifically win against their scheme. Now, that doesn't mean it's ONLY successful against Seattle...trust me, adding speed to our WR corps will do wonders for our offense against everyone.
I mean, who's the most predictable offense in the league besides us???

Originally posted by GhostofFredDean74:

Originally posted by dtg_9er:

Originally posted by tjd808185:

You don't draft to beat one team. Don't get caught building to win last year's title game. It's just as likely we'll be facing Arizona for the NFC West division next year. Seattle is going to a lose in free agency and look how quickly Baltimore's unbeatable defense dropped off in 01. They'll still be great but there's going to be a drop off.

Take the best player available regardless to size. I have feeling the Jenkins and Patton picks had to do with countering Seattle's big secondary and look at the results. It takes a few years for any receiver to produce.

When you have the number of draft picks the niners have you can earmark some toward beating the best team in your division. That player will help you win other games as well but usually it's a skill player who ideally suits a particular need. Not sure that people are saying to draft someone and keep him on the bench until the Seattle game! The niners need both big, physical receivers and fast, nifty receivers...they currently have neither.

Exactly....it's the lack of certain skill-sets/talent that Seattle is exploiting in every game we play. They know we have no WRs who can threaten deep so they press Boldin/Crabs, play single safety high and drop their LBs about 5-10 yards into coverage. And other than Kap taking off from the pocket, we have no real answers for it.
Football 101.

Agreed 100%.

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
When you have the number of draft picks the niners have you can earmark some toward beating the best team in your division. That player will help you win other games as well but usually it's a skill player who ideally suits a particular need. Not sure that people are saying to draft someone and keep him on the bench until the Seattle game! The niners need both big, physical receivers and fast, nifty receivers...they currently have neither.

We don't have a number of draft picks to spend on wide receiver. We have a bunch of picks but a bunch of needs as well. We're probably looking at one 2nd/3rd rounder and one 5th 6th rounder. Neither will contribute that much this year barring significant injuries.

Draft the best guy on the board because like you said we may have a need for everything in a few years.

Originally posted by GhostofFredDean74:
Exactly....it's the lack of certain skill-sets/talent that Seattle is exploiting in every game we play. They know we have no WRs who can threaten deep so they press Boldin/Crabs, play single safety high and drop their LBs about 5-10 yards into coverage. And other than Kap taking off from the pocket, we have no real answers for it. Football 101.

So we can either keep doing the same things against them and hope it works, or we can adjust by adding talent that can specifically win against their scheme. Now, that doesn't mean it's ONLY successful against Seattle...trust me, adding speed to our WR corps will do wonders for our offense against everyone.
I mean, who's the most predictable offense in the league besides us???

You're under the assumption that these guys will be ready to contribute from day 1. We've tried that the past 2 years and have gotten no production whatsoever. The reality check is Crabtree and Boldin will still be our 2 top guys next year and hopefully Patton emerges as a third.

You guys are building for the past to win battles of the future. If there's Ty Hilton like prospect yeah sign me up but I wouldn't draft small just to draft small.

Originally posted by tjd808185:

Originally posted by GhostofFredDean74:

Exactly....it's the lack of certain skill-sets/talent that Seattle is exploiting in every game we play. They know we have no WRs who can threaten deep so they press Boldin/Crabs, play single safety high and drop their LBs about 5-10 yards into coverage. And other than Kap taking off from the pocket, we have no real answers for it. Football 101.

So we can either keep doing the same things against them and hope it works, or we can adjust by adding talent that can specifically win against their scheme. Now, that doesn't mean it's ONLY successful against Seattle...trust me, adding speed to our WR corps will do wonders for our offense against everyone.
I mean, who's the most predictable offense in the league besides us???

You're under the assumption that these guys will be ready to contribute from day 1. We've tried that the past 2 years and have gotten no production whatsoever. The reality check is Crabtree and Boldin will still be our 2 top guys next year and hopefully Patton emerges as a third.

You guys are building for the past to win battles of the future. If there's Ty Hilton like prospect yeah sign me up but I wouldn't draft small just to draft small.

I get what you're saying, but that's not what he's saying. We're talking about players that when you review them on film, you look for the players that do two things: 1) add a dimension to your team that you lack and need, and 2) that consistently demonstrate the ability to successfully beat the style of play of your major opponent.

It's just about the combination of balance and talent being added to your team. And really, that's just a constant process a team should be doing every year. We have done pretty well with that for our defense. Maybe not so much on offense. We may have drafted some players, but for the most part they haven't had the impact or seem to have shown as much promise as the defensive talent we've acquired.

Originally posted by tjd808185:

Originally posted by GhostofFredDean74:
Exactly....it's the lack of certain skill-sets/talent that Seattle is exploiting in every game we play. They know we have no WRs who can threaten deep so they press Boldin/Crabs, play single safety high and drop their LBs about 5-10 yards into coverage. And other than Kap taking off from the pocket, we have no real answers for it. Football 101.

So we can either keep doing the same things against them and hope it works, or we can adjust by adding talent that can specifically win against their scheme. Now, that doesn't mean it's ONLY successful against Seattle...trust me, adding speed to our WR corps will do wonders for our offense against everyone.
I mean, who's the most predictable offense in the league besides us???

You're under the assumption that these guys will be ready to contribute from day 1. We've tried that the past 2 years and have gotten no production whatsoever. The reality check is Crabtree and Boldin will still be our 2 top guys next year and hopefully Patton emerges as a third.

You guys are building for the past to win battles of the future. If there's Ty Hilton like prospect yeah sign me up but I wouldn't draft small just to draft small.

Nobody is suggesting that we draft small just to draft small....that's pretty dumb. And I'm sure nobody thought TY Hilton or a Chris Givens would do the things they did, or they would've been 1st rounders. As it turns out, Hilton caught 50 passes for 861 Yards and lead the team in touchdown catches with seven as a rookie. Givens (who Beckham reminds me of) caught 42 passes for nearly 700 yards in his rookie season, including his first career TD...a 52 yarder against Sherman.

In fact, I'd say just about every WR drafted in the first 3 rounds last year did some amazing things, from Patterson in Minnesota to Tavon Austin, DeAndre Hopkins to Keenan Allen, Dodson and Boyce in New England, Woods in Buffalo, even Justin Hunter in Tennessee made some amazing catches for scores. Only Markus Wheaton in Pitt had a quiet rookie season from those first 3 rounds.

So it's more than possible to get production from rookie WRs, and you don't even have to be lucky to make it happen. Just draft good talent and give them an opportunity.

Originally posted by tjd808185:
You don't draft to beat one team. Don't get caught building to win last year's title game. It's just as likely we'll be facing Arizona for the NFC West division next year. Seattle is going to a lose in free agency and look how quickly Baltimore's unbeatable defense dropped off in 01. They'll still be great but there's going to be a drop off.

Adding speed is about a matchup advantage against all opponents, however Seattle isn't going anywhere, they have a defined system and scheme, they're going to continue to apply that scheme long term, mixing and matching players, the 49ers will have to build their offense in full awareness of that, no matter what, speed and quickness are sorely needed offensively.

"Take the best player available regardless to size. I have feeling the Jenkins and Patton picks had to do with countering Seattle's big secondary and look at the results. It takes a few years for any receiver to produce."

Jenkins was a bust and Patton was injured but is more of a possession receiver along the lines of a Crabtree, not a speed guy, what exactly are we supposed to be looking at?

Originally posted by tjd808185:
You're under the assumption that these guys will be ready to contribute from day 1. We've tried that the past 2 years and have gotten no production whatsoever. The reality check is Crabtree and Boldin will still be our 2 top guys next year and hopefully Patton emerges as a third.

You guys are building for the past to win battles of the future. If there's Ty Hilton like prospect yeah sign me up but I wouldn't draft small just to draft small.

Your rhetoric is getting pretty old. Jenkins was a bust, Patton was injured, where was the production supposed to come from? You don't give up trying, and you certainly don't stop trying to fix weaknesses on offense. Speed is a major weakness on offense, this goes beyond Seattle, this goes to every quality defense, knowing the 49ers lack speed on the outside, loading up the box, dropping a safety into the box and playing to stuff the run. Who can blame them, who do the 49ers have at receiver that can be a downfield threat. Absolutely nobody. That's a huge problem, if you look at the better offenses, even Baltimore last year, they had guys who threatened you deep downfield, in the intermediate zone and in the short area. 49ers don't have anyone other than VD who can threaten you downfield and we all got to witness what an absolute disaster the offense turned into whenever he left the game/got knocked out.


So yes, the 49ers are at a huge matchup disadvantage due to lacking speed, at WR, at RB....etc. If they want to force teams to change things up, to get guys out of the box and open things up for the running game some more, they need to give teams a reason to do so, a legitimate, TRUE downfield threat who can take it to the house on pretty much any play is right up there on the top of the needs list.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by tjd808185:
You're under the assumption that these guys will be ready to contribute from day 1. We've tried that the past 2 years and have gotten no production whatsoever. The reality check is Crabtree and Boldin will still be our 2 top guys next year and hopefully Patton emerges as a third.

You guys are building for the past to win battles of the future. If there's Ty Hilton like prospect yeah sign me up but I wouldn't draft small just to draft small.

Your rhetoric is getting pretty old. Jenkins was a bust, Patton was injured, where was the production supposed to come from? You don't give up trying, and you certainly don't stop trying to fix weaknesses on offense. Speed is a major weakness on offense, this goes beyond Seattle, this goes to every quality defense, knowing the 49ers lack speed on the outside, loading up the box, dropping a safety into the box and playing to stuff the run. Who can blame them, who do the 49ers have at receiver that can be a downfield threat. Absolutely nobody. That's a huge problem, if you look at the better offenses, even Baltimore last year, they had guys who threatened you deep downfield, in the intermediate zone and in the short area. 49ers don't have anyone other than VD who can threaten you downfield and we all got to witness what an absolute disaster the offense turned into whenever he left the game/got knocked out.


So yes, the 49ers are at a huge matchup disadvantage due to lacking speed, at WR, at RB....etc. If they want to force teams to change things up, to get guys out of the box and open things up for the running game some more, they need to give teams a reason to do so, a legitimate, TRUE downfield threat who can take it to the house on pretty much any play is right up there on the top of the needs list.

Originally posted by GhostofFredDean74:
Exactly....it's the lack of certain skill-sets/talent that Seattle is exploiting in every game we play. They know we have no WRs who can threaten deep so they press Boldin/Crabs, play single safety high and drop their LBs about 5-10 yards into coverage. And other than Kap taking off from the pocket, we have no real answers for it. Football 101.

So we can either keep doing the same things against them and hope it works, or we can adjust by adding talent that can specifically win against their scheme. Now, that doesn't mean it's ONLY successful against Seattle...trust me, adding speed to our WR corps will do wonders for our offense against everyone.
I mean, who's the most predictable offense in the league besides us???

I agree with this, but the 9ers offensive philosophy are guys that can block at all positions, so which one of these speed demons is a decent blocker too.

Patton and KW are willing blockers for their size, and I think Baalke will search for someone that has both speed and the willingness to mix it up.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
Your rhetoric is getting pretty old. Jenkins was a bust, Patton was injured, where was the production supposed to come from? You don't give up trying, and you certainly don't stop trying to fix weaknesses on offense. Speed is a major weakness on offense, this goes beyond Seattle, this goes to every quality defense, knowing the 49ers lack speed on the outside, loading up the box, dropping a safety into the box and playing to stuff the run. Who can blame them, who do the 49ers have at receiver that can be a downfield threat. Absolutely nobody. That's a huge problem, if you look at the better offenses, even Baltimore last year, they had guys who threatened you deep downfield, in the intermediate zone and in the short area. 49ers don't have anyone other than VD who can threaten you downfield and we all got to witness what an absolute disaster the offense turned into whenever he left the game/got knocked out.


So yes, the 49ers are at a huge matchup disadvantage due to lacking speed, at WR, at RB....etc. If they want to force teams to change things up, to get guys out of the box and open things up for the running game some more, they need to give teams a reason to do so, a legitimate, TRUE downfield threat who can take it to the house on pretty much any play is right up there on the top of the needs list.

You missed my point. I did not say they were busts. What I said was they're not going to contribute immediately and no you can't get sucked into the notion that we're going to be in a decade long struggle with Seattle for who goes to the Super Bowl.

Speed is an issue but you don't have to be 5'10 to be a deep threat in this league or to create separation.

Originally posted by tjd808185:
You missed my point. I did not say they were busts. What I said was they're not going to contribute immediately

You don't know this. The beauty of having someone that is a true deep threat is that you don't have to throw them the ball a lot, just having them out on the field forces defense's to react, they have to respect the speed, especially when your QB has a cannon for an arm.

that we're going to be in a decade long struggle with Seattle for who goes to the Super Bowl.

You don't know this either. Seattle is going to be very good for a very long time and looks to consistently be the 49ers biggest obstacle, season in and season out. Just as happened with the Cowboys in the 90's, the 49ers will have to address their ability to win games against them, at home and on the road. Its not about "playing yesterday's game" its about being intelligent, prudent and logical. They are the major road block, until proven otherwise, in that case it makes a lot of sense to build a team to attack them.

Speed is an issue but you don't have to be 5'10 to be a deep threat in this league or to create separation.

No, you don't, but generally, bigger wide receivers with tremendous speed, quickness and receiving skills are gone by the 5th pick of the 1st round. Guys like TY Hilton fall down the boards because of questions about their size or the caliber of their competition. In this particular draft, the top deep threats beyond the first 15 picks of the first round all tend to be on the shorter side.


I'd really like to find you a 6'4", 210 pound guy who runs a 4.36, has tremendous lateral movement, a quality route runner with decent hands in the 3rd round, but that just isn't going to happen.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
You don't know this. The beauty of having someone that is a true deep threat is that you don't have to throw them the ball a lot, just having them out on the field forces defense's to react, they have to respect the speed, especially when your QB has a cannon for an arm.

that we're going to be in a decade long struggle with Seattle for who goes to the Super Bowl.

You don't know this either. Seattle is going to be very good for a very long time and looks to consistently be the 49ers biggest obstacle, season in and season out. Just as happened with the Cowboys in the 90's, the 49ers will have to address their ability to win games against them, at home and on the road. Its not about "playing yesterday's game" its about being intelligent, prudent and logical. They are the major road block, until proven otherwise, in that case it makes a lot of sense to build a team to attack them.

Speed is an issue but you don't have to be 5'10 to be a deep threat in this league or to create separation.

No, you don't, but generally, bigger wide receivers with tremendous speed, quickness and receiving skills are gone by the 5th pick of the 1st round. Guys like TY Hilton fall down the boards because of questions about their size or the caliber of their competition. In this particular draft, the top deep threats beyond the first 15 picks of the first round all tend to be on the shorter side.


I'd really like to find you a 6'4", 210 pound guy who runs a 4.36, has tremendous lateral movement, a quality route runner with decent hands in the 3rd round, but that just isn't going to happen.

I know he's not going to be on the field a lot based on our offense. Who exactly was our 4th string receiver last year? We run the ball 50% of the time, use lineman as eligible receivers, multiple tight end sets. We play big. Barring injuries you're talking about a small handful of plays.

6'3-4 200 - 215 pound guys with serviceable speed are always available in the 2nd round. For example last year Justin Hunter. Alshon Jeffery as well. We have 2 2nd round picks we don't have to wait til the 3rd round or later to grab someone. I do agree that you can find talented smaller receivers later though.

It's no guarantee Seattle continues to be dominant. They're going to overpay for the Legion of Boom lose some talent in their front 7 and we'll see how that secondary holds up once that pass rush is no longer dominant. Michael Bennett is going to be out the door this year.

That´s the reason i like Brandin Cooks out of Oregon State so much. Put on the tape against Oregon and see what he does for a offense. Though he hadnt his best game production wise they had to put their best corner Ekpe Olomu AND a safety on him the whole time. He isn´t just a small fast player. He is the real deal. One of the best hands in college football, runs good routes, high footbal iq.Having him on the team would immediately open things up underneath !

Originally posted by tjd808185:

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

You don't know this. The beauty of having someone that is a true deep threat is that you don't have to throw them the ball a lot, just having them out on the field forces defense's to react, they have to respect the speed, especially when your QB has a cannon for an arm.

that we're going to be in a decade long struggle with Seattle for who goes to the Super Bowl.

You don't know this either. Seattle is going to be very good for a very long time and looks to consistently be the 49ers biggest obstacle, season in and season out. Just as happened with the Cowboys in the 90's, the 49ers will have to address their ability to win games against them, at home and on the road. Its not about "playing yesterday's game" its about being intelligent, prudent and logical. They are the major road block, until proven otherwise, in that case it makes a lot of sense to build a team to attack them.

Speed is an issue but you don't have to be 5'10 to be a deep threat in this league or to create separation.

No, you don't, but generally, bigger wide receivers with tremendous speed, quickness and receiving skills are gone by the 5th pick of the 1st round. Guys like TY Hilton fall down the boards because of questions about their size or the caliber of their competition. In this particular draft, the top deep threats beyond the first 15 picks of the first round all tend to be on the shorter side.


I'd really like to find you a 6'4", 210 pound guy who runs a 4.36, has tremendous lateral movement, a quality route runner with decent hands in the 3rd round, but that just isn't going to happen.

I know he's not going to be on the field a lot based on our offense. Who exactly was our 4th string receiver last year? We run the ball 50% of the time, use lineman as eligible receivers, multiple tight end sets. We play big. Barring injuries you're talking about a small handful of plays.

6'3-4 200 - 215 pound guys with serviceable speed are always available in the 2nd round. For example last year Justin Hunter. Alshon Jeffery as well. We have 2 2nd round picks we don't have to wait til the 3rd round or later to grab someone. I do agree that you can find talented smaller receivers later though.

It's no guarantee Seattle continues to be dominant. They're going to overpay for the Legion of Boom lose some talent in their front 7 and we'll see how that secondary holds up once that pass rush is no longer dominant. Michael Bennett is going to be out the door this year.

From all reports I read, the team is going to try to re-sign him to keep their front 7 intact and the team is going to have maintaining their front 7 as priority over their secondary.