Stanford Players 2011-2013

One of the things I was looking forward to the most when Jim Harbaugh came aboard was for him to bring the offense he ran at Stanford to the NFL. We all probably agree we have yet to truly see that.

The other thing is that Stanford has produced some pretty decent talent over the last three seasons. Not necessarily all world beaters, but these guys do have some talent.

Does anyone think it's strange that Baalke/Harbaugh have shied away from using draft picks on Stanford players, even when it's a position of need and instead opting to sign guys to UDFA contracts?

Will this trend continue in 2014?

I like Tyler Gaffney, maybe as a late round pick to compete for a backup RB spot.

Josh Mauro if we take a DE. Ben Gardner as a 7th or UDFA pick.

Especially Richard Sherman guy is talented and big plus he was crated so low. Interesting to say the least.

Funny thing is, Sherman is the best of the bunch, but I'd actually pass on him. Maybe Harbaugh knew something was up there lol. I'm more so thinking about the Zach Ertz's, Coby Fleener's, Doug Baldwin's (although I do believe they wanted him and Seattle got to him first).

On another note,

Originally posted by AB81Rules:
I like Tyler Gaffney, maybe as a late round pick to compete for a backup RB spot.

Josh Mauro if we take a DE. Ben Gardner as a 7th or UDFA pick.

Josh Mauro, I can definitely dig it. I think we are almost at the point where we won't have to revisit D-line for awhile. We have Ian Williams, Glenn Dorsey, and Quinton Dial at NT, Justin Smith, Ray McDonald, Tank Carradine, and Tony Jerod-Eddie and DE. I think DeMarcus Dobbs is a FA, so Mauro could fill that spot. Those are 8 very good proven or potentially good lineman. Gardner works as well (UDFA). No to running backs lol.

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
Funny thing is, Sherman is the best of the bunch, but I'd actually pass on him. Maybe Harbaugh knew something was up there lol. I'm more so thinking about the Zach Ertz's, Coby Fleener's, Doug Baldwin's (although I do believe they wanted him and Seattle got to him first).

On another note,

Originally posted by AB81Rules:
I like Tyler Gaffney, maybe as a late round pick to compete for a backup RB spot.

Josh Mauro if we take a DE. Ben Gardner as a 7th or UDFA pick.

Josh Mauro, I can definitely dig it. I think we are almost at the point where we won't have to revisit D-line for awhile. We have Ian Williams, Glenn Dorsey, and Quinton Dial at NT, Justin Smith, Ray McDonald, Tank Carradine, and Tony Jerod-Eddie and DE. I think DeMarcus Dobbs is a FA, so Mauro could fill that spot. Those are 8 very good proven or potentially good lineman. Gardner works as well (UDFA). No to running backs lol.

If you all recall....Sherman claims it was Harbaugh's actions and words to NFL GMs that caused him to go undrafted. Also Sherman supposedly held it against Harbaugh that he was moved from WR to CB. Whether Harbaugh truly thought he was a better CB than WR or if Harbaugh did not like his personality and bluntly told GMs that is up for debate but it makes perfect sense why we didn't get Sherman.

Picking Ronald Johnson over Doug Baldwin came down to Baalke/Harbaugh doing a solid for Johnny Morton and showing that they'd listen to positional coaches about players. Which is sort of contradictory to the GRo-Harbaugh knowledge of Stanford players as well. Baldwin went to Seattle as a UDFA because he saw no opportunity in SF and he was right, he would've never played for Harbaugh. It was a great decision by him and now he is doing fairly well up in Seattle.

Honestly it seems that Harbaugh isn't going to risk organizational cooperation and goodwill to go to bat for Stanford players, especially now that we are 3 years removed from his time in Palo Alto the kids coming out are nothing more than players he recruited out of high school and probably never saw them actually play for him.

Doesn't he talk to Shaw about these guys?

Originally posted by sfout:

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
Funny thing is, Sherman is the best of the bunch, but I'd actually pass on him. Maybe Harbaugh knew something was up there lol. I'm more so thinking about the Zach Ertz's, Coby Fleener's, Doug Baldwin's (although I do believe they wanted him and Seattle got to him first).

On another note,

Originally posted by AB81Rules:
I like Tyler Gaffney, maybe as a late round pick to compete for a backup RB spot.

Josh Mauro if we take a DE. Ben Gardner as a 7th or UDFA pick.

Josh Mauro, I can definitely dig it. I think we are almost at the point where we won't have to revisit D-line for awhile. We have Ian Williams, Glenn Dorsey, and Quinton Dial at NT, Justin Smith, Ray McDonald, Tank Carradine, and Tony Jerod-Eddie and DE. I think DeMarcus Dobbs is a FA, so Mauro could fill that spot. Those are 8 very good proven or potentially good lineman. Gardner works as well (UDFA). No to running backs lol.

If you all recall....Sherman claims it was Harbaugh's actions and words to NFL GMs that caused him to go undrafted. Also Sherman supposedly held it against Harbaugh that he was moved from WR to CB. Whether Harbaugh truly thought he was a better CB than WR or if Harbaugh did not like his personality and bluntly told GMs that is up for debate but it makes perfect sense why we didn't get Sherman.

Picking Ronald Johnson over Doug Baldwin came down to Baalke/Harbaugh doing a solid for Johnny Morton and showing that they'd listen to positional coaches about players. Which is sort of contradictory to the GRo-Harbaugh knowledge of Stanford players as well. Baldwin went to Seattle as a UDFA because he saw no opportunity in SF and he was right, he would've never played for Harbaugh. It was a great decision by him and now he is doing fairly well up in Seattle.

Honestly it seems that Harbaugh isn't going to risk organizational cooperation and goodwill to go to bat for Stanford players, especially now that we are 3 years removed from his time in Palo Alto the kids coming out are nothing more than players he recruited out of high school and probably never saw them actually play for him.

I think Harbaugh has clearly demonstrated he will listen. Now it's time to get some Palo Alto talent. And fire Johnnie Morton.

Not really. Besides Sherman none of them are major players or difference makers. Folks were crying for Fleener and he's a back up to Dwayne Allen.

Originally posted by lamontb:
Not really. Besides Sherman none of them are major players or difference makers. Folks were crying for Fleener and he's a back up to Dwayne Allen.

Yah but Sherman wasn't that dominate in college either.

Anyway, Harbaugh won't draft any of Stanford players either.

I think it is a simple case of opportunity not presenting itself to draft these players with regards to where they end up on the 49ers big board. The board is not going to match what each of us may think of the prospects, or what the so called experts, pundits and analysts think.

Sherman as an example : he may have been a 5th round pick, but he could have been ranked lower on our board given our coaching staff's insight on not just his abilities and work ethic on the field but also the kind of player he is off the field, be it in the locker room and in the film/meeting rooms and also to his character.

Well Harbaugh isn't picking the players, Baalke is.

And Baalke isn't the only GM picking, he is one of 32 GMs and other 31 GMs can easily rank the Stanford players higher based on the type of team they want to build or by luck the other 31 GMs might be in a better position to draft Stanford players.

For example maybe we would have taken DeCastro in 2012 but he was gone before our pick.

In 2011, we took Chris Culliver in the 3rd and later Sione Fua was taken. Fua is a 4-3 DT, who is barely staying on the Panthers roster. In the 4th we took Kendall Hunter when Owen Marecic was taken later. Marecic was then cut later on by the Browns...
In the 5th Richard Sherman was drafted before it was our turn to pick. We could have picked Sherman in that round but we used our 5th pick to trade up to draft Kaepernick.

Ryan Whalen was taken in the 6th and has done nothing in the NFL.

Baldwin was a free agent signing, and considering we didn't sign a FA and had taken Ronald Johnson in the 6th, there was no reason to go out of our way to sign an extra WR.

In 2012, we didn't taken Fleener or Martin. Instead we went with AJ Jenkins in the late 1st, and both those players were gone by our next pick. IF AJ Jenkins worked out, he was the clearly better pick, obviously our staff thought AJ would become a good WR to be the #2 to Crabs. Finding a #2 WR was much more important then a backup TE or backup OT.

In 2013, you wanted us to NOT pick Eric Reid and make a reach for Ertz?!?!

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
Well Harbaugh isn't picking the players, Baalke is.

And Baalke isn't the only GM picking, he is one of 32 GMs and other 31 GMs can easily rank the Stanford players higher based on the type of team they want to build or by luck the other 31 GMs might be in a better position to draft Stanford players.

For example maybe we would have taken DeCastro in 2012 but he was gone before our pick.

In 2011, we took Chris Culliver in the 3rd and later Sione Fua was taken. Fua is a 4-3 DT, who is barely staying on the Panthers roster. In the 4th we took Kendall Hunter when Owen Marecic was taken later. Marecic was then cut later on by the Browns...
In the 5th Richard Sherman was drafted before it was our turn to pick. We could have picked Sherman in that round but we used our 5th pick to trade up to draft Kaepernick.

Ryan Whalen was taken in the 6th and has done nothing in the NFL.

Baldwin was a free agent signing, and considering we didn't sign a FA and had taken Ronald Johnson in the 6th, there was no reason to go out of our way to sign an extra WR.

In 2012, we didn't taken Fleener or Martin. Instead we went with AJ Jenkins in the late 1st, and both those players were gone by our next pick. IF AJ Jenkins worked out, he was the clearly better pick, obviously our staff thought AJ would become a good WR to be the #2 to Crabs. Finding a #2 WR was much more important then a backup TE or backup OT.

In 2013, you wanted us to NOT pick Eric Reid and make a reach for Ertz?!?!

In 2012, I wanted us to draft Fleener at 30. It didn't happen. I think we might have had another shot at him in the second if I'm not mistaken.

In 2013, I loved the Eric Reid pick (first time I nailed a 49ers first round pick since Michael Crabtree). I was hoping for Ertz later on and we went with McDonald. I will say I do not regret the pick as I think McDonald can potentially do some serious damage when he finally comes on. I was just stating he doesn't bring too many former players on. A much different philosophy than guys like Jimmy Johnson and Steve Spurrier.

In another thread, I stated that perhaps we should make a move for Johnathan Martin. If we can get him with one of our sevenths, that would be great value and we'd be solid at tackle, while having two capable backups (Martin first, Boone second).