3rd Draft in a Row Without a Projected Starter

It is threads like this that are ruining the webzone.

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:

Originally posted by Rascal:

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:
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Broncos are a much inferior team with different needs and targets.
Trust Elway over Baalke if you like, but I don't see how that could be justified.

Not really. Some of the needs are the same, they needed a CB so they went out and drafted Bradley Roby. They needed a WR they went out and drafted Cody Latimer.

They needed a starting CB to replace Cromartie, starting WR to replace Decker.
They are still inferior. The AFC is weak.

We have starters. You may not like Brock and Culliver, but the team obviously does.
Their judgement is more informed than yours, Broncos, or the talking heads on TV.

If that is the case, then there is no point to discuss about anything cos none of us work for the 49ers. LOL.

The reason there is a forum is for people to voice their views.

Obviously what is happening here we have 2 camps : 1) that believes whatever Baalke does is A+ and 2) those who believe we should have addressed the CB and WR needs with impact players/game changers. And by the looks of it, you can debate until the cows come home, but I don't see the 2 camps will agree.

Originally posted by Rodinxxv:

Originally posted by Rascal:
I see. So, I guess what you are saying is we didn't win the Super Bowl simply because of bad luck ? Not that luck doesn't factor in, but so do talents. That is my point. In the case of the Seahawks, I believe they had a better team than us, that was why we lost the NFC Championship. You can't blame luck on Kap's 3 turnovers.

Talent, coaching, refs, luck all have to do with wins and losses...you know any given Sunday. I believe our roster was better than Seattle last year. Anyway, sounds like you are blaming Kap for our loss, not the the quality of CB or WR depth on our team.

Nope, that is not what I am saying unless you think Kap's 3 turnovers had nothing to do with our loss. By the way, one of those turnovers was a sack fumble cos let's face it Seattle has one of the top pass rush in the league. In fact, their D was ranked higher than ours in total and passing D. I didn't make it up, these are facts.

You're missing the point Domingo...and that is when you're drafting for depth, it means you've "arrived" as a roster. I challenge anyone to find a more complete roster anywhere in the NFL. Especially after acquiring Lloyd and just yesterday Stevie Johnson, our receiving corps has vaulted upwards. Add a speedy slot receiver (Ellington), something that's been missing in our passing attack, and wa-la, our WR corps has been dramatically upgraded. Throw in a bruising RB in Carlos Hyde, you've got that big RB we lost in Dixon that has special running skills. Marcus Martin could win the start C position...if not in training camp/preseason, than at some point during the season. For sure, he'll push Kilgore to the max, which is exactly why Baalke drafted him. Borland's a real thumper and gives Fangio a guy behind Wilhoite and who should be a demon on ST's. Jimmie Ward's a jack-of-all-trades in the secondary and will at a minimum play slot CB. He's also arguably Bethea's replacement in the future. Thomas is red-shirted for 2014, but should be ready to bang heads & potentially play in 2015. Why do that? Same reason as Baalke red-shirted Carradine, Lattimore and Marquardt in 2013-14. These guys know the offense/defense and should be a shot in the arm this season. In the process, Baalke's picked up another 4th rd pick in this draft and another one in 2015. Baalke just took CB Dontae Johnson, a big DB who's another guy who can play press coverage. It's all part of the plan to get bigger, stronger and give Fangio guys who can give his defense different looks/coverages.

I don't get this impact player stuff. So far this is a great draft. We have starters, depth, and insurance in the event that our free agents after this season are asking for too much. As this whole thing has played out, from Jimmy Ward down to Dontae Johnson far far, what's NOT to like about this draft? For those who wanted impact at receiver, we have four guys who can put up 1,000 plus yards. Four. Then throw in the young guys (Ellington and Patton) and we are prepared to deal with the loss of our older vets (Boldin and Lloyd). We've got playmakers in the defensive backfield, we've got a big corner for Ed Donatell to develop, as well as the best running back in the draft. How can anyone not like this draft? And on top of that, we still have 5 more picks which can be used on medical redshirts or flipped in 2015 picks.

i agree we have a talented roster, so we should be focused on getting a few great players to get over the top and win the Super Bowl, instead of getting a bunch of contributors and role players. With our roster, there is no reason to draft 11 players, when half of them are going to get cut and never make the team. Better to leverage our picks and get 3-4 impact players who can actually make us better. Baalke just seems to be infatuated with quantity of picks over quality. The only two guys we go that were the best value where they were selected are Carlos Hyde and Bruce Ellington.

Originally posted by 49erfanatic:
i agree we have a talented roster, so we should be focused on getting a few great players to get over the top and win the Super Bowl, instead of getting a bunch of contributors and role players. With our roster, there is no reason to draft 11 players, when half of them are going to get cut and never make the team. Better to leverage our picks and get 3-4 impact players who can actually make us better. Baalke just seems to be infatuated with quantity of picks over quality. The only two guys we go that were the best value where they were selected are Carlos Hyde and Bruce Ellington.

Like who??? And who on this roster would you be replacing these so-called great players with?

Originally posted by walker807:
It is threads like this that are ruining the webzone.

THIS

threads like this is why i stopped reading this forum. what a joke.

This is actually a fair criticism imo since we've fallen short 3 years in a row now and could clearly use a superior talent to put us over the top, rather than depth upon more depth that never sees the field. This is especially true on offense where we play at one of if not the slowest pace in the league, there is only one ball to go around.

Originally posted by SaksV:
Like who??? And who on this roster would you be replacing these so-called great players with?

In terms of immediate starters, these are the positions where I thought we could've added someone:

CB - is anyone actually comfortable with Cully coming off the ACL and all his off-field nonsense? Depth is also an issue here because of how many DBs you need in today's passing league
Center - Kilgore barely saw the field in 3 years and didn't look anything more than average when he did play
PR - does anyone actually trust LMJ? his return stats look ok, but he fumbled yet again in the playoffs and he has no value to us on offense
OLB - Aldon could be suspended at a moment's notice, just look at the situations with Blackmon and Gordon, these problems don't just stop because you want them to

As for how the draft has gone:
CB - Ward fills our need for a slot corner, which pushes Wright to the outside to compete with Cully. I like Wright, however the team favored Cox over him last year down the stretch for whatever reason even when Wright was healthy, so....given our draft position, I think Ward was as good a solution available, otherwise we would've had to trade up into the late teens to get one of the top corners.
Center - Thank god we drafted Marcus Martin. Most crucial pick of the draft imo, we desperately need to re-establish our identity as a power run-first team and strength up the middle is the way to do it. We had way too many runs blown up in the backfield last year, putting us in awful down and distance situations.
PR - still waiting....are we really going to keep LMJ on the team just to return punts and then choke when it counts? Still a couple more picks to go, but I'm not optimistic....outside of the couple years we had Ginn, this position has been a huge failing for us for decades and doesn't look like it's changing anytime soon
OLB - looks like we bought a lotto ticket with Lynch. This looked like a pretty weak position in the draft so I'm not really sure what else Baalke could've done here.

From a purely need perspective, I think PR was the only real fail. But some things never change, so whatever.

Originally posted by Rascal:

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:

Originally posted by Rascal:

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:

There was a temporary error. Please try back later.
Broncos are a much inferior team with different needs and targets.
Trust Elway over Baalke if you like, but I don't see how that could be justified.

Not really. Some of the needs are the same, they needed a CB so they went out and drafted Bradley Roby. They needed a WR they went out and drafted Cody Latimer.

They needed a starting CB to replace Cromartie, starting WR to replace Decker.
They are still inferior. The AFC is weak.

We have starters. You may not like Brock and Culliver, but the team obviously does.
Their judgement is more informed than yours, Broncos, or the talking heads on TV.

If that is the case, then there is no point to discuss about anything cos none of us work for the 49ers. LOL.

The reason there is a forum is for people to voice their views.

Obviously what is happening here we have 2 camps : 1) that believes whatever Baalke does is A+ and 2) those who believe we should have addressed the CB and WR needs with impact players/game changers. And by the looks of it, you can debate until the cows come home, but I don't see the 2 camps will agree.

Not exactly, but it is increasingly clear there can be no real discussion.
Enjoy your complaining. I will leave you to it.

Whoops I should've added ILB to my list, can't just assume Bo will be back this yr.

Borland was a huge pickup

Originally posted by Rascal:

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:

Originally posted by Rascal:

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:
There was a temporary error. Please try back later.
Broncos are a much inferior team with different needs and targets.
Trust Elway over Baalke if you like, but I don't see how that could be justified.

Not really. Some of the needs are the same, they needed a CB so they went out and drafted Bradley Roby. They needed a WR they went out and drafted Cody Latimer.

They needed a starting CB to replace Cromartie, starting WR to replace Decker.
They are still inferior. The AFC is weak.

We have starters. You may not like Brock and Culliver, but the team obviously does.
Their judgement is more informed than yours, Broncos, or the talking heads on TV.

If that is the case, then there is no point to discuss about anything cos none of us work for the 49ers. LOL.

The reason there is a forum is for people to voice their views.

Obviously what is happening here we have 2 camps : 1) that believes whatever Baalke does is A+ and 2) those who believe we should have addressed the CB and WR needs with impact players/game changers. And by the looks of it, you can debate until the cows come home, but I don't see the 2 camps will agree.

My boy RASCAL.

Dude, I don't think you're entirely wrong here, but I think you would have been a lot happier if Baalke got Beckham Jr., correct?

Well, you do know he wanted to get ODB and tried to move up for him, but couldn't find a trade partner.

Lemme repeat that. HE COULDN'T FIND A TRADE PARTNER.

So, they took the best DB on the board (and if Ward can do safety AND CB work over the next 5-7 years, it's an AMAZING PICK) and then added Stevie Johnson.

So there's your WR & CB. I'm not sure what else you wanted him to do. If you don't like the picks, then you don't like the picks. But Ward & Johnson are your answers, and Johnson is already NFL-ready, so that's a big plus as well.

We got better on offence because...
- Carlos Hyde will play immediately alongside Gore, Lattimore and Hunter...and LaMichael
- Marcus Martin could supplant Kilgore at center
- We were able to trade a 2015 4th rounder for Stevie Johnson

We got better on defense because...
- Jimmy Ward will start as our nickel corner/hybrid free safety
- Borland has a chance to be a part of the ILB rotation, but will start right away on special teams

We got better on special teams because...
- Bruce Ellington can start as a punt/kick returner

Wild Cards:
- Brandon Thomas will red-shirt 2014/15 and could be our next starting LG when Iupati leaves
- Aaron Lynch has natural pass-rushing ability and will be coached up by Jim Tomsula
- Johnson/Reason/Acker have a legitimate chance at significant playing time with slight competition ahead of them

Originally posted by doc_brown_:
- We were able to trade a 2015 4th rounder for Stevie Johnson

And we got a 2015 4th back from Denver, so Johnson was essentially taken for a 7th.