Does having Harbaugh give you more comfort in this draft?

Just gauging opinions here.

I was always so distrusting of the 49ers front office and coaching staff in years prior that draft day would make me cringe in fear of taking the wrong guy (see Kentwan Balmer).

Although I don't know who we'll pick this year, with Harbaugh, I'm at least confident we'll be making the right picks.

This mainly applies to the QB selection. Whatever we do, I'll be confident we made the right move thanks to Harbaugh's knowledge of the game/position. He also has a great background with this year's draft class thanks to coaching in the college ranks last year.

I'm still a bit nervous about what we'll do because you never know how things will pan out, but I like knowing that this coach knows more about the game than I do (since coaches/gm's in the past have not).

As long as he drafts a solid QB to replace Alex Smith, yes.

Absolutely not. I witnessed Walsh and Seifert missing ocassionally. It's a crap shoot.

Originally posted by nvninerfan1:
Absolutely not. I witnessed Walsh and Seifert missing ocassionally. It's a crap shoot.

Agreed. I'm not saying I have zero worries regarding this draft, I'm just saying I'm more confident in our decision making this year than I have been since Walsh last ran the show in 2001.

It does from an offensive perspective especially at the QB position. His experience as a NFL QB and college coach will serve him very well in this time of transition. He used to having to build a team quickly both at UCD and Stanford his first years. Now he has to do it NFL style which is much harder to do.

Even with that, Baalke is still running this biatch. I expect our #7 will be Peterson, Miller, Dareus or trade back, IMO, even with Quinn and Amukamara on the board. If AZ doesn't pick Gabbert, Wash, Minny and possibly even Mia might want to jump to #7 to stop Tenn from grabbing him. Then, Baalke can go get the QB that Harbaugh wants at the bottom of the first or top of the second with either the #28 or #33 picks, IMO.

From there, I can see Baalke/Harbaugh going after a WCO FA like Hasselbeck because of his familiarity with the WCO and we would be taking one of divisional rival's starting QBs, minimizing talent on that squad. He or McNabb would be great stop gaps for two years while Harbaugh molds his new QB.

While developing his QB, Harbaugh will use more of our RBs and TEs to move the chains, not having to throw in a rookie QB. Let the vet run and control while using short passing game and run plays against the weakness of the D, whatever that may be. Then, i can see a Kaepernick starting in two years after the vet QB contract expires who could now be able to stretch the field with his arm and his legs for example.

Harbaugh did this with Stanford. Gerhart was the heart and soul of that offense for a year before Luck took over. Once Luck became the forefront of that offense, Harbaugh was able to balance his attack really taking advantages of mismatches the D presented.

That's is what will happen with us. A strong run game to begin and a couple of years, our new franchise QB will be ready to make his mark, whoever that may be.

Two years? Gotta give his new protoge time to develop. Thank goodness for Gore and Dixon and whoever they pick to succeed Gore this year cause it will happen. We have Davis and Walker at TE to be able to make these mismatches work.

Yup, in Harbaugh I trust!

As of right now not really. And that goes for Baalke as well. Got to wait and see how they perform. I've never been high on college coaches going into the NFL. Time will tell. I am more confident in this regime over the Singletary regime.

I'm confident Harbaugh wants at least one guy in this QB class and will develop him into a starter but getting him is really going to be a challenge. I think some type of trade will happen to get it done.

I can't recall a year when so many teams are in the hunt for a QB. If you consider the teams that are flat out desperate like us and Carolina, then look at teams that are still deciding on their current starter and may want an insurance pick and finally teams with a Vet QB who needs to be replaced in 2-3 years, about 1/3 of the teams or more may be looking.

yes. how could it not.

Hell yeah it makes a big difference. I honestly dont care who we have at center, who we have on the Oline, or who we have at WR because I truly have faith that we have someone who knows offense, knows how to adjust, knows how to gameplan, and above all knows that every position on the team is different and has to be treated accordingly. Not too mention he was an NFL QB.

I dont think we could of asked for someone better, proven or not. I mean if Bradford can make it to the playoffs, with the same dinks and dunks that I saw all of our QB's throw, whether Shaun Hill, Alex, Troy, s**t even Carr, then we can do the same thing.

I was shocked at how their offense looked and Bradford had a horrible QB rating.

One thing I will pay close attention to tho, i noticed the difference with the Rams and even the Cards, and us, is that it seems like we are the only team in the league, who's WR's never manage to get open, and it dont matter who the QB was.

Ninertico pretty much summed up most of it. There's more comfort because we are not balanced or lead on offense so now we have a talent evaluator on offense. Baelke still runs the draft. Let's not put it all on Harbaugh. IMO Baelke was agressive and drafted needs in his first draft so i feel pretty good about this one. However, i do agree that it is a crap shoot and the worst part is that we can't control what other teams do. With a lot of picks that means we can take some good swings to land a home run...hopefully a couple. Starting to think that the draft might go different than expected. Wonder if we get one impact player on D with where ever we pick in the first and then i'm thinking we might see some questionable picks to running back and receivers, TE and the Oline. Baelke will draft the guys but he has to know what Harbaugh needs for his style of offense. Harbaugh needs to establish the power run game in his first year. I think that is the most curcial part of his offense. I confident in him and in Baelke.

Originally posted by Jersey9er:
Hell yeah it makes a big difference. I honestly dont care who we have at center, who we have on the Oline, or who we have at WR because I truly have faith that we have someone who knows offense, knows how to adjust, knows how to gameplan, and above all knows that every position on the team is different and has to be treated accordingly. Not too mention he was an NFL QB.

I dont think we could of asked for someone better, proven or not. I mean if Bradford can make it to the playoffs, with the same dinks and dunks that I saw all of our QB's throw, whether Shaun Hill, Alex, Troy, s**t even Carr, then we can do the same thing.

I was shocked at how their offense looked and Bradford had a horrible QB rating.

One thing I will pay close attention to tho, i noticed the difference with the Rams and even the Cards, and us, is that it seems like we are the only team in the league, who's WR's never manage to get open, and it dont matter who the QB was.

I'm sure much of this had to do with play calling though. Our WR corps. really isn't that bad. Also, let's not forget how many times QB's failed to look the way of WR's when they were wide open (not mentioning any names for fear of a thread hijacking).

Not really because Trent Baalke still is an unproven guy from the previous losing regime so that makes me nervous.

Originally posted by susweel:
Not really because Trent Baalke still is an unproven guy from the previous losing regime so that makes me nervous.

But he didn't call the shots until last year as a "non-GM". This is truly his first year. Yes, he was under McDrunkness, but he didn't call the shots.

Originally posted by ninertico:

Originally posted by susweel:
Not really because Trent Baalke still is an unproven guy from the previous losing regime so that makes me nervous.

But he didn't call the shots until last year as a "non-GM". This is truly his first year. Yes, he was under McDrunkness, but he didn't call the shots.

I agree and thats why I said unproven, when something is unproven that makes me nervous.

Originally posted by susweel:

Originally posted by ninertico:

Originally posted by susweel:
Not really because Trent Baalke still is an unproven guy from the previous losing regime so that makes me nervous.

But he didn't call the shots until last year as a "non-GM". This is truly his first year. Yes, he was under McDrunkness, but he didn't call the shots.

I agree and thats why I said unproven, when something is unproven that makes me nervous.

I agree to an extent but I feel Harbaugh is going to have a lot of say in this draft. I feel like the 49ers made sure to check that Harbaugh and Baalke were on the same page during the courting process to avoid previous disasters.