Originally posted by IdahoNiner:
im talking first and second round pics. they have been pretty awful. I will save judgment on the younger o lineman drafted in 2010, and this years class, but
2010-mays
2009- crabtree, coffee(3rd round but still our 2nd pick)
2008-balmer, rachal(he may be finally coming along, but up untill now has been pretty bad)
2007-solid first round.
2006-lawson
i will stop there
i wont go back farther, but in those 5 drafts we had 8 first round pics(if you add this years draft we have had ten in 6 years but again ill save judgment on the young lineman)....of those 8 only 3 can be said to have had a true impact on this team, Willis Staley and VD. One day we might be able to add rachal, iupati and a. davis to the list....but for right now, i would not call that being very successful in the first round. Later round pics are a differant story, and i will agree that we have been average there if not a little above average.
Don't necessarily disagree with you, but getting two players in consecutive years (Willis and VD) who are arguably the best in the NFL at their positions, is really quite good. The rest are OK, and Crabtree dropped into their laps and was a no brainer. The young linemen are works in progress but Iupati has shown enough to be highly regarded. Look at other teams and see where they succeed or fail compared to the 9ers.
Some teams are very good at finding diamonds in the rough during the late rounds. The 9ers have picked up a few of these but they must be better to build a stronger franchise.
My problem with the 9ers is not having a consistent approach to the draft due to turn over of coaches--offense has gone through how many styles? McCarthy, Turner, Hosler, Martz, Raye, Johnson and Roman. Which of these guys use the same philosophy? How can you draft when you don't know which player will be best suited for the offense you will be running as soon as the next new coordinator is hired? The two most closely related of the OCs are probably McCarthy and Roman--first and last on the list, with chaos in between.