Grade the job 49ers' GM Trent Baalke has done so far

I give him a B. If he somehow extends our good players like Rogers, Brooks, Alex Smith, etc, then I will give him a B+. I would only bump it up to the "A" IF he would've gotten Brandon Lloyd. He would've cost us a 5th and he's a player that we could've used. Besides, wasn't he the one who traded their 4th round pick in the 2010 draft to move up to grab Anthony Davis?

Originally posted by 9erred:
Lets be realistice, he has done a good minus job, which is a B-.

Drafting taylor mays in the second knocks you out of excellent range.

Signing so many players to one year contracts also can never put you in the excellent range. Now if Carlos Roger, Braylon Edwards where locked up for 2-3 years, then he would bump up to B+/A- range.

drafts and PS looking good so far.

you do realize that very few people got multi yr deals right? I'm talking throughout the NFL Your not going to see alot of multi yrs until after 2012 when teams will be mandated to be at the 90%+ salary cap..REMEMBER PEOPLE he is saying AS OF RIGHT NOW.

A for the players we got and A for the players we let go. A+ for the coaching staff. A++ after we win the next 5 Super Bowls

Last years draft class was fine. Iupati has played well (mostly) and is obviously a talent. Davis plays inconsistently, but you see the flashes and lately he's been playing better. His punch is tremendous. You can see why they took him even though he isn't who I would have taken, I think he will be at least solid with the potential to be very good but thus far not an amazing selection.

Mays was a bust, but all reports indicate it was a Singletary pick, so we'll include it in the grade, it's still not enough to get him anything less than an A so far IMO.

Continuing on - NaVorro Bowman - what do I need to say? He looks like a Willis clone. Could end up being one of the best picks of the draft (entire draft - all teams) if he continues to play like he has been.

Dixon - don't really like Dixon that much, but he is still on the team so the coaches must see something in him. If he he was decisive he could be a pretty good back. It's a C pick, but it could be better or worse depending on what path Dixon takes. It's a late pick though and I'm not going to grade him too harshly considering we're looking at the entire body of work (all GMs miss, in case folks didn't know) relative to what the rest of the league is doing.

Byham - decent blocking TE. Injured. No fault of the GM there. Was likely to make the roster before the injury, showed a little receiving ability too. I think this is a good (not great or amazing) pick late in the draft. Finding good bench guys with a bit of upside (Byham qualifies) who can play effectively in your sub packages is something that good teams do late in the draft or in UDFA. I think we've done that so far.

Kyle Williams - Everyone on this board seems to like the kid and you can count me in on those. I think he's a very interesting slot receiver/return guy. Seems to have a knack for tough catches and he's fluid and quick. I like his upside but who knows? Juries out so I'll also say it's just an average sort of pick late in the draft but he's still on the team and there's good reason for optimism.

Phillip Adams - loved him last year. The injury he had is tough to recover from. I thought he showed OK in the preseason but other guys were better and he clearly wasn't all the way back. This pick was looking really good up until he got hurt last year.

So while he didn't hit on all his guys, he did land us two guys who it would appear will be involved in some upcoming Pro Bowls (Bowman & Iupati) and another guy who flashes tonnes of potential and is starting to live up to it in Davis (he's not who I wanted either, but anytime you draft two guys playing like pro bowlers that is not a bad draft, especially when you get other solid depth elsewhere in the draft and a guy who's starting for you at an important position and who has flashed a lot of potential).

This years draft he hit on almost every pick. Only Johnson was a total bust (should have been Baldwin apparently!). We appear to have more future starters and pro bowlers coming out of this draft as well.

And in FA we also did VERY well. Only negative I'd give him is letting Manny walk for what he did, but I suspect Manny wanted more playtime than we could guarantee given the depth we have and wanted that chance to play for a fat contract.

It's hard not to give the entirety of the picture an A up to this point when you contrast what the rest of the league has done.

A+ last years draft produced starters, this year produced starters and future starters. FA's this year are right on and definitely made a big impact on the team. great job so far.

A all the way.

Only mistake for him is the Taylor Mays pick, and I didn't like letting Baas go.....BUT HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE WHAT HES DOING.

He got Harbaugh - That alone almost is an A......without Harbaugh its a whole different ballgame.

He didn't panic in Free Agency and drop it all on Nnamdi. Let go of Manny, Nate, Franklin......resigned Goldson, Ray McDonald (very underrated signing), Whitner, Goodwin (we needed him big time), Braylon.

Also goodbye Takeo Spikes hello best linebacker on the team so far this year.......HOLY s**t, did I even say that but it's true, he's outplayed Patrick Willis.......who would have thought that was even possible.

Also I probably would have taken Bulaga instead of Davis in the draft.........but Anthony Davis I think has better upside. And he's starting to look really good.

Outstanding Draft class......Aldon maybe Rookie of the year, Hunter, Culliver, and Big Surprise pick starting fullback Bruce Miller (converted DE) GENIUS PICK I remember the board going crazy with that pick, he's looking fantastic a natural pass catcher wait until he has a full year under his belt......Jones is even good on ST. Kap is the big unknown, but looked a lot better during the season against Tampa.

Too early to tell in my opinion, but if you had to force a grade out of me...I'd say a A-.

Positives -

Huge upgrade in draft classes top to bottom after McCloughan left the front office. Tangable early round picks and depth for late round picks - not filler.

Great working relationship with Harbaugh and it shows with the utilization in the free agency and rookie signings. I've never seen this kind of synergy translated to on-the-field performance successes in over a decade for the 49ers.

Great performance/pay value ratio in many of the free agency signings. Goodwin, Rogers, and Whitner are doing very well, and two of them signed moderate multi-year deals.

Letting Aubrayo Franklin and Takeo Spikes walk, and having the younger guys take over. I don't know if the 49ers even thought that McDonald and Bowman would be doing tihs well.

At 5-1, you can't have much to complain about with his performance.

But...he did say that Alex Smith wasn't in the plans of the 49ers before the lockout started. He did draft Taylor Mays under his watch in the front office - and had that power struggle initially. Is Colin Jones a better ST player than Mays?

Kind of early for a complete grade BUT I give him an "A-" The last 2 drafts are being assessed with some standouts like NaVarro, Aldon, Culliver, Miller etc. In FA, he hit a home run w/Rodgers and Akers In GM moves, letting Lawson, Clements, Franklyn and Spike go were "A+" moves. Baas left on his own terms. In picking up our FA he didn't break the bank in signing them. Too early to know how Edwards will turn out but I think we'll also have another excellent pick in him. To wrap it up - I'm really looking forward to doing this again at the end of the season.

A

B. If the rooks continue and we sign our FA like Rogers and Edwards, it will be an A. The reason it's not higher for me is because of the Mays debacle. Just can't do that.

So far so good.

Kreutz just retired today and a lot of us wanted Baalke to pick him up, me included. Glad to see he was smart enough to pick up Goodwin instead.

Originally posted by Whomeam:
Kreutz just retired today and a lot of us wanted Baalke to pick him up, me included. Glad to see he was smart enough to pick up Goodwin instead.

Yes, Baalke was a fool for whiffing on Kreutz . . .

B+....if we lock up our upcoming FAs he gets an A.

Originally posted by 9erred:
Lets be realistice, he has done a good minus job, which is a B-.

Drafting taylor mays in the second knocks you out of excellent range.

Signing so many players to one year contracts also can never put you in the excellent range. Now if Carlos Roger, Braylon Edwards where locked up for 2-3 years, then he would bump up to B+/A- range.

drafts and PS looking good so far.

This.

I can't grade him higher than B- given that he drafted Taylor Mays and Anthony Davis. Davis could still pan out, but based on where he was drafted, he should be our star left tackle by now. He still has a long way to go. If Davis pans out and Rogers and Edwards get extended then I will give him an A. But for now, it's a B- at best.

Kawakami Says . .

Again, there's a lot of season left to play. But if you're grading the 2011 off-season, right now, it's an A+, 1.000%, thumbs up, whatever Baalke wants to call it.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2011/10/21/guess-what-49ers-gm-trent-baalke-mightve-had-a-perfect-off-season/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kawakami-merc+%28Talking+Points+with+Tim+Kawakami%29