Your Worst Niner Draft Pick Of All Time

Originally posted by susweel:

Originally posted by nw9erfan:
You Zoners need a history lesson...

Personally, my vote goes to Ken Willard in 1965 (a decent player himself but a real slow lumbering RB)...taken one slot in front of HOF LB Dick Butkus and 2 slots in front of HOF RB Gayle Sayers...both of whom went to....DA Bears.

man ain't nobody that old here

I am almost that old, born in 1961. Watched baseball with my dad at 5 (Remember Sandy Koufax) but have no recollection of football till I was 7 or 8.

Any time we have a best of or worst of thread the most recent option always usually wins. Either the zone is way young on average or long term memory of football games and players has been killed by alcohol consumption.

Originally posted by BobS:
Any time we have a best of or worst of thread the most recent option always usually wins. Either the zone is way young on average or long term memory of football games and players has been killed by alcohol consumption.

Probably both TBPH

Its hard to pick. Its an elite group!

I can't remember this but wasn't there high expectations on Amp Lee?

For me, it's always been Drukenmiller. Not only for what he didn't do, but because the next QB taken in the draft was Jake Plummer who is who we were expected/"supposed" to take and who, while not a HOFer, would have been the perfect QB to have to transition to/backup Steve Young.

We could have and SHOULD have had another Joe/Steve situation with Steve/Jake and been in position to continue our run of Pro Bowl QBs when Young was hurt/retired.

Instead we went off the deep end and haven't had a real QB until now because we never got that next QB after Young.

To this point, a lot of guys have made a lot of pretty good cases for AJ, Rashaun, Kwame, alex, Druckenmiller, et al. But it is almost impossible to say, "well, if we hadn't taken AJ, then we would have had so and so." Problem with that is we have no idea who the GM was going to take if we didn't take, say, druckenmiller. So presenting a choice for worst of the lot is virtually impossible if you base it on who we might have taken instead, because that is just not knowable. Especially under noln and B.M.
So basing it just on how bad a guy performed (or maybe worse didn't perform at all), is going to be purely subjective ,something none of us can prove, and I leave with the question I alluded to earlier: If we had drafted Rodgers, would our team have been any better? It is hard for me to imagine, altho I agree with AB that Rodgers was a way better pick which time has proved. But had he been drafted here, with 7 OCs in 7 yrs, I doubt he would have been anywhere near as good as he turned out. Playing for Erickson, noln, and BM is a quick way to a very short career.

Funny as it seems, that unending and frankly humiliating wait by Rodgers in the green room was a gift from heaven. Had Rodgers come here, we had such a crappy team and horrid coaching that I just can't imagine Rodgers doing well. Sitting watching Favre play out his GB yrs was the best thing to happen to any QB. Just happened to be Rodgers. If Rodgers had been taken by us, and alex went to GB, it is hard to imagine the Pack to have been as good as they turned out to be. So by our not drafting Rodgers, we essentially gave him the ability to learn from one of the greatest, and then take over....on a great team, which the 49ers didn't have for 9 long yrs.

It is also impossible to say that if Rodgers had come here he wouldn't have taken the team on his back and carried it across the finish line. And he would have been exposed to the lowlights of noln and BM. My guess is things worked out pretty much for the best, esp for Rodgers. Now, however, we have Kap, and barring injury, for a very long time. And probably that wouldn't have happened if we had gotten Rodgers initially...but no one will ever know for sure.

Actually, it was SingleCell who was the biggest bust, likely the worst coach ever. I blame Smith as the actual worst draft pick because having the team orbit around him for so long is what got that coach hired, a desperation move to take the QB out of the equation.

Originally posted by SofaKing:

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
None of the above. In terms of guys drafted by the 49ers, Kwame Brown and Manny Lawson were two of the biggest ones that I had really high hopes for but they didn't end up coming through. I never liked the Balmer pick, I felt that was going to be an absolute disaster from the get-go.

Kwame Brown lolololol.

I know you meant Kwame Harris. For some reason I got a kick out of seeing Brown's name here. Another bust named Kwame.

Kwame had a couple of good games.

Originally posted by TexasNiner:
For me, it's always been Drukenmiller. Not only for what he didn't do, but because the next QB taken in the draft was Jake Plummer who is who we were expected/"supposed" to take and who, while not a HOFer, would have been the perfect QB to have to transition to/backup Steve Young.

We could have and SHOULD have had another Joe/Steve situation with Steve/Jake and been in position to continue our run of Pro Bowl QBs when Young was hurt/retired.

Instead we went off the deep end and haven't had a real QB until now because we never got that next QB after Young.

Especially when Walsh gave his stamp of approval.

Originally posted by carlgo:
Actually, it was SingleCell who was the biggest bust, likely the worst coach ever. I blame Smith as the actual worst draft pick because having the team orbit around him for so long is what got that coach hired, a desperation move to take the QB out of the equation.

But we traded smith for essentially a first round pick. Can't blame a guy who led us to the playoffs and won.

Originally posted by robniner:
I can't remember this but wasn't there high expectations on Amp Lee?

Yep pure speed from FSU.

Drunkenpuke, Mcgoo and Balmer, all equally the same for me.

Originally posted by LBSI9ers:

Originally posted by robniner:

I can't remember this but wasn't there high expectations on Amp Lee?

Yep pure speed from FSU.

Then went to the Rams

He got Ricky Wattered out of town.

Originally posted by wailers15:
Israel Ifeanyi

Agreed...100 %...... and wasn't he a 1 rounder also?