Was Crabtree Really a Steal?

Good article. Please read it all before jumping to conclusions - the end surprised me.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1797754-san-francisco-49ers-was-michael-crabtree-really-a-steal?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=san-francisco-49ers

Perfect WR for the 49ers. Good hands and range to catch Kap lasers, gets RAC, and can block downfield. Thanks, Raiders, for being clueless. Only area of concern preventing a generous long term contract is frequency of injury.

i always wondered if the niners would be better if they had drafted as follows:

2010 1st rd michael oher (instead of crabtree)
2011 1st rd dez bryant (instead of anthony davis)

Originally posted by hofer36:
i always wondered if the niners would be better if they had drafted as follows:

2010 1st rd michael oher (instead of crabtree)
2011 1st rd dez bryant (instead of anthony davis)

No thanks. Michael Oher gets a lot of hype but he's really a mediocre tackle. Davis has been doing quite a bit better than him for a few years now.

Didn't Dez Bryant practically need a babysitter last season? An average tackle and a guy who needed to be watched? I'll pass on both. I remember in 2007, people used to say that we would've been much better off with Tony Ugoh as opposed to Joe Staley and that we didn't need to trade our 2008 1st round pick. I wonder what happened to those people...

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
Didn't Dez Bryant practically need a babysitter last season? An average tackle and a guy who needed to be watched? I'll pass on both. I remember in 2007, people used to say that we would've been much better off with Tony Ugoh as opposed to Joe Staley and that we didn't need to trade our 2008 1st round pick. I wonder what happened to those people...

Dez is a monster... in a good way.

hell yes. Came out of the gates on fire. This year was going to be his mega breakout season.

He's a legit #1 we would be foolish not to resign him. I would rather have him than Lupati. And for people who say it's easy to replace WRs I respond with really? We didn't have one good WR since Owens prior to Crabs.. we had good lineman

I think with Kap we did see how explosive Crabtree could be. He doesn't have blazing speed, but he makes really good cuts and subtle movements that create separation from DB's. His hands are also ridiculous; I remember in the NFCCG when Kap threw an absolute heater on a straight line and Crabtree just plucked it right out of the air with apparent ease. I'm glad we've got him on our team, and I do think that our current offensive struggles have shown just how critical a part of the offense he really was.

What were Crabs prorated stats from portion of last season with Kap as QB? 1,600 yds and 12 TDs or something?

The concerns with Crabtree are threefold: (1) Injury-prone; (2) One year of excellent statistics; and, (3) Diva personality early on. #3 I think related to his lack of maturity at that early stage in his life. I could be wrong, but it appears he's grown quite a bit since his draft year. Unlike TO, it is possible Crabtree learned from his mistakes. Looking at it another way, there will be no free agent WR with more talent and LESS risk than Crabtree which is why he should be a top priority for a contract extension.

The 49ers really need a good slot receiver to function as a security blanket for the QB. Crabtree is just fine on the edge by himself.

Originally posted by NickSh49:

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
Didn't Dez Bryant practically need a babysitter last season? An average tackle and a guy who needed to be watched? I'll pass on both. I remember in 2007, people used to say that we would've been much better off with Tony Ugoh as opposed to Joe Staley and that we didn't need to trade our 2008 1st round pick. I wonder what happened to those people...

Dez is a monster... in a good way.

There is no denying Dez's talent at all. But I wouldn't sell Crab short. We saw what happened to Colin Kaepernick without #15. Our QB with Crabtree was a 1,600 yard pair last season (pro-rated stats).

He wasn't a steal, but when he fell to #10 pretty much a no-brainer pick. What did we have at WR back then? An old Ike Bruce & complete s**t otherwise. Even McClueless and Dingleberry couldn't screw up that pick (well they could've but thankfully had one moment of clarity, then returned to dumbass mode).

Originally posted by ninerjok:
He wasn't a steal, but when he fell to #10 pretty much a no-brainer pick. What did we have at WR back then? An old Ike Bruce & complete s**t otherwise. Even McClueless and Dingleberry couldn't screw up that pick (well they could've but thankfully had one moment of clarity, then returned to dumbass mode).

Actually McCloughan did have some good draft picks.

Originally posted by real9erfan:
Actually McCloughan did have some good draft picks.

IIRC Nolan was the de facto GM from 05-07. Those were really good drafts.

McCloughan was promoted for the 08-09 drafts. Those were terrible, with exception to Crabtree, but that pick was a no-brainer.

We got back to picking good players once McCloughan left and Baalke took over the draft in 2010.