WR is NOT what the 49ers need.

Originally posted by thl408:

WR is definitely a need this offseason. There is no guarantee that Boldin will come back and be the same player. When a player starts to get to 32-33, the decline in ability can be gradual, or it can take a complete nosedive. If Crabs' contract demands are too high, the 49ers can't be taken hostage by his agent after the 14-15 season. The possibility of Crabs leaving is real and must be considered. Baldwin couldn't beat out an injured Manningham for playing time. QP has flashed potential and that's encouraging, but he may top out as a very good 3rd WR.

I like when the 49ers use 3 WR with VD as a 4th. As much as I love Miller, I hope the FB position starts to see a decreased role. With Lattimore coming in, I'd like to see this offense move to a 1RB/2TE/2WR set as its base package. My hope is Lattimore can run to the edges and run without a FB blocking for him. This provides good flexibility to run with power and also spread it out, using the same 12 personnel.

I don't know much about the draft class, but I heard it was deep in WRs. I really hope the 49ers take a bluechip WR prospect in this draft. It would be the responsible thing to do. Give Kap some speedy weapons so that he can succeed. This single high safety look that defenses love to play against the 49ers must be addressed. They only fear VD as the deep threat right now.

If the draft is not just about next year, we should draft two wide receivers in the first three rounds of this year's draft and maybe take a flyer one of the off the radar small school receivers in the seventh.

We do have at least 5 picks in the first three rounds--and I think it will be six.

Here's the problem with the premise of this discussion:

SanDiego49er: "We have a 1 read QB who doesn't know how to read defenses, adjust on the fly, find a 2nd or 3rd option and go to his alternate options. He doesn't use the WR's and TE's he has on the field right now."

So, the discussion is based on the assumption that a developing QB will not continue to develop. Maybe some people can see the future around here and if they can, I suggest that they get in their cars and immediately head for Nevada casinos. But in the real world, that assumption is not only presumptuous, but wrong on its surface. Kaepernick actually can find 2nd and 3rd options some of the time and over the course of the season, he got better at it. His average QB rating for his last 8 wins was over 100. So, while I definitely agree that the Niners will draft some defensive players early, I think they'll also draft at least a couple wide receivers and I'm glad about that. I'm sure they'll take at least one big, tough guy but I'm also hoping they draft one or two speedsters who can possibly stretch the field and make opposing safeties play back.

Last year, we were last in the league in pass attempts.

We had 26 dropped passes.

That was 7th worst in the league (dropped passes/pass attempts).

I do think we have a major need at wide receiver.

Is wide receiver our greatest need? I do not know—and I do not care.

It is clearly a major need.

Originally posted by thl408:
WR is definitely a need this offseason. There is no guarantee that Boldin will come back and be the same player. When a player starts to get to 32-33, the decline in ability can be gradual, or it can take a complete nosedive. If Crabs' contract demands are too high, the 49ers can't be taken hostage by his agent after the 14-15 season. The possibility of Crabs leaving is real and must be considered. Baldwin couldn't beat out an injured Manningham for playing time. QP has flashed potential and that's encouraging, but he may top out as a very good 3rd WR.

I like when the 49ers use 3 WR with VD as a 4th. As much as I love Miller, I hope the FB position starts to see a decreased role. With Lattimore coming in, I'd like to see this offense move to a 1RB/2TE/2WR set as its base package. My hope is Lattimore can run to the edges and run without a FB blocking for him. This provides good flexibility to run with power and also spread it out, using the same 12 personnel.

I don't know much about the draft class, but I heard it was deep in WRs. I really hope the 49ers take a bluechip WR prospect in this draft. It would be the responsible thing to do. Give Kap some speedy weapons so that he can succeed. This single high safety look that defenses love to play against the 49ers must be addressed. They only fear VD as the deep threat right now.

Yes!

I disagree with the premise of this post. A dynamic, game-changing, WR is what the 49ers need. Considering that it takes at least a year or two for almost all WR's to make a big impact, I think that we need to bring back Boldin, sign Crabtree to an extension, AND trade up to select the best WR we can possibly get.

I have no problem trading up: for example, our first, second, a couple of third round picks, and a couple late picks to move up into the top 10 (or even 5) to get the WR that impresses the 49ers brass the most. At the end of the day, this would still leave the Niners with draft picks in every round (which is what most teams have, anyway, unless they traded it away).

If you partner a big, game-changing WR with elite speed with Crabtree's elite route-running ability and strong hands you would have the best WR combo in the league. Combine that with Kap's elite arm strength and unique ability to stretch the field and we would have a top NFL offense.

We can get any player we want in this draft without sacrifice our future to do it. So....why not?

Originally posted by iego49er:

Maybe. But we don't need it necessarily in the 1st round. I would rather have a CB or S or even a pass rusher there. Or even a big, powerful D Linemen. We can get one in the 2nd or 3rd round. We don't have to reach. We have Patton open all the time and he doesn't get the ball thrown his way anyway.

This thread its a not too clever back handed way of dissing our current starter every time someone disagrees with you SD.

Lock it up now and lets avoid SD baiting posters into warnings and bannings.

Originally posted by WINiner:
This thread its a not too clever back handed way of dissing our current starter every time someone disagrees with you SD.

Lock it up now and lets avoid SD baiting posters into warnings and bannings.

Certain posters you just ignore. I can't stand people that post stuff 'matter of factly' that really know squat.

Originally posted by Wrathman:

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
The niners have drafted and kept two CBs over the past six years--Brock, 5th round 2007 and Culliver, 3rd Round 2011. They've taken numerous shots at Safeties but only Reid was a big hit and is still on the team. Goldson was a great pick as a 5th rounder.

So is it likely they will go high in the draft for a CB? Or will they go FA again...or stay with the young guys--Brock, Culliver, Morris and Cox. There are close to 50 FA Cornerbacks out there this off season.

Brock was undrafted, and our staff developed him. We need new WR coaches so we we can also develop guys like a farm system. Crabtree developed in spite of Morton. He is a terrible coach.

Thanks for correcting that! I had Goldson listed but since he left I deleted him. I agree about the need to develop our players...just part of it is the selection process, after that they need to be taught.

Originally posted by thl408:

I like when the 49ers use 3 WR with VD as a 4th. As much as I love Miller, I hope the FB position starts to see a decreased role. With Lattimore coming in, I'd like to see this offense move to a 1RB/2TE/2WR set as its base package. My hope is Lattimore can run to the edges and run without a FB blocking for him. This provides good flexibility to run with power and also spread it out, using the same 12 personnel.

My hope is that as they phase out Gore, Miller will take over some of the blocking duty. Gore is so good that I just don't see Hunter, James or Lattimore taking over the QB protection job. And Miller can still get out for dump offs and may catch better than Gore.

The one thing the Niners don't have at wide receiver is elite speed. Serious speed on the outside makes lots of different passing plays possible. It's not just long passes. It's deep comebacks, the kind Cam Newton was throwing on the Niners in the second half of the game the Panthers won. You need a QB with serious arm strength who can rifle a ball 25 to 30 yards quickly, and you need a receiver who is always a threat to get behind the secondary. You've seen it a million times - the receiver takes off, starts closing quickly on the corner who is playing off and as soon as the corner starts to turn and run with the receiver, the receiver stops and comes back, sometimes as far as 25 yards down field. A QB with arm strength like Kaepernick can throw that pass all day long, but it requires a speed burner that the corner must respect.

Trade for an established Veteran. We don't have the right WR Coach to develop a youngen. Trade a 2nd rounder for say a Jordy Nelson or someone like that?

What about Jeremy Maclin?

Originally posted by ElephantHaley:
Trade for an established Veteran. We don't have the right WR Coach to develop a youngen. Trade a 2nd rounder for say a Jordy Nelson or someone like that?

With what cap space? How is the FO going to sign an established veteran after Kaep/Aldon/Crabtree get their money?

Originally posted by thl408:
WR is definitely a need this offseason. There is no guarantee that Boldin will come back and be the same player. When a player starts to get to 32-33, the decline in ability can be gradual, or it can take a complete nosedive. If Crabs' contract demands are too high, the 49ers can't be taken hostage by his agent after the 14-15 season. The possibility of Crabs leaving is real and must be considered. Baldwin couldn't beat out an injured Manningham for playing time. QP has flashed potential and that's encouraging, but he may top out as a very good 3rd WR.

I like when the 49ers use 3 WR with VD as a 4th. As much as I love Miller, I hope the FB position starts to see a decreased role. With Lattimore coming in, I'd like to see this offense move to a 1RB/2TE/2WR set as its base package. My hope is Lattimore can run to the edges and run without a FB blocking for him. This provides good flexibility to run with power and also spread it out, using the same 12 personnel.

I don't know much about the draft class, but I heard it was deep in WRs. I really hope the 49ers take a bluechip WR prospect in this draft. It would be the responsible thing to do. Give Kap some speedy weapons so that he can succeed. This single high safety look that defenses love to play against the 49ers must be addressed. They only fear VD as the deep threat right now.

I love the innovative use of 2 TEs but lets face it Vince Mac still needs time to grow and when we have enough talent I belive we need to spread the field with more use of 3 WR sets. I def feel we should draft 2-3 WRs in the upcoming draft but we also have to look at Roman's play calls because we could (hypothetically speaking) draft the second coming of Jerry Rice but if Har/Roman continue to use these heavy sets as our main formation we will continue to waste draft picks. Its hard to really judge our WRs we have drafted thus far because we simply havent rolled out many WR heavy formations only in times of desparation have we used 3 wide sets. I hope when we see the glaring need at WR we employ more formations that actually allow us to open up the offense and better utilize the WR position.

Even though we were last in pass attempts last year, we the 7th worst in dropped passes per pass attempt with 26 dropped passes.

Of those 26 dropped passes, 12 were dropped by our wide receivers. Without those drops by wide receivers, Kaepernick's completion rate increases from 58.4% to 60.2%--from 24th in the league to 17th in the league.

I maintain that taking one or two wide receivers in the first three rounds makes absolute sense.

And it would help for the receiving corps as a whole to spend more time with the jugs machine.

WRs (rookie and/or free agent) will come to 49ers to die... just ask Roman!

What we need are 5 offensive linemen that are (at least) 4 ft in diameter and weighing over 385+ pounds with speed/stamina. That way, we can march our way into the end zone and into the SB for the 6th ring... since running plays are what Roman is only good at