Originally posted by Robert:
If we take a look at Baalke's drafts 2010-2013, the trend is disturbing to say the least.
As it stands now, 2010 was his best draft in terms of long term contribution to the team (Bowman was a great pick; A Davis a gutsy good call, Iupati was an obvious but still good pick).
2011 looked epic before the recent run of legal trouble. A Smith may well have played his last game in a niner uniform. Kaep was a great pick, but everything I have read says that credit for that pick should really go to Harbaugh. Culliver and Hunter likely will be playing in other uniforms after this year. Miller is the only pick that has worked out.
The 2012 draft was THE WORST in the NFL that year. After James is cut / released, we will have zero players on our roster this year from the 2012 draft. That is pretty much unheard of. Yet…crickets…
In 2013, for all the firepower we had, we got one starting safety with concussion issues. The rest are all question marks including a couple of wildcards coming off injury.
Yet, I don't hear a chorus calling for Baalke's head in the media or from fans? Why? This team has been a quality corner or speedy wide receiver from winning the Lombardi for 3 years. Baalke has failed to deliver either, yet all I hear about is how Harbaugh, stuck with the same aging base of players year after year, is supposed to miraculous will his team Superbowl if he wants to get an extension, when Baalke has failed to refresh the talent of this team year after year, despite having ample opportunity to do so.
Where's the criticism? Where's the pitchforks? Why does Baalke get a pass year after year? What am I missing?
The criticism? He's been one of the best talent evaluators in the NFL. Ozzie Newsome has blown three or four whole drafts....nobody is calling for his head. I think fans have an absurd, bordering on retarded/special needs expectation of success in the draft. It is and always has been a crapshoot, teams will basically miss more than they hit. Good GM's are lucky to hit on 50% of their picks. Good GM's will blow entire draft's from time to time, it just happens, its a reality of prospecting. Baalke has picked up potential HOF caliber players, added tons of depth to this team, quality role-players and people are still crying.
This isn't Madden football, drafting players is a very, extremely inexact science and the best tend to fail routinely. Bill Walsh made some TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE picks in his time. The key is, can you consistently add impact players throughout the years? Looking at Iupati, Davis, Bowman, Aldon Smith, Bruce Miller, Brock, Reid....etc.....the answer with Baalke is clearly yes.
Find me someone that has had a better track record than Baalke since 2010 and let's go from there, because from what I see, every top GM in the NFL has had some big mistakes and error prone picks. It happens. Also the notion that Baalke gets blamed for off the field stuff is absurd. I'd say 90% of this forum was POed when he drafted Aldon who has looked like a future HOF up to this point. People need to get off his back.
[ Edited by Phoenix49ers on Apr 21, 2014 at 6:54 PM ]
