Originally posted by maxsmart:
Thanks for twisting my words, misunderstanding what I said, than calling me "moronic".
I was responding to "LifelongNiner" above who said quality is more important than position. I responded by saying 'of course quality is most important, but the niners so far haven't appeared to have hit on either quality or need'.
I liked much of the niners draft, but answer these two questions:
* Why draft AJ Jenkins, who was a project, with 5 WR's already guaranteed to be on the team?
* Why draft Slowey when they already had a very strong O-line with NINE good O-line? Slowey almost was guaranteed to be cut.
I've stated a lot, but I never said quality is more important than position.
Flashback to where we were in January 2012, after we lost the NFC championship game. Do you remember who we had as our receivers outside of Michael Crabtree? In free agency, we signed Randy Moss, who was out of football for a year, and Mario Manningham. I honestly don't remember anyone being comfortable with our group of receivers at the time and I don't blame Baalke/Harbaugh for not being comfortable either. So they went and drafted for the biggest need, which was receiver.
There was no way they were going D-Line with that first pick. Let's look at where we are now. If we did not have AJ Jenkins, we would almost be in the exact same spot as we were last year headed into the playoffs. Unless you are ok with Peele or Swain coming in. Having Wolfe or Reyes would not have changed much because neither would've really saw the field this season. At best, they would've been on the game day roster more than Jenkins, but as far as playing time, we would've never saw any DE draft pick until week 16.
I have a few questions. What 5 good receivers did we have in April 2012? Everyone still wasn't sold on Crabtree. Randy Moss had been out for a year. Please don't tell me you are counting Kyle Williams, who was more potential than productivity at the time. In April 2012, I count ONE good receiver.
What 9 good offensive lineman did we have in April 2012? Everyone wasn't sold on Anthony Davis. We were letting Snyder (who would be solid in a backup role) and Chilo Rachal walk. I'd count Staley, Iupati, and Goodwyn as our "good" o-linemen at the time. They were going to work Boone in at RG, but none of us knew that he would work out yet. How often was Kilgore even active for us to evaluate him? I'm counting 3 good o-linemen. I'm sorry, but strong is not what you would describe our o-line after the 2011 season. Now you can, but not back then.
The team also seemed to be pretty high on Williams, Dobbs, and Tufuaku. Not as the replacement for Justin Smith, but more so, that they could come and fill in for the starters. No one is arguing that defensive line isn't a need. It just didn't appear to be the greatest need in the first round given the circumstances at the time.
Had we taken someone else in the 2nd, then we would be without LeMichael James. I'd be more on board with you if you felt we could've taken better receiver at 30 last year, but to say we should've gone in a different direction when we had 3 clear starters on defensive line, verses what we were working with at receiver, I can't agree with.
One thing that I will say, unless someone takes a Randy Moss like fall in the draft, we will definitely be going NT or DE in the first in 2013
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