draft philosophy

In the past McCloughan went with big & fast players. Last year Baalke went with small & fast players. Has the team's draft philosophy changed? To me, it seems it has and I think this is not a good thing. The Hawks, Rams, and Cardinals are all getting bigger and faster very quickly. This upcoming draft will be key in keeping the team young and competitive.

Originally posted by Louisiana49er:
This upcoming draft will be key in keeping the team young and competitive.

I would hope this is the point of every draft.

I wouldn't worry. We needed to add some speed to our offense last draft and did so with LaMike and AJ. Doesn't mean we are going to do that every draft.

I think this past yr the philosophy was that we did not have any real needs & that we were back-filling the roster... which was a mistake! Perhaps going forward it should be to start drafting real back-ups for players like Justin smith etc in case they get hurt!!!!

Yeah if you listen to Baalke after every draft he says the same thing. He wants bigger, stronger, physical players. And once your roster has enough of those guys, you can add some smaller, quicker, more explosive players. Look for Baalke to add more physical players this year.

Originally posted by NYCNINER:

I think this past yr the philosophy was that we did not have any real needs & that we were back-filling the roster... which was a mistake! Perhaps going forward it should be to start drafting real back-ups for players like Justin smith etc in case they get hurt!!!!

How was this a mistake? We drafted 2 OLBs for depth, Haralson and Rookie (Fleming) out for season the other made it up onto the roster (Johnson). We have another rookie taking over for our backup RB cause of season ending injury. And now a 3rd rookie (Jenkins) will be getting a lot of playing time for 2 WRs out with season ending injuries (Williams and Manningham). Looks like Baalke knew where to focus our draft for depth in case of major injuries.

Edit: on top of that, having Dobbs injured took away Smith's backup. And why would Baalke think Justin wouldn't last at least 1 more year considering he'd started 185 straight games. Probably thought it was the least of his worries. But I can guarantee, Baalke being a bright guy won't be caught off guard by that again.

Originally posted by Travisty13:
How was this a mistake? We drafted 2 OLBs for depth, Haralson and Rookie (Fleming) out for season the other made it up onto the roster (Johnson). We have another rookie taking over for our backup RB cause of season ending injury. And now a 3rd rookie (Jenkins) will be getting a lot of playing time for 2 WRs out with season ending injuries (Williams and Manningham). Looks like Baalke knew where to focus our draft for depth in case of major injuries.

Edit: on top of that, having Dobbs injured took away Smith's backup. And why would Baalke think Justin wouldn't last at least 1 more year considering he'd started 185 straight games. Probably thought it was the least of his worries. But I can guarantee, Baalke being a bright guy won't be caught off guard by that again.

He is getting older, nothing holds forever, one should care less about history...else you make the same mistakes like the rating agencies did before the subprime crisis (assuming there won't occur any nationwide mortgage/real estate crisis, deduced from the facht that there has never been observed such a crisis before).
Remain of your post is very good, imo.

Many are complaining about the 2012 draft, but I think it really all boils down to the AJ Jenkins pick. If AJ Jenkins shows up in the playoffs, then all this talk about how we should've drafted a DE goes away. The jury is still out on them since we haven't seen any of these guys play extensively minus LeMichael James. I'm willing to give Baalke the benefit of the doubt after some pretty good drafts in 2010 and 2011.

Originally posted by communist:

Originally posted by Travisty13:

How was this a mistake? We drafted 2 OLBs for depth, Haralson and Rookie (Fleming) out for season the other made it up onto the roster (Johnson). We have another rookie taking over for our backup RB cause of season ending injury. And now a 3rd rookie (Jenkins) will be getting a lot of playing time for 2 WRs out with season ending injuries (Williams and Manningham). Looks like Baalke knew where to focus our draft for depth in case of major injuries.

Edit: on top of that, having Dobbs injured took away Smith's backup. And why would Baalke think Justin wouldn't last at least 1 more year considering he'd started 185 straight games. Probably thought it was the least of his worries. But I can guarantee, Baalke being a bright guy won't be caught off guard by that again.

He is getting older, nothing holds forever, one should care less about history...else you make the same mistakes like the rating agencies did before the subprime crisis (assuming there won't occur any nationwide mortgage/real estate crisis, deduced from the facht that there has never been observed such a crisis before).
Remain of your post is very good, imo.

Thanks. Still think Baalke thought Smith and/or Dobbs would be healthy and we wouldn't be in our current situation. Baalke won't let it happen again. He's shown that if an area of weakness occurs, that he'll fix it. Last year at the end of the season, we were weak at OLB (lack of depth), WR (Crabs and unproven was it), OL depth, and RB (Gore wasn't 100% and only a rookie and Dixon). So he went out and overloaded all those positions in draft/FA. I believe he will do the same this offseason in areas he considers needing upgrades in depth. Just in case.

Jenkins did not catch a pass in a full season!!! LaMichael did not play until Dec... Love Baalke but this draft was a bit ODD. IMHO. I would have liked taking a couple of risks on High ceiling/talent players like Janoris Jenkins Or Burfict. Mathieu this April would be nice. We are better than Seahawks & Rams but they are building rosters with Nastier/edgier players... Perhaps we will have to "fight fire with FIRE" going forward?

This upcoming draft will tell us whether Baalke has lost his touch or not. In my opinion they drafted last year to round out the starting players. The team was intact and nobody drafted was at such a level to push out the starters but had the luxury to give us depth. I agree that Jenkins will determine whether this draft was a bust or not. Still looking good to me. James is now filling in for hunter, we got Celek, and hopefully some of the injured draftees will make their mark on the team, but only time will tell. This season Baalke has even more toys to play with at the draft. We have some clearer holes in our team now and so our picks should fill the spot, give us more back up, and more players preparing to play. So if we can get another WR, another NT and DE, another OLB, CB, SS, Center, Punt returner, Tackle we will be ready for the next season. Lots of stuff will happen this off season. But lets win a super bowl between now and then.

Originally posted by NYCNINER:

Jenkins did not catch a pass in a full season!!! LaMichael did not play until Dec... Love Baalke but this draft was a bit ODD. IMHO. I would have liked taking a couple of risks on High ceiling/talent players like Janoris Jenkins Or Burfict. Mathieu this April would be nice. We are better than Seahawks & Rams but they are building rosters with Nastier/edgier players... Perhaps we will have to "fight fire with FIRE" going forward?

You think the draft was odd, but had we picked Janoris we would have had to pick him at AJ's spot. So do you think Harbaugh would have put him ahead of Brown, Rogers, Culliver, or even Cox? I don't. He would have been, at best, 4th. And everyone would say he's a bust. Burfict, every team passed on him for a reason. He needed to go undrafted to get his focus back. Plus he wouldn't ever play either. Willis and Bowman never come off the field. They're now even playing special teams on a regular basis.

Originally posted by Travisty13:

You think the draft was odd, but had we picked Janoris we would have had to pick him at AJ's spot. So do you think Harbaugh would have put him ahead of Brown, Rogers, Culliver, or even Cox? I don't. He would have been, at best, 4th. And everyone would say he's a bust. Burfict, every team passed on him for a reason. He needed to go undrafted to get his focus back. Plus he wouldn't ever play either. Willis and Bowman never come off the field. They're now even playing special teams on a regular basis.

All good points but to be clear I would much rather have Janoris in this game vs the Pack than A.J.

Originally posted by NYCNINER:

Originally posted by Travisty13:

You think the draft was odd, but had we picked Janoris we would have had to pick him at AJ's spot. So do you think Harbaugh would have put him ahead of Brown, Rogers, Culliver, or even Cox? I don't. He would have been, at best, 4th. And everyone would say he's a bust. Burfict, every team passed on him for a reason. He needed to go undrafted to get his focus back. Plus he wouldn't ever play either. Willis and Bowman never come off the field. They're now even playing special teams on a regular basis.

All good points but to be clear I would much rather have Janoris in this game vs the Pack than A.J.

Not me. Rather have AJ than Joe Hastings, Brett Swain type WR in the game. We need WRs this week and I can see AJ stepping up.