Who would 49ers have picked if they stayed at #34?

Baalke said they had a player targeted at #34, but he didn't know who would be available at #40 and they had a group of acceptable players. Harbaugh said that they had CB targeted during the draft but it didn't work out. "There definitely were times in the draft that we wanted cornerbacks. Had them targeted. But, that's the way it worked out."

We know that CB wasn't targeted with the picks in the 1st Reid, 2nd McDonald and 3rd Lemonier since they traded up for them. Also unlikely that they wanted a CB in the 4th. So I think that they may have picked CB Slay at #34 if they hadn't traded back to #40. Or perhaps Harbaugh wanted Hawthorne or McGee in the 5th?

I'm not sure that Carradine was their first choice, as Fangio said: "Carradine can only hope to be as good as Ray McDonald some day," Fangio said. "He's got a lot of climbing to do before I'm ready to compare him to Ray."

Just my opinion:

1. We weren't as interested in Ertz as the people on here think (or wish).
2. I don't think we targeted CB that early. Maybe mid rounds but doubt at 34. We are pretty stacked at CB. A rookie probably starts at 5 or 6 on the depth chart.
3. I think Carradine was their target all along. They took a good calculated risk he would still be there at 40. If he wasn't like Baalke said you never trade down only having 1 player in mind. Who knows the group they were picking from at 40 if Carradine is gone. I still doubt it's Ertz, Slay or Hunter.
4. When we traded down with the Titans at 34 and picked up their 3rd next year I almost guarantee you we asked them who they wanted. You don't trade with a team who is targeting a player you want. It won't make Hunter fans happy but if we wanted him we wouldn't have traded with the Titans. Then again we could have had some interest in him and decided the early to mid 3rd next year and the player at 40 was more worth it.
5. If Fangio said that he was probably referring to Carradine as a 3-4 DE. It's true as a 3-4 DE right now he is very raw and no where near what McDonald is. It will take him time and he will have to bulk up 15 or so pounds.

Originally posted by Gore_21:
Just my opinion:

1. We weren't as interested in Ertz as the people on here think (or wish).
2. I don't think we targeted CB that early. Maybe mid rounds but doubt at 34. We are pretty stacked at CB. A rookie probably starts at 5 or 6 on the depth chart.
3. I think Carradine was their target all along. They took a good calculated risk he would still be there at 40. If he wasn't like Baalke said you never trade down only having 1 player in mind. Who knows the group they were picking from at 40 if Carradine is gone. I still doubt it's Ertz, Slay or Hunter.
4. When we traded down with the Titans at 34 and picked up their 3rd next year I almost guarantee you we asked them who they wanted. You don't trade with a team who is targeting a player you want. It won't make Hunter fans happy but if we wanted him we wouldn't have traded with the Titans. Then again we could have had some interest in him and decided the early to mid 3rd next year and the player at 40 was more worth it.
5. If Fangio said that he was probably referring to Carradine as a 3-4 DE. It's true as a 3-4 DE right now he is very raw and no where near what McDonald is. It will take him time and he will have to bulk up 15 or so pounds.

I am very happy with the way Harbaalke handled the draft and free agency.

Originally posted by juycho:

Originally posted by Gore_21:
Just my opinion:

1. We weren't as interested in Ertz as the people on here think (or wish).
2. I don't think we targeted CB that early. Maybe mid rounds but doubt at 34. We are pretty stacked at CB. A rookie probably starts at 5 or 6 on the depth chart.
3. I think Carradine was their target all along. They took a good calculated risk he would still be there at 40. If he wasn't like Baalke said you never trade down only having 1 player in mind. Who knows the group they were picking from at 40 if Carradine is gone. I still doubt it's Ertz, Slay or Hunter.
4. When we traded down with the Titans at 34 and picked up their 3rd next year I almost guarantee you we asked them who they wanted. You don't trade with a team who is targeting a player you want. It won't make Hunter fans happy but if we wanted him we wouldn't have traded with the Titans. Then again we could have had some interest in him and decided the early to mid 3rd next year and the player at 40 was more worth it.
5. If Fangio said that he was probably referring to Carradine as a 3-4 DE. It's true as a 3-4 DE right now he is very raw and no where near what McDonald is. It will take him time and he will have to bulk up 15 or so pounds.

I am very happy with the way Harbaalke handled the draft and free agency.

Agree. I thought about resurrecting the Baalke wears a fuzzy hat thread just because of how happy I was with the draft.

Originally posted by Gore_21:
Just my opinion:

1. We weren't as interested in Ertz as the people on here think (or wish).
2. I don't think we targeted CB that early. Maybe mid rounds but doubt at 34. We are pretty stacked at CB. A rookie probably starts at 5 or 6 on the depth chart.
3. I think Carradine was their target all along. They took a good calculated risk he would still be there at 40. If he wasn't like Baalke said you never trade down only having 1 player in mind. Who knows the group they were picking from at 40 if Carradine is gone. I still doubt it's Ertz, Slay or Hunter.
4. When we traded down with the Titans at 34 and picked up their 3rd next year I almost guarantee you we asked them who they wanted. You don't trade with a team who is targeting a player you want. It won't make Hunter fans happy but if we wanted him we wouldn't have traded with the Titans. Then again we could have had some interest in him and decided the early to mid 3rd next year and the player at 40 was more worth it.
5. If Fangio said that he was probably referring to Carradine as a 3-4 DE. It's true as a 3-4 DE right now he is very raw and no where near what McDonald is. It will take him time and he will have to bulk up 15 or so pounds.

Disagree with #4, as it's impossible to expect a team to tell another who they are going to draft...even during a trade. You might say something like, "If we trade will you guarantee you won't take so and so" but even that is unenforceable. It's more likely that they had a good idea who the team would draft/need and based the trade on that.

I agree with the group idea when drafting and believe Baalke does that with almost every pick...unless they know they value a player much higher than the rest of the teams.

And also agree that we are more enamored with Stanford TEs than JH or TB. And since JH knows them well I believe he understands that they tend to stand out in Stanford's offense, and thus are over valued.

McDonald was actually ranked ahead of Ertz on the 49ers draft board. I think it was Tank all along.

IMO i think it was tank all along.

Originally posted by NC49erfan82:

McDonald was actually ranked ahead of Ertz on the 49ers draft board. I think it was Tank all along.

Link? Just curious.

Who cares? It's over.

Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
Who cares? It's over.

It is such a long time till camp...can't we linger for a while? LOL!

still would have taken Tank man

Still would have been Tank, but they had a nice offer from the Titans so they took the risk and it paid off beautifully

IIRC Harbaugh or Baalke said that they intended to take a CB, but the draft just didn't fall that way.

If we have to guess (and it truly would just be a guess), if it wasn't Carradine it's most likely a CB or DB taken between 18 and 34, meaning it's Trufant, Rhodes, or maybe even Cyprien.

Originally posted by PopeyeJonesing:
IIRC Harbaugh or Baalke said that they intended to take a CB, but the draft just didn't fall that way.

If we have to guess (and it truly would just be a guess), if it wasn't Carradine it's most likely a CB or DB taken between 18 and 34, meaning it's Trufant, Rhodes, or maybe even Cyprien.

Did they say that about the 1st or 2nd round?? Sorry I don't know what article you're referring to. But if its the 1st round maybe they thought DJ Hayden would be there, I'm just speculating, Xavier Rhodes would've been good too, but in the end I'm happy with Reid.

I think it had to have been Carradine. He was picked to go in the late 1st round by a lot of people, without the injury he was a Top 15 draft pick easy.

As far as the others:


Slay-I didn't expect the 49ers to go CB that early, especially when that player would be buried on the depth chart for this season.

Ertz-Don't think the 49ers were too hyped up on, if Harbaugh was really interested, they would have snagged him then and there. Ultimately McDonald has better overall physical size, versatility and potential.

Hunter-I never thought the 49ers were interested in him whatsoever, going back to the end of the regular season. Still to this day I can't think why so many here thought he was a viable option for the 49ers. A guy who is anything but physical, who isn't a good nor willing run-blocker on a physical running team? Yeah...not so much.