OTC's 49ers Draft Grade and Analysis

Originally posted by MC9BEAT:
Pretty much agree with your whole post. Drafting a guy in the 5th rd hoping to sneak him onto the practice squad seems dicey and a waste. Keeping 3 kickers is wasting a roster spot that is badly needed on a team like the 49ers. It is kind of insane to even think of drafting a punter unless you fully expect him to beat out Lee and win the job, especially in the 5th rd. With Lee as your fallback position and nobody of the opinion that this punter is the Ray Guy of his generation it would have made more sense to trade back further and draft him in the 7th rd.

I would have thought they would go for a place kicker before a punter to save significantly more cap space but maybe they didn't see one that they liked.

As far as I could tell no other punters or place kickers were even drafted. A pretty good indicator this punter would be around in the 7th round but certainly with Lee as a fall back you could gamble on it.

I would have liked to see the 49ers at least go after 1 of the top kickers like Manton or Brindza as a UDFA to try and win the job and save us a ton in cap space. They got what , 4 receivers but not 1 kicker?

Maybe Baalke has a new punt formation in mind to split up the defenses ability to block or return the punt. Having 2 punters in the backfield will make teams second guess what is going on. Who's getting the snap? Will he kick it? Will he lateral it to the other punter? Will he throw or run it? Genius.

Our 2nd rounders barely see the field, so what's the big deal about drafting a punter in the 5th. If he's envisioned as a longtime fixture, then it's a fine move. If he can boot kickoffs for TBs, even better. He improves the return coverage by not giving guys a chance to return it.

Originally posted by strickac:

Our 2nd rounders barely see the field, so what's the big deal about drafting a punter in the 5th. If he's envisioned as a longtime fixture, then it's a fine move. If he can boot kickoffs for TBs, even better. He improves the return coverage by not giving guys a chance to return it.

Just to reiterate, later in this thread I had to mention an aside that if Pinion does win the job over Lee, the pick has the potential to be a much better pick than it looks like on the surface. Just is really going to have to have a fine pre-season to do so. We have a Top 5 NFL punter.

Even top punters though I don't think would net any more than a 6th rounder. If we are going to oust Lee, I hope we at least get something for him.

Drafting a punter with a 5th round pick is a head scratcher. If he gets cut it becomes a wasted pick. How many punters have gone up against Lee in training camp? The only way this pick makes sense is if Lee is cut.

Originally posted by RishikeshA:

Drafting a punter with a 5th round pick is a head scratcher. If he gets cut it becomes a wasted pick. How many punters have gone up against Lee in training camp? The only way this pick makes sense is if Lee is cut.

And that's the thing -- they must ABSOLUTELY believe that he can beat out Lee. All this talk about "It's Lee's job. It's Pinion's job to compete to win that job" is just fluff. There's no way they would've wasted a 5th rounder if they didn't feel like Pinion was good enough to beat out Lee. This is why on the early 53-man prediction, I feel convinced the writing is on the wall for Andy.

Love Andy Lee, absolutely tremendous punter, but if Pinion was truly the BPA that spot for a team claiming they weren't drafting for need, then Lee is in trouble.

Originally posted by RishikeshA:
Drafting a punter with a 5th round pick is a head scratcher. If he gets cut it becomes a wasted pick. How many punters have gone up against Lee in training camp? The only way this pick makes sense is if Lee is cut.

we could've had this dude as an undrafted free agent, or in the 7th if they wanted to secure him. wasting a 5th was fkn stupid.

Originally posted by ChazBoner:

Originally posted by RishikeshA:
Drafting a punter with a 5th round pick is a head scratcher. If he gets cut it becomes a wasted pick. How many punters have gone up against Lee in training camp? The only way this pick makes sense is if Lee is cut.

we could've had this dude as an undrafted free agent, or in the 7th if they wanted to secure him. wasting a 5th was fkn stupid.

It potentially makes sense if they thought he was head and shoulders above the other punters and didn't want any of the others. As OTC said, punters should go 6 or later. Maybe they took him with their 5 to eliminate risk?

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

And that's the thing -- they must ABSOLUTELY believe that he can beat out Lee. All this talk about "It's Lee's job. It's Pinion's job to compete to win that job" is just fluff. There's no way they would've wasted a 5th rounder if they didn't feel like Pinion was good enough to beat out Lee. This is why on the early 53-man prediction, I feel convinced the writing is on the wall for Andy.

Love Andy Lee, absolutely tremendous punter, but if Pinion was truly the BPA that spot for a team claiming they weren't drafting for need, then Lee is in trouble.

We cut a long snapper with 10 years experience. Someone who never made a bad snap.

Originally posted by RishikeshA:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

And that's the thing -- they must ABSOLUTELY believe that he can beat out Lee. All this talk about "It's Lee's job. It's Pinion's job to compete to win that job" is just fluff. There's no way they would've wasted a 5th rounder if they didn't feel like Pinion was good enough to beat out Lee. This is why on the early 53-man prediction, I feel convinced the writing is on the wall for Andy.

Love Andy Lee, absolutely tremendous punter, but if Pinion was truly the BPA that spot for a team claiming they weren't drafting for need, then Lee is in trouble.

We cut a long snapper with 10 years experience. Someone who never made a bad snap.

Eaxctly. Jennings was an elite long-snapper (didn't he even make a Pro Bowl as one?) but that wasn't enough to save him when a cheaper, younger guy who could cover punts just a well came along. As much as I don't want Andy to go, if Pinion can show he belongs, he's going to win that spot. Almost never having to worry about a KO return from opposing teams would do wonders for our ST unit and help us in the field position battle. Every little thing matters when you're trying to get your team to the playoffs and ultimately the Super Bowl. We'll see what happens, but Lee is big-time on the hot seat. Fully expecting him to get traded.

Just for reference, this was Lee's statistical output and league rank last season:
Average: 46.8 (4th)
Net Avg: 39.6 (15th)
Touchbacks: 7 (28th)
Fair Catches: 22 (10th)
Punts that were returned: 36 (26th)
Return Yards: 336 (26th)

His distance was still top five in the league and forced fair catches were still top 10, but the other numbers where either middle of the pack or bottom of the league. Hard to say though how much of that is Lee and how much is it the coverage unit. Would need to find some hang time averages to get a little better idea. But based on what I saw on the field, without statistical evidence I could say yeah Lee didn't have his best year (but no one did).

Now, For Pinion's Numbers:
* Pinion was 1st in the nation with only two touchbacks on the year.
* Pinion was in the top quarter, ranked 30th in the nation out of 121 players in punting average.
* Clemson was ranked 22nd in the nation in NET average.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
And that's the thing -- they must ABSOLUTELY believe that he can beat out Lee. All this talk about "It's Lee's job. It's Pinion's job to compete to win that job" is just fluff. There's no way they would've wasted a 5th rounder if they didn't feel like Pinion was good enough to beat out Lee. This is why on the early 53-man prediction, I feel convinced the writing is on the wall for Andy.

Love Andy Lee, absolutely tremendous punter, but if Pinion was truly the BPA that spot for a team claiming they weren't drafting for need, then Lee is in trouble.

Also, isn't another factor that Pinion would handle kickoffs as well? We've in the bottom fourth of the league in terms of kickoff touchback percent for a while now... that's pretty important to be able to neutralize the opponent's return game.

One other possible thing, might be the FO anticipating the NFL Office moving the KO line back another 5 or 10 yards in the future..? And they think Pinion can out distance that adjustment by the league.?

Originally posted by highway49:
One other possible thing, might be the FO anticipating the NFL Office moving the KO line back another 5 or 10 yards in the future..? And they think Pinion can out distance that adjustment by the league.?

Why would they move the spot back when they just recently moved it forwards........

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by highway49:

One other possible thing, might be the FO anticipating the NFL Office moving the KO line back another 5 or 10 yards in the future..? And they think Pinion can out distance that adjustment by the league.?

Why would they move the spot back when they just recently moved it forwards........

"Inflateagate"