An in-depth look at McCloughan's draft/trade/free agency moves (2005-2010)

good post....on D he has been very good compared to other GM's around the league. We have some of the better players on D and a top 5 D.

On offense we have a great RB and TE but that is it. He has failed in the qb dept and esp the OL which helped Alex look a lot worse. We finally got q wr in crabtree but that has been 5 yrs in the waiting

Originally posted by elguapo:
good post....on D he has been very good compared to other GM's around the league. We have some of the better players on D and a top 5 D.

On offense we have a great RB and TE but that is it. He has failed in the qb dept and esp the OL which helped Alex look a lot worse. We finally got q wr in crabtree but that has been 5 yrs in the waiting

Agreed. And most of the great defensive players were from a combo of Nolan and McCloughan.

Also the offense is nowhere near a finished product. Question marks at QB and most of the OL along with depth at WR

Interesting breakdown. I think the return on investment in free agency has been excellent.

Originally posted by Kalen49ers:

Originally posted by elguapo:
good post....on D he has been very good compared to other GM's around the league. We have some of the better players on D and a top 5 D.

On offense we have a great RB and TE but that is it. He has failed in the qb dept and esp the OL which helped Alex look a lot worse. We finally got q wr in crabtree but that has been 5 yrs in the waiting

Agreed. And most of the great defensive players were from a combo of Nolan and McCloughan.

Also the offense is nowhere near a finished product. Question marks at QB and most of the OL along with depth at WR

Nice post & info. Let's hope the good ones continue to improve & help the 49ers get to the playoffs.

I think you are too hard on him for on the Alex Smith pick. I don't even think he was GM then either??? The 2005 draft was crap too. We had the #1 pick in the draft when there wasn't a truly deserving #1 player and on top of that we had to get a QB. It was either Smith or Rodgers and Smith looked like he had the better skill set.

McCloughan did ok IMO but his worst pick was K. Balmer. He's still young enough to turn it around but so far he looks to be a bust.

I applaud the effort, but mostly disagree with the majority of your grading. It is sooo flawed imo that I lack the motivation to point out where those flaws exist, I have other things to do with my morning.

I think you were generous in your grading to say the least, and have a very different view about Scott McC's drafting and FA signings. All the good signings were more Nolan then McC imo. Likewise the bad ones during the same stretch are as well.

It's pretty obvious who was the active one in FA if you compare our lvl of activity pre and post Nolan firing.

Originally posted by GEEK:

R1: Patrick Willis - ILB
- You are an idiot if you want me to explain this pick.

Grade: A+

Personal attack?

Thanks GEEK

Great year to year breakdown of draft picks and FA pickups, I agree with the majority of your evaluations.
Antonio Bryant I would have given a "C"
Trent Dilfer I would give a "D"


Thanks much for the great post

+1

Great post

great post

I applaud your effort, and commend your desire to scrutinize what McC's contribution has been.

However, I think you are an easy grader; too many A's and not enough B's and C's. As for the A+'s, these were more a function of the 49ers being a crappy team and He was able to draft high. If the team had done well, these players would not have been available to McC at the 20-25 slot.

The best way to evaluate whether a GM is building a superb team is to compare him to the other premier teams in the league. Take New Orleans, for example. Who did they have on their team five years ago? Who did they draft and who did they sign as FA's during that period? ARIZ is another team that came a long way during theat time.

Great post

LOL - Tully Banta-Cain - DE/OLB

Great post and I agree with your conclusions; especially #3, which I think was critical to the failure of McClouhan/Nolan to get the team over the top. But I believe that grading individual picks is meaningless. Bill Walsh was one of the greatest talent evaluators in NFL history, yet he had plenty of bad individual picks. What separates the good talent evaluators from the bad ones is the percentage of time they get it right. The good GMs do a little better than average; the bad GMs do worse.

The difference between Walsh and the average GM was:

1.) His ratio of good picks to bad picks was better than average.
2.) His best picks/acquisitions weren't just good, they were truly great.
3.) He got it right with the key position: Quarterback... not just once, but twice.

If we look at McCloughan's overall record and compare it to the average GM, what jumps out to me is:

1.) His ratio of good picks to bad picks was about average.
2.) He acquired several key players, but not enough.
3.) He got it wrong on the most important position: QB.

I'd say McCloughan was an average to pretty good talent evaluator, but a bit out of his depth as a GM. In the end, the Alex Smith pick was key to his tenure with the 49ers. If he'd gotten a Pro Bowl QB with that pick, his career with the 49ers would look very different.

So Nolan had the trigger on draft days before Scott got the GM job?