Round 1, #7, the San Francisco 49ers selects Aldon Smith, DE, Missouri

The overreaction on this board cracks me up, we were probably trying to trade down but it takes two to tango. We have no clue what this kid will do at the next level but if Vic thinks Aldon will be his Clay Matthews i'm all for it. Look at Aldons collegiate stats compared to Clay's yeah they were drafted in opposite ends of he draft but my point is you can't just look at college stats and predict what he'll do in the pros.


Clay Matthews


[ Edited by scoobyduu24 on Apr 28, 2011 at 21:15:45 ]

I can't believe we really made this pick. We have no QB and a terrible secondary and we fixed NEITHER when Prince was still on the board for us to take??? I mean, what?! I could not believe this pick was made, just unreal.

I can only imagine what the hell we do the rest of the draft. I can't even imagine us taking a QB in the second round now, whereas before we could've gone CB first round, QB second or vice-versa. Now we pretty much HAVE TO draft a CB in the 2nd round.

This seems like a Trent Baalke draft pick, in which case all I can say is the Trent Baalke era sure has started off just grand.

I'm buying this pick more and more. We all had certain guys in mind (PP, Prince, Quinn and Gabbert) i have a feeling if we were picking 10th or 11th, we would have heard a lot more about this guy. Fills a need and we hear nothing but good things about him. Just hope he can back up the talk. We need a legit rusher

This guy has a massive wing span, and incredible athletic, super young and the willingness to work. This guy is gonna be our beast at OLD that we have long waited for. He is raw, but we will mold him into a MACHINE!

Welcome Aldon!!

Originally posted by NickV:
This guy has a massive wing span, and incredible athletic, super young and the willingness to work. This guy is gonna be our beast at OLD that we have long waited for. He is raw, but we will mold him into a MACHINE!

Welcome Aldon!!

Raw scares me. I don't like raw, I like polished. I think the past 49er coaches have scared me away from players that need molding.

Originally posted by ForeverYoung:
I can't believe we really made this pick. We have no QB and a terrible secondary and we fixed NEITHER when Prince was still on the board for us to take??? I mean, what?! I could not believe this pick was made, just unreal.

I can only imagine what the hell we do the rest of the draft. I can't even imagine us taking a QB in the second round now, whereas before we could've gone CB first round, QB second or vice-versa. Now we pretty much HAVE TO draft a CB in the 2nd round.

This seems like a Trent Baalke draft pick, in which case all I can say is the Trent Baalke era sure has started off just grand.

How did we not fix the secondary? The first step to fixing a s**tty secondary is improving the pass rush...

Some people don't exactly understand how complicated the game of football is, do they?

Watching the clips in the first post made me a little ill, this guy is slow, has bad feet and runs way to upright, he is too small to play DE and will have to play OLB. With his lack of speed, TE's and Backs will eat him up. Unless he is the next Ted Hendricks (AKA)"the mad stork" we are truly screwed. Maybe I'm over reacting, everything I read about the guy projects him as a first rounder, but I don't see it. The kid is a project, he may be great, but I can't see an immediate impact.

I will give him this he does remind me a little of Charles Haley, but just not as fast.

Originally posted by 24plus25er:

Originally posted by JDeezy:

Originally posted by NinerGM:

Originally posted by global_nomad:

Originally posted by JDeezy:
I don't mind the pick, it's just confusing as hell. First of all, they could've traded down and still gotten. Second, how many people had him ahead of Quinn as the second OLB on the board after Miller? I like the fact that he played on a broken leg last year. Shows some heart and some balls that can be added to the team. I don't like the fact that we're sitting there without a corner and perhaps more importantly we're going to need a nose tackle too. Say you trade down and he's gone you can still take Phil Taylor and shore up a need. At least it serves a need and we finally say bye to Lawson's underachieving ass. As for the second round, I can't say how imperative it is that we take a CB. Forgot Kap, i don't think Dalton will be there. We need to take either Aaron Williams or Ras-I Dowling. Then in the 3rd we can take Stanzi if he's still there and then take another rb in the 4th. While the Aldon Smith pick is underwhelming much like last years two first rounders, if he's as steady as Iupati was we won't be complaining too much.

same could have been said about Tennesee at 8. If they wanted Locker that much why not trade back? Ballke said that they knew ATL wanted to trade up, but the Falcons moved ahead of them. Maybe SF and Tenn couldn't find suitable trade partners.

ITA. I hate when people say "we could have traded back" when they have no idea if a trade was possible. And apparently trades aren't this smooth process - ala Baltimore and Chicago.

Lol amusing, how is it the good teams always find a trade partner and we're left reaching? My point is if you have to trade back and miss out on this guy there are better value guys out there. I'm glad we addressed a need, but to me its settling. We have a rotation at OLB. It sucks but at least its a rotation. We have no rotation at CB. We have 1 CB in Spencer who's a top 4 corner on any other team in the nfl. That's what I'm saying.

So basically your saying we should cut off our nose to sleight our face by trading back just because Aldon Smith was not number 7 on everyones mock draft. A reach is drafting Christian Ponder at 12 when he should have been 20-25 pick on a good day. I don't think we lost any value by drafting Aldon at seven, being that no team would not have payed anything extra to get another player at 7.

I don't care about the mock drafts......what I care about is getting value. I think there were better players at 7 who fit a need just as big as that of OLB. I wouldn't have taken Ponder or Locker at 7. Absolutely not. If Smith turns out to be good then great. I don't have to like the pick right now though. I'm going off of my own observations.

Originally posted by LAFortyNinerfan:

Originally posted by NickV:
This guy has a massive wing span, and incredible athletic, super young and the willingness to work. This guy is gonna be our beast at OLD that we have long waited for. He is raw, but we will mold him into a MACHINE!

Welcome Aldon!!

Raw scares me. I don't like raw, I like polished. I think the past 49er coaches have scared me away from players that need molding.

Molding, means no immediate help at a point of glaring need! The kid is only 20! He doesn't even have his full size yet...

Originally posted by NickV:
This guy has a massive wing span, and incredible athletic, super young and the willingness to work. This guy is gonna be our beast at OLD that we have long waited for. He is raw, but we will mold him into a MACHINE!

Welcome Aldon!!

Gil Brandt, The Godfather of General Managers past calls this guy Secretariat and the rest are plough horses! Not bad, others compare him to Charles Haley, wjo was also very rough around the edges and we all saw how he turned oyt! 5 SB Rings! If Aldon is half as good as Haley we really did get a steal!

Originally posted by LAFortyNinerfan:

Originally posted by NickV:
This guy has a massive wing span, and incredible athletic, super young and the willingness to work. This guy is gonna be our beast at OLD that we have long waited for. He is raw, but we will mold him into a MACHINE!

Welcome Aldon!!

Raw scares me. I don't like raw, I like polished. I think the past 49er coaches have scared me away from players that need molding.

he doesnt look raw to me he is young and talented i think e will make an impact as soon as he steps on the field and will become better as time goes on

Hope Smith is the next Charles Haley and not Israel Ifeanyi. I think Prince (some have said was going to be a good zone corner) was overrated.

Originally posted by LAFortyNinerfan:

Originally posted by NickV:
This guy has a massive wing span, and incredible athletic, super young and the willingness to work. This guy is gonna be our beast at OLD that we have long waited for. He is raw, but we will mold him into a MACHINE!

Welcome Aldon!!

Raw scares me. I don't like raw, I like polished. I think the past 49er coaches have scared me away from players that need molding.

The answer lies within your post. You said, past 49er coaches. Past.

We've completely cleaned house and have a new coaching staff. I'm not here to argue whether or not this new coaching staff is capable of turning raw players into great ones, but its a new start. We don't have the same s**t staff we did in the past. What intrigues me the most is how Fangio runs his defense. His crazy and creative blitz schemes will definitely suit Aldon's strengths and possibly help mask his weaknesses or rawness.

I am excite.

after reading around i actually like this a lot..

i had no idea so many people had him rated so high, so that mixed in with how well harbaugh has been a judge of talent in the past, i really trust this.

really, there isn't a single guy who got taken after Smith that i'm upset that we didnt get, including Prince, would have been nice but some of those coverage questions that came up in the last couple weeks really cooled my fire on him.

i went into this draft feeling like it wasn't going to be an overly sexy draft, esp when it seemed peterson wouldn't end up falling to us, now that ive read multiple reviews saying Smith could end up being one of the premiere players of this draft im definitely content.

Originally posted by niner4life21:

Originally posted by ForeverYoung:
I can't believe we really made this pick. We have no QB and a terrible secondary and we fixed NEITHER when Prince was still on the board for us to take??? I mean, what?! I could not believe this pick was made, just unreal.

I can only imagine what the hell we do the rest of the draft. I can't even imagine us taking a QB in the second round now, whereas before we could've gone CB first round, QB second or vice-versa. Now we pretty much HAVE TO draft a CB in the 2nd round.

This seems like a Trent Baalke draft pick, in which case all I can say is the Trent Baalke era sure has started off just grand.

How did we not fix the secondary? The first step to fixing a s**tty secondary is improving the pass rush...

Some people don't exactly understand how complicated the game of football is, do they?

You know what I mean. This guy is still a raw talent, like others have said. We can't assume he's just going to step in and make an immediate impact on this team.

My biggest problem is, like others have said, taking him with the SEVENTH OVERALL PICK! We could've traded back and still landed this kid, plus we would've had more picks.