Pay attention when #99 gets in the game. Aldon consistently provides outside pressure on opposing QB's. His current downfall is his pass defence. Bottom line, Aldon was drafted to blitz the QB, and for now, he's too one dimentional to be an every down LB.
Kaep is a work in progress. Harbaugh's confident in his ability to groom QB's. Kaep has a strong arm, a fairly quick release and he's very athletic. However, his pocket presence leaves a lot to be desired and he has yet to grasp the intricasies of the offence. For Harbaugh, the challenge is to teach a "Vick-like" QB to become more of a prototypical NFL QB.
Drafting Culliver fills an important need, since the 49ers are thin at CB. However, it's important to keep in mind that he's still a 3rd round prospect. Even 1st rounders sometimes need a year to acclimate themselves to the speed of the NFL. It would have been a marvel if Culliver was able to prove himself enough in the limited preseason to start from day one. That didn't happen and the more likely of outcomes came into fruition. Culliver has talent, but he remains a wait and see type of player, joining the likes of Tarrell Brown and Reggie Smith. Hopefully Culliver developes faster than Brown and Smith.
Hunter (the two time All American) has shown in the preseaon that he can play in this league. Still, he faces the same challenge as every rookie running back, which is learning to pass protect at the NFL level. He has done a good job of that, and as a result has passed Dixon on the depth chart. But Gore is one of the few "every down RB's" in the NFL. Gore can run, catch and pass protect at a high level. The 49ers have run the ball around 25 times a game in the first two weeks and Gore has received a little over 20 carries a game. There simply isn't enough running plays to go around, and most would agree that Gore deserves to be the lead dog in this offence.
[ Edited by doc_brown_ on Sep 24, 2011 at 4:13 PM ]
