Originally posted by MadDog49er:
Thanks for the recommendation.
Let's be real people, Baalke is not the one bettering the organization, it is all Harbaugh and staff. Let's take the offense: The Niners offense has the same personnel as last year, except for a few tweeks, Miller and Goodwin. Are Miller and Goodwin making the difference in this team, compared to Baas and Norris? No. This is Harbaugh's magic, not Baalke's genius. By the way, our very own Baalke did not make a move on the offensive line this year to replace Rachal, who was the incumbent to win the job. That is genius? No.
On defense, the team let Franklin explore free agency, tried to get him back, but lost out to the Saints. The Niners shifted DL personnel, and did make one bold and aggressive move I do give credit to Baalke, signing McDonald. The rest of the front seven starting unit is the same. The secondary is largely the same, subbing Rogers for Clements, and Whitner for the R. Smith (injured) and Mays (49ers bust) combo. Rogers was a stroke of luck, not genius. We tried to bid for a number of free agents before signing him, and there was obviously no belief he would be anywhere close to as good as he has been , or he would have been the number 2 or 3 free agent CB on the market, not the 7th or 8th signed to a whopping one-year deal. Pure, blind luck, not genius.
I will tip my hat to his draft selection of Bowman last year.....right after the pick of Taylor Mays....genius....uh, how about Morgan Burnett?
Let's be real, the difference-maker is Harbaugh and company. And, the Niners almost threw away a slam dunk signing by lowballing his offer, allowing other teams to jump in and compete for his services. Lucky that he: 1) Wanted to stay in the Bay Area for his kid's schooling; 2) The Niners are in the Bay Area; 3) He wanted to coach for an NFL team. Again, "All Praise to Baalke" for signing Harbaugh is a joke. An elementary school negotiator could have finished this deal. Hardly genius.
I am saying right now that unless his approach changes, and we become active in free agency, instead of waiting to scrape the bargin bin basement players off the pile, this is not a long-range winning approach. The mountain of free agents on this roster is massive, and if we think we can play lowball in signing free agents this next year, in a regular NFL year (not altered by a lockout), we cannot expect more miracles to happen. Let's not roll the dice, and see what the 8th ranked CB in the free agent market does next year for this team.
I encourage those to not take this personally. This is about a philosophy to player personnel matters, not torturing puppies.
I agree that most of the turn around is due to JH and his staff, but Baalke has a bigger play in this that you have written down for him. You say get more active in free agency. Well if we did it as you say and just spend-well history has shown that spending wrecklessly has shown that it doesn't work out majority of the time, Redskins come to mind. You only spend when you are a player or two away. You can't use this year and say if we had done this we would be even better. In fact, we would be salary cap hell like the waning years of Carmen Policy. You forgetting Clements already?
Nnamdi would have cost us in the future. Franklin, we offered him what we thought he was worth but he wanted more, he didn't get an offer, we tried again, but he didn't want it, samething with Bass, and if we were to go after NA? Then try to sign Gore also? Ha. As it turned out we made the right moves. This is what he does. There is a thing called fiscal resopnsibility to the not only the owners but to the team. So that we can remain competitive not only now but into the future. You are only looking at aquisition of talent and not maintaining a competitive team which is dictated by the cap.
Bringing in Goodwin and Miller is Baalke's department which he did. As well as Braylon Edwards. Harbuagh wanted Kaep, and he brought it in at the right price. Harbuagh, gave credit after the draft for getting the players we got, he also marvaled at how Baalke remained focused when we could trade from the seventh or when we couldn't back into the first, but still ended up getting Kaep. When Seely wanted certain people for special teams, he brought in the guys that Seely recommended and then some. It was also Baalke that brought in Ackers who who is responsible for almost half the teams points. On D, He picked Aldon Smith and Culliver. Unlike his former boss, Baalke brought in a change of pace back that didn't seem like the norm of prior years with Hunter. Plus we still have Kilgore and Pearson to eveluate who may prove to be good picks. Then there is aquisitions like Dobbs and others.
Also on D, he had a vision, if Franklin left he felt Soap and Ricky would be more than able, so he would sign McDonald to a long term, all this mad more sense since Franklin was on the other side of thirty-this is called vision. He also brought in Rodgers. You may say he got lucky but he got Goldson back for a year. He also brought in Whitner. More importantly-how has the players we let go performed? That speaks for itself.
As for last year, you are forgeting that although he was in charge, like Harbaugh this year, he was restricted by two things, one was put in charge at the last minute thus operating from a hole and he was drafting people fitting Singletary's vision. You may say that he shouldn't and just draft on projected talent, but if the player doesn't fit or you don't work with the coach then it is doomed to fail. Everybody has already heard about the Taylor Mays fiasco. Besides, Walsh one of the best talent eveluators and coach, failed half the time in his picks
Yes JH wanted to remain here etc etc.-there offer was one of the richest offers to a coach and you want them to pay more than BB of the pats when at the time he is coming from the college ranks? Majority of college coaches have failed. Again Baalke assessed the situation, he knew JH wanted to stay in the Bay for multi reasons, he also knew of the teams that wanted JH, the niners had the most talent to offer thus the best chance to win. Then to top it all off, JH was familiar with Baalke and knew he could work with him compared to the Miami and Denver situations. Again, you say luck, I say Baalke knew the situation.
Baalke will pick and chose who he wants to keep next year and who to go after. Too many times players get large salaries and disappear. Like Haynesworth.
