Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Walsh was one of the early advocates of bringing in great athletes who could be taught to play football. They had size or speed and he tried to utilize that. Worked really well with M. Carter who had great experience in football at SMU, but was best known as a shot put record holder. Nehemiah was a track star who played fairly well for a few year but nothing spectacular...other than scaring DBs to death.
The reason he sought these players out was because he knew that any advantage had to be used to succeed at the level he wanted to acheive. A player like Graham would be a great complement to VD and Walker but the 9ers also need a great WR as well.
This is very true, but you do this after your core group of players is solidified. We are almost at that point if we can somehow retain most of our big FAs and role players, so taking a guy in the 4th round or lower that fits that profile isn't a bad idea.
Someone laughed at the idea of bringing back Manny Lawson, but I always think about that game Julian Peterson had against Tony Gonzalez a decade ago. Not necessarly a bad idea, especially if his price tag remains around where it is now or less. Also, what exactly does Parys Haralson bring to this defense that Lawson can't?
