Article: Are the San Francisco 49es Full of Themselves?

What you are seeing us doing is the opposite of what the Seahawks are doing. We are building the smart way for the long term and not killing our cap. The Seahawks are blowing their draft picks and cash and are more or less f**ked if they don't win the superbowl this season which of course they wont. Their cap is a nightmare next season and they just lost their first round pick as well?

Originally posted by LottDMontanaO:
I didn't see a thread already established on this...I just read it (link: http://edraft.com/nfl/news/are-the-san-francisco-49ers-full-of-themselves/; pasted below). What are your thoughts on this - is this how the 49ers deal with most Free Agents? You would think there has to be some give and take, especially with some quality Free Agents out there. Also, I don't know much about the author, Vincent Frank, other than he's in the greater Bay Area and writes about the Niners a lot.

Article:

The San Francisco 49ers absolutely shocked the football world a week ago when they acquired Anquan Boldin from the Baltimore Ravens for a sixth-round pick. For many, this deal seemed to indicate that San Francisco was starting to take on the mentality of it's AFC counterpart; the New England Patriots.

I will focus on that later.

Since, San Francisco has brought in John Abraham, Nnamdi Asomugha, Charles Woodson and Louis Delmas, among others, for visits. The only "big-name" player to sign is Glenn Dorsey, who inked a deal just a couple hours after he arrived at their facility in Santa Clara.

Meanwhile, some valuable members of the 49ers' NFC Championship winning club from a season ago have departed for richer addresses. Alex Smith was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in a deal that still seems to favor San Francisco, Dashon Goldson received $40 million from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Ricky Jean-Francois inked a four year, $22 million deal with the Indianapolis Colts.

These free-agent departures on a singular leval aren't too big, but added together means that San Francisco has some work to do when it comes to finding replacements.

I have learned through sources, which have been corroborated since, that San Francisco utilizes a different approach to free agency. They set a value to specific players and stick with it. This means that negotiations rarely ever take place at 4949 Centennial BLVD in Santa Clara. The free-agent "prospect" understands exactly where San Francisco values him and that's about it. There isn't a give/take from each side. And San Francisco almost never improves the quality of it's offer.

Obviously, this could rub some the wrong way (see: John Abraham), but it is a model that San Francisco has used since Trent Baalke took over as general manager in January of 2011. Since, the 49ers are 24-7-1 in the regular season, with two trips to the NFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl appearance. In fact, they have played as many postseason games in the last two years (five) than the previous 13 seasons combined.

Something is working.

In addition, as the defending conference champions; San Francisco doesn't need to go out there and overpay for specific players. It can utilize the 14 picks it has in the draft to upgrade at areas of need.

Still, I am not entirely too sure that this is the right model to use. At least, give the feeling that the you need the free agent as much as he needs you. Instead, it appears that San Francisco is going about it by indicating that it really doesn't need the player to join the team. As in any profession, this doesn't make a prospective employee feel too good about signing on the dotted line.

Can San Francisco win the Super Bowl without any of the free agents it has "targeted?" Yes, of course if can. Would it be better off with Asomugha and Woodson on the roster? Probably.

That isn't the point.

You don't want to get a reputation in this as a team unwilling to even bargain with free agents. That's not the way to endure yourself to new players looking to join a winning team. That's not the way to actually build a team by supplementing in free agency.

Of course, San Francisco might feel that it doesn't even need free agents; that it can build a championship-caliber team through the draft.

An overtime loss to the New York Giants and a Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens in consecutive seasons might have given Baalke and Co. a false sense that they're going to remain on top for the forseeable future.

The issue with this is that Seattle has improved a great deal, Green Bay isn't going away and the Falcons just acquired Steven Jackson. The gap, however small it might have previously been, has narrowed a great deal in the NFC.

I guess the next move is on Baalke in the "NFC Arms Race." Is San Francisco ready to make it?

What needs to be mentioned is that San Francisco has taken on the philosophy of the Patriots. It's the idea that we are going to buiild through the draft with multiple picks and a great deal of weapons come April. If all doesn't work out like we plan, the NFL offseason is far from over.

As it is; San Francisco has 14 picks in April's draft, a few different free agents possibly coming to town and five more months of the offseason to get minor holes fixed.

I wouldn't bank against them.

Great read and in sight. I like the homework on this and you have a lot of good points. But building threw the draft is much better and cheaper in the long run, but looking at our squad secondary last year I do not believe we have the piece's now to stay as the top three defense next year without an upgrade to our secondary.

The only thing we are full of is draft picks.

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
The only thing we are full of is draft picks.

i hate trading picks but with 14 we can do that if there is someone we really think we need,, i think that we are in a good spot cuz the areas of need for us which are safety and d line are pretty deep. for this reason i do not think we will sign a vet qb or kicker, aside from camp fodder,. we have the luxury of using picks on those guys in the 5th or 6th rounds....... on the other hand we do draft rather late. i miss the days when we were bad so we could draft higher

Originally posted by bigmur49:
Some of these guys were there all day and into the late night. I am pretty sure there was a lot of schmoozing and selling guys on the team and why they should come here. If it was just a "here's our offer, take it or leave it" I don't think Woodson would have been in the building until like 10pm.

I keep saying it ... he was waiting for his Hoveround batteries to recharge!!

Originally posted by Constantine:

Originally posted by LottDMontanaO:
I didn't see a thread already established on this...I just read it (link: http://edraft.com/nfl/news/are-the-san-francisco-49ers-full-of-themselves/; pasted below). What are your thoughts on this - is this how the 49ers deal with most Free Agents? You would think there has to be some give and take, especially with some quality Free Agents out there. Also, I don't know much about the author, Vincent Frank, other than he's in the greater Bay Area and writes about the Niners a lot.

Article:

The San Francisco 49ers absolutely shocked the football world a week ago when they acquired Anquan Boldin from the Baltimore Ravens for a sixth-round pick. For many, this deal seemed to indicate that San Francisco was starting to take on the mentality of it's AFC counterpart; the New England Patriots.

I will focus on that later.

Since, San Francisco has brought in John Abraham, Nnamdi Asomugha, Charles Woodson and Louis Delmas, among others, for visits. The only "big-name" player to sign is Glenn Dorsey, who inked a deal just a couple hours after he arrived at their facility in Santa Clara.

Meanwhile, some valuable members of the 49ers' NFC Championship winning club from a season ago have departed for richer addresses. Alex Smith was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in a deal that still seems to favor San Francisco, Dashon Goldson received $40 million from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Ricky Jean-Francois inked a four year, $22 million deal with the Indianapolis Colts.

These free-agent departures on a singular leval aren't too big, but added together means that San Francisco has some work to do when it comes to finding replacements.

I have learned through sources, which have been corroborated since, that San Francisco utilizes a different approach to free agency. They set a value to specific players and stick with it. This means that negotiations rarely ever take place at 4949 Centennial BLVD in Santa Clara. The free-agent "prospect" understands exactly where San Francisco values him and that's about it. There isn't a give/take from each side. And San Francisco almost never improves the quality of it's offer.

Obviously, this could rub some the wrong way (see: John Abraham), but it is a model that San Francisco has used since Trent Baalke took over as general manager in January of 2011. Since, the 49ers are 24-7-1 in the regular season, with two trips to the NFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl appearance. In fact, they have played as many postseason games in the last two years (five) than the previous 13 seasons combined.

Something is working.

In addition, as the defending conference champions; San Francisco doesn't need to go out there and overpay for specific players. It can utilize the 14 picks it has in the draft to upgrade at areas of need.

Still, I am not entirely too sure that this is the right model to use. At least, give the feeling that the you need the free agent as much as he needs you. Instead, it appears that San Francisco is going about it by indicating that it really doesn't need the player to join the team. As in any profession, this doesn't make a prospective employee feel too good about signing on the dotted line.

Can San Francisco win the Super Bowl without any of the free agents it has "targeted?" Yes, of course if can. Would it be better off with Asomugha and Woodson on the roster? Probably.

That isn't the point.

You don't want to get a reputation in this as a team unwilling to even bargain with free agents. That's not the way to endure yourself to new players looking to join a winning team. That's not the way to actually build a team by supplementing in free agency.

Of course, San Francisco might feel that it doesn't even need free agents; that it can build a championship-caliber team through the draft.

An overtime loss to the New York Giants and a Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens in consecutive seasons might have given Baalke and Co. a false sense that they're going to remain on top for the forseeable future.

The issue with this is that Seattle has improved a great deal, Green Bay isn't going away and the Falcons just acquired Steven Jackson. The gap, however small it might have previously been, has narrowed a great deal in the NFC.

I guess the next move is on Baalke in the "NFC Arms Race." Is San Francisco ready to make it?

What needs to be mentioned is that San Francisco has taken on the philosophy of the Patriots. It's the idea that we are going to buiild through the draft with multiple picks and a great deal of weapons come April. If all doesn't work out like we plan, the NFL offseason is far from over.

As it is; San Francisco has 14 picks in April's draft, a few different free agents possibly coming to town and five more months of the offseason to get minor holes fixed.

I wouldn't bank against them.

Great read and in sight. I like the homework on this and you have a lot of good points. But building threw the draft is much better and cheaper in the long run, but looking at our squad secondary last year I do not believe we have the piece's now to stay as the top three defense next year without an upgrade to our secondary.

This article is ridiculous...

The organization is negotiating exactly the way you should... to say there is none is absurd. I would not have paid what any of our free agents have gotten elsewhere, the value isn't there, and if those teams continue to do that they will pay the price. There are two absolutes in negotiating, 1. Know what you want. 2. Know what your willing to give up to get it. You can appear to "sweeten the pot" and still not give up any more than you ever intended too... you are simply giving up things that are less important to you than what you are getting in return (they may be more important to the individual on the other end of the negotiations however). Yes they have a value they place on every free agent (any team that doesn't do this WILL overpay), but that doesn't mean that the negotiations begin and end there. That is simply the point of impasse, once reached they understand that a deal will not get done. It saves TIME and MONEY.

Does a free agent want all the extras that come with signing with the 49ers (a chance at a ring?) or do they want to get paid to play for a team that is just as likely to finish 6-10 as make the playoffs? That is one of the biggest negotiating tools the 9ers have, and it will weed out who wants to win and who wants paid.

If you want to look at why teams fail, look at who pays big money to free agents. How well did the Nnamdi signing work out for the Eagles?

Its all about VALUE!

Yep they're the biggest group of cocky arrogant a*****es in the history of the NFL, They make Deion Sanders look like a choirboy.

Originally posted by Constantine:

Originally posted by LottDMontanaO:
I didn't see a thread already established on this...I just read it (link: http://edraft.com/nfl/news/are-the-san-francisco-49ers-full-of-themselves/; pasted below). What are your thoughts on this - is this how the 49ers deal with most Free Agents? You would think there has to be some give and take, especially with some quality Free Agents out there. Also, I don't know much about the author, Vincent Frank, other than he's in the greater Bay Area and writes about the Niners a lot.

Article:

The San Francisco 49ers absolutely shocked the football world a week ago when they acquired Anquan Boldin from the Baltimore Ravens for a sixth-round pick. For many, this deal seemed to indicate that San Francisco was starting to take on the mentality of it's AFC counterpart; the New England Patriots.

I will focus on that later.

Since, San Francisco has brought in John Abraham, Nnamdi Asomugha, Charles Woodson and Louis Delmas, among others, for visits. The only "big-name" player to sign is Glenn Dorsey, who inked a deal just a couple hours after he arrived at their facility in Santa Clara.

Meanwhile, some valuable members of the 49ers' NFC Championship winning club from a season ago have departed for richer addresses. Alex Smith was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in a deal that still seems to favor San Francisco, Dashon Goldson received $40 million from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Ricky Jean-Francois inked a four year, $22 million deal with the Indianapolis Colts.

These free-agent departures on a singular leval aren't too big, but added together means that San Francisco has some work to do when it comes to finding replacements.

I have learned through sources, which have been corroborated since, that San Francisco utilizes a different approach to free agency. They set a value to specific players and stick with it. This means that negotiations rarely ever take place at 4949 Centennial BLVD in Santa Clara. The free-agent "prospect" understands exactly where San Francisco values him and that's about it. There isn't a give/take from each side. And San Francisco almost never improves the quality of it's offer.

Obviously, this could rub some the wrong way (see: John Abraham), but it is a model that San Francisco has used since Trent Baalke took over as general manager in January of 2011. Since, the 49ers are 24-7-1 in the regular season, with two trips to the NFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl appearance. In fact, they have played as many postseason games in the last two years (five) than the previous 13 seasons combined.

Something is working.

In addition, as the defending conference champions; San Francisco doesn't need to go out there and overpay for specific players. It can utilize the 14 picks it has in the draft to upgrade at areas of need.

Still, I am not entirely too sure that this is the right model to use. At least, give the feeling that the you need the free agent as much as he needs you. Instead, it appears that San Francisco is going about it by indicating that it really doesn't need the player to join the team. As in any profession, this doesn't make a prospective employee feel too good about signing on the dotted line.

Can San Francisco win the Super Bowl without any of the free agents it has "targeted?" Yes, of course if can. Would it be better off with Asomugha and Woodson on the roster? Probably.

That isn't the point.

You don't want to get a reputation in this as a team unwilling to even bargain with free agents. That's not the way to endure yourself to new players looking to join a winning team. That's not the way to actually build a team by supplementing in free agency.

Of course, San Francisco might feel that it doesn't even need free agents; that it can build a championship-caliber team through the draft.

An overtime loss to the New York Giants and a Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens in consecutive seasons might have given Baalke and Co. a false sense that they're going to remain on top for the forseeable future.

The issue with this is that Seattle has improved a great deal, Green Bay isn't going away and the Falcons just acquired Steven Jackson. The gap, however small it might have previously been, has narrowed a great deal in the NFC.

I guess the next move is on Baalke in the "NFC Arms Race." Is San Francisco ready to make it?

What needs to be mentioned is that San Francisco has taken on the philosophy of the Patriots. It's the idea that we are going to buiild through the draft with multiple picks and a great deal of weapons come April. If all doesn't work out like we plan, the NFL offseason is far from over.

As it is; San Francisco has 14 picks in April's draft, a few different free agents possibly coming to town and five more months of the offseason to get minor holes fixed.

I wouldn't bank against them.

Great read and in sight. I like the homework on this and you have a lot of good points. But building threw the draft is much better and cheaper in the long run, but looking at our squad secondary last year I do not believe we have the piece's now to stay as the top three defense next year without an upgrade to our secondary.

Build threw the draft? Grammar and spelling is not a primary concern of yours is it? That is like second grade s**t there.

The Niners are doing it the right way and not overpaying for old free agents on the downside of their careers. Stupid article in my opinion.

Originally posted by BayArea:
Build threw the draft? Grammar and spelling is not a primary concern of yours is it? That is like second grade s**t there.

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:
49ers are doing it right. They won't overpay, that is great. They have taken care of their own, who earned their contracts.
It is a business, and it goes both ways.
The 49ers are looking to continue and improve success.
Some players understand that, and will work with the team to get what they have earned, but not hamstring the team (Bowman).
Others will take the payday with little chance of team success (Goldson & Bucs).

batta bing

Yeah we're full alright! Full of MECO!

lol That was horrible.... Really it's bad to be cheap and say this is what were going to pay and build through the draft.... FING JOKE, Ask dan snyder how overpaying for freeagents and not building through the draft works out...

is this a grant cohn article? sounds like his brand of douchebaggery. baalke has this team running on all cylinders, primed for another run. anyone who doesnt wanna do business with us can keep their ass on s**tty teams that over pay for people and stay s**tty. i actually like that baalke lets players go every year so we can get more compensatory picks. thats a genius technique. especially in a defensive back heavy draft like this year we can get a starting safety and cb in the first few rounds i think. goldson couldnt really cover anyway