POLL: Grade The 49ers' 2013 Draft

Originally posted by KegBert:
To me many of these draft picks seem to be at that perfect intersection of need and BPA. We have filled all of our major needs this year and did it with some quality players.The Lattimore pick is the cherry on top of the sundae for me. Only time will tell but at first homer blush, this looks like a solid A-.

Originally posted by IdahoNiner:
Solid B+. Much will depend on how guys end up fitting into their roles, and if Lattimore comes back healthy etc.. Overall very happy with this draft.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
If this isn't an A draft, I don't know what is.

-Filled all of our needs with talented, productive players with plenty of upside.
-Got great value. Each pick made sense.
-Traded up and down to get the guys we wanted.
-Acquired additional picks for 2014

Great job by the front office.

Originally posted by BayArea:

... being the Super Bowl runner ups we had a pretty sweet draft. Considering our GM made the board look like his b***h and got who he wanted.

I graded the draft an A-

Originally posted by FlayvaMeister:

Originally posted by KegBert:

To me many of these draft picks seem to be at that perfect intersection of need and BPA. We have filled all of our major needs this year and did it with some quality players.The Lattimore pick is the cherry on top of the sundae for me. Only time will tell but at first homer blush, this looks like a solid A-.

Originally posted by IdahoNiner:

Solid B+. Much will depend on how guys end up fitting into their roles, and if Lattimore comes back healthy etc.. Overall very happy with this draft.

Originally posted by SofaKing:

If this isn't an A draft, I don't know what is.

-Filled all of our needs with talented, productive players with plenty of upside.
-Got great value. Each pick made sense.
-Traded up and down to get the guys we wanted.
-Acquired additional picks for 2014

Great job by the front office.

Originally posted by BayArea:

... being the Super Bowl runner ups we had a pretty sweet draft. Considering our GM made the board look like his b***h and got who he wanted.

I graded the draft an A-

A for me! Great draft filled needs and depth. I'm excited for the season to to start!

Seems like folks are forgetting about Boldin & McCoy in this analysis as well. We got Boldin in exchange for a 6th Round pick, and McCoy by sliding down a few spots from the late 5th to early 6th, + a 7th Rounder.

-Anquan Boldin
-Eric Reid
-Tank Carradine
-Marcus Lattimore
-Quinton Patton
-Vance McDonald
-Colt McCoy
-Corey Lemonier
-2014 3rd Rounder
-Quinton Dial
-Nick Moody
-Marcus Cooper
-BJ Daniels
-Carter Bykowski

That's our actual yield from the 2013 Draft.

Originally posted by socalfan21:
I only said B because I want to see Tank's knee fully healthy. If everyone returns to form in this draft then hell yes it's an A, A- but for now I gave it a B.

I gave it a B+ for the same reasons listed above, along with the unknown return of Lattimore. If Tank and Lattimore do return to form this draft is an easy A. I think Lemonier could be the X Factor. His game film looks like a mirror image of Aldon (tall, lanky but also bull rush powerful), and we could have an Aldon like pass rusher coming from both sides. Lots of funny word play on the horizon from the 9er beat writers ... Lemon squeeze, life gives you lemons make menonade, etc. I also like the McDonald draft. If he can just prove that he can catch the ball consistantly I see Gronkowski potential. A defensive mismatch of epic proportions.

I had a few players I really wanted to see on the Niners and we got all of them, so I consider this an A draft easily. Great job Trent.

A great job 9ers !

Originally posted by SofaKing:
If this isn't an A draft, I don't know what is.

-Filled all of our needs with talented, productive players with plenty of upside.
-Got great value. Each pick made sense.
-Traded up and down to get the guys we wanted.
-Acquired additional picks for 2014


Great job by the front office.

Agree above - working from position #31 - but with a lot of picks, I think they landed a group of talent that makes sense. Was a little bummed we didn't add a plugger NT with a late rounder (which is where the value is for a 33% of downs or less player). But otherwise great.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22153086/2013-nfl-draft-winners-and-losers-rookie-gms-do-well

Hate Prisco, He seems to always be a Niner hater but he actually had to choke down and say we had a good draft.

Originally posted by Bluesbro:
I gave it a B+ for the same reasons listed above, along with the unknown return of Lattimore. If Tank and Lattimore do return to form this draft is an easy A. I think Lemonier could be the X Factor. His game film looks like a mirror image of Aldon (tall, lanky but also bull rush powerful), and we could have an Aldon like pass rusher coming from both sides. Lots of funny word play on the horizon from the 9er beat writers ... Lemon squeeze, life gives you lemons make menonade, etc. I also like the McDonald draft. If he can just prove that he can catch the ball consistantly I see Gronkowski potential. A defensive mismatch of epic proportions.

Hard to compare anyone to Gronk - 6'7" - soft hands - smooth speed for a guy that huge. Would love to find one!

Originally posted by AmpLee:

One thing that I love about our team is how we put a premium on drafting intelligent, positive-minded leaders. Sure we may take a chance on a guy with a minor character flaw, but we aren't drafting some of these knuckleheads that Seattle, AZ, and STL are.

My grade is a B+. I would've liked to see them trade more picks back to 2014, or bundle them up for fewer, higher picks in the first 3 rounds. Maybe they couldn't find trading partners; maybe this is exactly what they wanted.

I really like Reid and Patton. Give those two picks an "A." McDonald and Lemonier look like solid additions. Carradine is an "incomplete" to me. We'll see how he pans out over the next couple years, but the potential is sky-high. I do like the fact that the 49ers leveraged their position as a deep and talented team to take a guy that others avoided. They can afford to bring him along slowly.

I also like what they're doing with Lattimore. They'll stash him on the NFI list so he doesn't count against the 53 and he's not exposed to other teams on the waiver wire/practice squad. Clever way of stockpiling players for the future. (Exactly what they did with Jewel Hampton.)

Overall, I like the investment in the front 7. I like the commitment to creating competition. But I wish they'd made fewer than 11 picks and feel that some of these guys will end up on other teams. Combined with FA, they've patched the holes, increased depth and competition, and brought in young blood for the future.

I don't grade just this draft an A but this whole friggin off season an A. We picked up players I only imagine getting and didn't think it was possible.

Boldin for a 6th round pick.
Trading up for Eric Reid was a steal cause it only cost a 3rd round pick.
Quinton Patton a mutha fuggin steal!!!
Gotta good feeling about Marcus Lattimore, sure I admit I didn't want him at first but thought we did need a RB. But after really thinking about Lattimore, he was a damn good pick.


Never felt this good about a draft since the 1994 draft with Bryant Young and Lee Woodall.

I gave us a B but it could bump up to an A pending Lattimore of course.

Yes we did pickup a 3rd in next years draft but this was the year to kill it with all the high draft picks we had accumulated. For whatever reason, I'm not super happy with this draft and that's after I said we would take the Safety and Dline with our first 2 picks.

The offseason as a whole is also a B for me. We give up a pro bowler FS and get a guy with potential = downgrade for this season.
Let our backup TE go, who was a killer in the Wham department and overall great backup TE and got another good prospect but that will be a downgrade for this year.
Got a couple of Dline in the draft who have potential as well and I'd expect that to be a wash for this year.
Big upgrade is in the wr department. Only loss is Moss and Ginn and we get Boldin and Patten = big upgrade this year!
Lattimore could be huge for us in a year if he comes back healthy and can stay that way. Would be perfect timing with Frank getting up there in age and with mileage!

So, for me its basically a wash, could be better but could also be slightly off of last years team, only time will tell.

This draft is a weak b due to not being 100% focused on what cost us the super bowl. I was expecting trade ups for lots of mass and size up on the d-line, not so much edge rushers -- but real 290 lb 4-3 tackle types plus a 300 lber or two. Figured that out of 4-5 DL picks maybe 1.5 would pan out and take maybe 600 snaps in 2013. Let Willis and Bowman be carnivors again.

Yeah yeah we don't play a 4-3 but that's the physical package that we need in a league where OL bench sitters clock in at 315.

Trading up for Reid was great. Things after that were ok and interesting and maybe will produce winners but weren't focused on our 100% NEED that cost us the SB.

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:
Hey, that's a pretty good argument. It made me look again at my initital reaction and try to understand it better.

First, getting "better" up front is totally, DEFCON4 critical. Do we agree there? I think the D production in the last 8 weeks dropped dramatically due to lack of presence up front. Not just with regards to pass rush production but impact tackles as well. You know, smashmouth hits. Why? Everyone was gimpy, not just the Smiths. And, we rely on front 7 domination to support our coverage d.

Prior to the draft, the lineup we have on hand that will go into 2013 is in worse shape than they were going into 2012. JSMith, coming off major surgery/rehab. ASmith, coming off major surgery/rehab. McDonald a year older. Dorsey, history of injuries light on NT experience. Reliable backup RJF gone.

So I am thinking that all these guys will need to be spelled much more than 2012. Why not plan that the SMiths will need to play 65-80 percent of snaps? Dorsey, McDonald will only make 60% of snaps? say 700 - 850 total snaps, not 1100. SOmething like that.

I like the observation that we won't really be running an NT that much anyway, because our opponents will be much more in passing mode for 2013 due to our offensive ability.

But I think that even though there will be more situational sub of the NT than last year, the most important thing to avoid is total ineffectiveness at any DLine position due to the general beat down effect. Doesn't matter if Dorsey/Williams get in that state week 8, 10, 14, whatever. Same with the Smiths. The best antidote to that is fresh meat and we need to find the best quality we can in the draft. For every spot that we play up front.

So I thought that we would really try to maximize the quality of those individuals-- draft real three down candidates, plus add some real competition/size to the Dorsey/Williams equation.

I also get that maybe, we just didn't feel that there were any real candidates there in round 2/3, so we went with other positions where there was a better quality yield.

Maybe. I just think that 2 rookies adding up to say 600 - 700 snaps on any of the three positions up front would make a real difference to our dinged guys. I think that we should have made it a huge priority to get those two guys. I feel like we came away with maybe 1 guy, depending. The others could work out too, but it's farther out there.

I am not even thinking here about #2 TE. Not a factor in any way to winning a super bowl. We have Vernon. If we can't go with that, shame on us.

Plus let me turn around the we're-in-the-lead argument. Isn't that the time to give Justin a break for one or two series? When we are up 3 scores late in second quarter? Maybe we can put in someone for a series and maintain. That might just keep JS/AS playing 95% into February. But, of course, the person you put in has to acquit themselves somewhat.

I am pretty happy with Reid. Carradine might help out. Other guys can work out too. We'll see. I am still thinking a weak B, for not 100% addressing what cost us the super bowl.

I agree that the Dline was a priority - and that's why I wanted Tank Carridine. I'd have been happy with him in the first but I digress.

I agree also that the key Dline players: RMac and Justin Smith need to be spelled during the season. Aldon wore down because he got a few injuries and moreover this was his first NFL season playing all snaps in all games.

I think the drafing of Tank, Dial for the Dline and Lemonier help build some depth and should encourage Fangio to use some form of rotation this year. I have hopes that picking up Okoye helps down the line too. Dorsey and Williams will adequately replace Soap and RJF.

Personally I would like to see the 49ers plan to shut down Justin Smith completely after the game vs Tenn so that he doesn't travel to London to play against the Jags and can have two solid weeks off in the middle of the season to recharge. I say this despite being a 49er fan in England that has tickets to that game. I want to see a fully fit Justin Smith in the playoffs......let Tank play vs Jacksonville.