Your Worst Niner Draft Pick Of All Time

1. The earliest first round pick that was a bust.
2. The next to earliest first round pick that was a pick.

and so on.

I was certainly one who thought Kwame was a great pick back then. He was touted as the best OL around, a future star and maybe HOF sort of guy. I thought the same way about some of the others. Lots of these guts who are now on our s**t list were once popular and acclaimed choices.

It is interesting that physical marvels who dominated at every level, often in multiple sports, all of their lives, who are legends in their communities and schools, who are thought of highly by their old coaches and by the NFL experts so often turn out to be totally over their heads and look so awful when they play.

Such short memories people have! It has to be Druckenmiller, because he was the signature move of the Dwight Clark era - the move that ultimately ended the dynasty! If the Harbaugh/Baalke era collapses starting this year, then maybe AJ will be part of the problem. But as it is, he's simply a whiff - something that happens about every three or four years.

Originally posted by highway49:

Originally posted by wailers15:

Israel Ifeanyi

Agreed...100 %...... and wasn't he a 1 rounder also?

2nd round with a whopping 3 game NFL career lol

Originally posted by jimrat:

Originally posted by highway49:

Originally posted by wailers15:
Israel Ifeanyi

Agreed...100 %...... and wasn't he a 1 rounder also?

2nd round with a whopping 3 game NFL career lol

Copy that..thanks

Jenkins only leads this poll because most of the people around here are young and/or have short memories. I still say taking Geo Caramazi instead of Tom Brady has got to be some kind of all-time record for blowing it. And then, there's Jim Druckenmiller. At the time, Walsh even ridiculed the Niners for taking Druck saying something like "being able to drag weights or heavy lift isn't what I look for in a QB." Walsh wanted them to take Jake Plummer who would have been a lot better.

Originally posted by bret:
Such short memories people have! It has to be Druckenmiller, because he was the signature move of the Dwight Clark era - the move that ultimately ended the dynasty! If the Harbaugh/Baalke era collapses starting this year, then maybe AJ will be part of the problem. But as it is, he's simply a whiff - something that happens about every three or four years.

Totally agree. That year they could have had Jake Plummer, Tiki Barber, Sam Madison or Corey Dillon at that spot. Hell, it wouldn't have even been tough to trade up 10 spots and take Tony Gonzolez. It wasn't too long after that that Dwight Clark had moved on to Cleveland if I remember correctly.

I think the coaching staff is trying to find a decent WR, I look at it like had it not been for Crabtree's injury, we would have had one of the best WR corps in the league. And we still can have that, I think they are trying to turn over every stone to find the answer, without adding a head case to the team. My advice for the 49ers organization is to keep plugging away, it will happen. Every coach had their share of bad selections, I still remember Ranoldo Nieamia (please forgive spelling), although not as bad as Jenkins and was not drafted, he couldn't catch the ball in traffic. I give credit to Walsh though for at least exploring him as a possibility, its just part of the game, I think for Harbaugh to have brought us to the SuperBowl in 2 years, especially with today's NFL salary cap era is very impressive.

Originally posted by ninerdemonsjotoplasm:
I based my picks off of this criteria:
- Total production for 49ers
- Who we could've drafted
- Damage to team development/fxn

So, with that criteria, McGrew/Shell/Mays/DeLong/Balmer/Rumph/Jenkins/Hall were bad picks, but were reasonable either by contribution (still helped team win games), lack of talent at the spot chosen (just b/c some 6th/7th rounder became HOFer doesn't mean the draft pick at the time was incorrect), and/or didn't damage 49ers success (didn't interfere with draft/FA strategy).


With that, here's my Top 5:

5. Jim Drunkenmiller
- Not only did he suck enough to barely be the starter on an XFL team, but we lost out on Jake Plummer, who, under Mariucci and Walsh's occasional help, could've been our 3rd straight superstar QB.

4. Kwame Harris
- Yes, he started @ LT/RT and will become a HOF for most holding penalties of all time, but we missed out on numerous OL talent until Staley. Also, lost out on Larry Johnson, Nnadmi, Stinchcomb, Boldin, and Tillman.

3. Steve Spurrier
- Talk about a draft bust, didn't produce for us, but we lost out on Floyd Little, Gene Upshaw, and Alan Page. If only he started coaching earlier...

2. JJ Stokes
- Now, StoneHands did produce numbers, but the VAST loss of talent we lost at obtaining hurt even more. Missed out on Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Ty Law, and Hugh Douglas in 1995, then lost out w/Marvin Harrison, Ray Lewis, Lawyer Milloy, and Mike Alstott.

1. Rashaun Woods
- Probably our worst draft pick EVER! No production, set us back for years losing out on Vince Wilfork (switching to 3-4 that year), Steven Jackson (Kevan Barlow..enough said), and Chris Gamble. This pick set us back through 2 head coaches and numerous OCs.

Using your criteria, I'd put Alex Smith as number 1. All of the aforementioned did little to nothing to contribute, but they did no harm either. Alex not only served as a stalemate on the roster (until JH came along), he showed no signs of improvement until he was surrounded by an elite cast of players, not to mention an offensive playbook simplified to his liking. We couldve easily drafted Rodgers instead, and yea yea blah blah he sat behind Favre, McCarthy is an offensive genius, he had all probowl offensive players, etc. But facts are facts and Rodgers is a SB winning MVP, and Alex is far from it.