Baalke's 5 year plan: Is the team on an upward trend or downward spiral?

Coach Harbaugh probably bailed on a Dr. York cocktail party that set the firing in motion. Baalke is like a Rasputin whispering in the kings ear assuring him (Dr. York) that he (Dr. York) is the greatest owner in the NFL and he will do his bidding. I purposely left Jed out because his one playing card is being a son.

Originally posted by Luckycharms:
Baalkes record as GM: 51-32. I'd say that's pretty good. After a terrible offseason that had a lot of events out of his control, I'd say he deserves atleast another 2 years.

He fired the coach that got him 44 of those wins. What do you think the record would be if we had hired Jimmy T. 4 years ago instead of Harbs? or kept Sing longer or hired a different guy like Gase?

Originally posted by MedievalMarselis:
Most GMs ask for a 5 year time frame to implement a plan for success. With a downward trend, getting outscored 107-28 the last 3 games and not getting better, has the plan failed? Baalke is lucky to get the 5 years, most don't.

In general, I think the first window already completed this past offseason. In more ways than one, they sold out for those playoff runs. Bow damaged his leg, Willy's feet were no good, Cowboy had one arm, AD's nervous system needed rest, VD/Gore aging, Crabtree banged up, and they went all in on Kaep.

My point of view is that Baalke already knew last season that the first window was over. He sees the injury reports and probably knew more about RayMac/Aldon/Brooks' adventures than is made public. Add that some guys were aging, he started the reboot.

I think the first window's plan was a success, even though we didn't win it all. We had some good talents going into that window (whether it was Baalke or McCloughan), spent a lot of money on coaches, and kept try to add pieces via draft or FA signings (some on a week-to-week basis). We didn't hit on all of those, but it was enough to make some playoff runs.


I guess the main question is whether Baalke deserves a second window. I think this is already year 1-2 of the second plan, so it's underway. To me, he has shown enough to get that second plan executed. Assuming he's had 100% control of the draft picks since 2011 (without Harbaugh interference), then it is a shame that more day 1-2 picks aren't contributing today. But overall, I think he does his homework and has still acquired good pieces:

The secondary has a lot of young pieces that have talent. There's plenty of brain farting, but this group is better than McMillian/Walker/Parker. Baalke started this movement a year early, so he came prepared.
The front seven has decent depth, so Baalke was doing his homework. The retirements (and alleged drunken incident) sapped the high-level talent, so Baalke needs to show that he can make that front seven great.
The OL is rough, but they've gotten some younger players and hired two OL coaches, presumably to coach them up faster.
The skill positions aren't half bad either, so that second wind movement is also underway.
And in an effort to evaluate if Kaep's the franchise, I think they've tried to do as much as they can to support Kaep as the starting QB. They gave him the vote of confidence. They thought they had a decent line, but AD walked and guys like Looney didn't pan out. They gave him a Bush and Smith.


For me, the make-or-breaks to Baalke's second plan will be:
1. Can he find a game manager or better QB (soon)? At the moment, Kaep isn't even dinking and dunking.
2. Can he build up the OL and front seven? This is already underway, but more talent needs to be added.

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
Cowboys have backups better then our starters.

...still lost last night against the lowly Saints...

Thanks to Baalke, we had plenty of talent last year so that the injured starters were replaced without a huge loss in quality.

Originally posted by jacklegniner:
He fired the coach that got him 44 of those wins. What do you think the record would be if we had hired Jimmy T. 4 years ago instead of Harbs? or kept Sing longer or hired a different guy like Gase?

Nobody knows it and nobody will ever know. So stop that "shoulda coulda"-bullcrap please, it is absolutely annoying and useless in any discussion. :)

and btw, it was not for JH that we were very good but for Fangio and Baalke in particular.

Lol, who voted that we're on schedule?

Originally posted by communist:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Cowboys have backups better then our starters.

...still lost last night against the lowly Saints...

Thanks to Baalke, we had plenty of talent last year so that the injured starters were replaced without a huge loss in quality.

This quality you mention...

Balkee better have a good plan