Draft summary

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Rotoworld draft grade only A draft grade in the NFC (people HAVE to include the jimmy trade)


1. (9) Notre Dame OT Mike McGlinchey
2. (44) Washington WR Dante Pettis
3. (70) BYU OLB Fred Warner
3. (95) Southern Miss S Tarvarius Moore
4. (128) NC State DE Kentavius Street
5. (142) Kansas State CB D.J. Reed
6. (184) Florida S Marcell Harris
7. (223) Temple DT Jullian Taylor
7. (240) Middle Tennessee WR Richie James

Overview: Roquan Smith would have been a preferred selection at No. 8 overall, but the Bears weren't going to let him slip, and McGlinchey filled a need when the Niners dealt RT Trent Brown to New England. Coach Kyle Shanahan clearly fell in love with Pettis; the 49ers traded up from 59 to 44 to land him. Pettis profiles as a slot-flanker receiver and was one of the top return men in this draft. Warner has a chance to fill the K.J. Wright role in DC Robert Saleh's Seahawks-style defense, and Moore is a superb athlete with true centerfield safety skills. Street and Harris came at injury discounts. Reed is a slot corner only with kickoff-return value. Among draft-eligible defensive tackles, only Taven Bryan logged better SPARQ results than Taylor. As the 49ers acquired Jimmy Garoppolo for the 43rd overall pick, he must be included in this haul and provides a significant boost to San Francisco's draft grade.

Grade: A

Wow. The only A grade.

The more I look at this draft the more I like it. They drafted solid locker room leaders, athletes and built some serious competition which will make this team better.

We didn't find an edge rusher but this was an extremely weak draft class and next year is completely loaded.

i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

Originally posted by pdizo916:
i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

Stop talking in absolutes. You think Lynch bombed. Cool. A bit incredulous but that's to be expected. Not a single expert thinks the draft was a bomb. Some aren't huge fans but nobody who is a true expert thinks it's a bomb.

Originally posted by pdizo916:

i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

Step back from the ledge man

Go look at what the experts are saying about this draft.

Originally posted by pdizo916:

i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

Did you see who Pitt drafted in the 1st? Terrell Edmunds Dude? That was the biggest reach in the 1st rd by far.

It's incredibly dumb to call a draft a bomb before we even see what these guys can do in this scheme

Originally posted by pdizo916:

i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

So a Steelers fan liked the draft by the Steelers? Shocking.

Their selection of Edmunds was one of the worst in the first round.

However draft grades after the draft are pointless. Draft grades should be done 5 years post draft.

Originally posted by DaBum:

Stop talking in absolutes. You think Lynch bombed. Cool. A bit incredulous but that's to be expected. Not a single expert thinks the draft was a bomb. Some aren't huge fans but nobody who is a true expert thinks it's a bomb.

We had three gaping needs. Starting material in the defensive backfield quality replacement for boneheads and Edge rusher. Those three needs are Head and Shoulders above everything else. Instead we took a couple of high-round offensive picks and a bunch of ligament jobs. Seriously how do you think anyone could say this was a good draft.

Originally posted by DaBum:

Originally posted by pdizo916:
i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

Stop talking in absolutes. You think Lynch bombed. Cool. A bit incredulous but that's to be expected. Not a single expert thinks the draft was a bomb. Some aren't huge fans but nobody who is a true expert thinks it's a bomb.

Originally posted by SteveYoung:
Step back from the ledge man

Go look at what the experts are saying about this draft.

Originally posted by NYniner85:
Did you see who Pitt drafted in the 1st? Terrell Edmunds Dude? That was the biggest reach in the 1st rd by far.

It's incredibly dumb to call a draft a bomb before we even see what these guys can do in this scheme

Homers gonna Homer ... how dare anyone question the FO.

My only issue with this draft is we didn't address what I thought were our two biggest needs. Pass rush and guard.

Obviously the team felt the guys available weren't worth it so I'll trust them until the results show otherwise.

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by pdizo916:

i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

Did you see who Pitt drafted in the 1st? Terrell Edmunds Dude? That was the biggest reach in the 1st rd by far.

It's incredibly dumb to call a draft a bomb before we even see what these guys can do in this scheme

The thing is that some of the FO fanboys will be ready to make all kinds of excuses if these players actually bust (just like they have done it with Solomon Thomas).

Here's a sample:

'This position takes at least three year to develop'

'The CS has yet to find the best position for him'

'The transition from X to Y is very difficult'

'He missed OTAs/rookie camp/the first two days of training camp'

'He needs to put on some weight before he's ready to go'

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:

We had three gaping needs. Starting material in the defensive backfield quality replacement for boneheads and Edge rusher. Those three needs are Head and Shoulders above everything else. Instead we took a couple of high-round offensive picks and a bunch of ligament jobs. Seriously how do you think anyone could say this was a good draft.

They added talented players or guys who can be developed. The results will speak for themselves. It's too early to say it was great or it was awful.

On paper we've revamped our special teams which can be huge and added a lot of competition in the secondary. I have concerns at guard and edge rushers but we'll see if they're valid or not.

Pretending I know more than the coaches would be super arrogant.

Originally posted by NYniner85:
Rotoworld draft grade only A draft grade in the NFC (people HAVE to include the jimmy trade)

1. (9) Notre Dame OT Mike McGlinchey
2. (44) Washington WR Dante Pettis
3. (70) BYU OLB Fred Warner
3. (95) Southern Miss S Tarvarius Moore
4. (128) NC State DE Kentavius Street
5. (142) Kansas State CB D.J. Reed
6. (184) Florida S Marcell Harris
7. (223) Temple DT Jullian Taylor
7. (240) Middle Tennessee WR Richie James

Overview: Roquan Smith would have been a preferred selection at No. 8 overall, but the Bears weren't going to let him slip, and McGlinchey filled a need when the Niners dealt RT Trent Brown to New England. Coach Kyle Shanahan clearly fell in love with Pettis; the 49ers traded up from 59 to 44 to land him. Pettis profiles as a slot-flanker receiver and was one of the top return men in this draft. Warner has a chance to fill the K.J. Wright role in DC Robert Saleh's Seahawks-style defense, and Moore is a superb athlete with true centerfield safety skills. Street and Harris came at injury discounts. Reed is a slot corner only with kickoff-return value. Among draft-eligible defensive tackles, only Taven Bryan logged better SPARQ results than Taylor. As the 49ers acquired Jimmy Garoppolo for the 43rd overall pick, he must be included in this haul and provides a significant boost to San Francisco's draft grade.

Grade: A

Let's be honest, any fan that would have mock'd these picks prior to the draft, we would have and that fan would have been absolutely thrown to the wolves (triggered by the injury picks). It's just not a great draft any way you slice it. Even as a player, I can't see anyone feeling too pumped up about this draft class. For instance, I can't picture Sherman saying, "Oh snap...going up against St. Brown or Tate is going to be epic. Iron sharpens iron!" I saw more people/players fired up about our final pick, Richie James than any of our other draft picks.

We went into a draft that was very deep in quality scheme-fit interior OL and SAM/ER and didn't get one single upgrade. That's bad. Instead, we chose to go 3-deep at the slot WR, CB, S, MIKE, DE/DL, etc. It felt like the position targets were very redundant where we had bigger holes elsewhere. Thinking no ER could even threaten Cassius Marsh is flat out scary.

But...

Like every year, it's all about hit rates and the average is 2.3 players per draft. Last year, given we were completely starting from scratch, virtually every draft pick plus the UDFA pool, was going to make this team and we ensured they got maximum snaps over the season to develop (lead the NFL by a country mile). I like their approach to seeing who raises their game going into year 2 and development. Clearly, it was going to be harder to upgrade the roster but that's a good thing.

In the end, despite this being a pretty meh-draft and missing out on edge and the interior OL, we still could walk away with some hits:

1. (9) Notre Dame OT Mike McGlinchey (1K snap starter) - this guys HAS to be a hit as we gave up the best pass protecting RT in the game when healthy and a good IZ blocker. MM has the make-up, no doubt to be effective in PP, IZ and OZ blocking and potentially, even move to LT some day. But he'll have big shoes to fill and he's still going to need time to fully develop in a complex system.
2. (44) Washington WR Dante Pettis (500 snap starter) - judging by the comments made by ShanaLynch, it certainly sounds like the long-term goal is to move Pettis around to create mismatches but his primary home will be in the slot where he could be dynamic at the NFL level (free release/space off the LOS). He also potentially adds a HR threat as a returner.
3. (70) BYU OLB Fred Warner (500-1K snap starter/push-starter) - perfect-scheme fit off-ball LB who excels in coverage. We'll be in nickel 67% of the time potentially so the two middle LB's have to be long and cover ground in coverage a ton. He's just that.
3. (95) Southern Miss S Tarvarius Moore (0 snap starter; ST gunner) - H/W/S project that projects to backup Colbert at FS but mostly learn outside CB from Sherman for a year or two. With 4.32 speed and a S-hitting mentality, he and Mostert could end up being the best gunner-duo in the game.
4. (128) NC State DE Kentavius Street (I.R.) - See you in 2019...maybe.
5. (142) Kansas State CB D.J. Reed (600 snap starter/push starter) - Reed has more of a chance to start over K'Wuan Williams in the slot than Moore over Sherman/Witherspoon outside. He also adds to the return game as well.
6. (184) Florida S Marcell Harris (0 snap starter; ST) - a SS to push Chancellor James who's still recovering from an ACL from last year after having a great pre season. 2 injuries make a right?
7. (223) Temple DT Jullian Taylor (0 snap starter/inactive) - depth at the 3T behind Buckner/Day
7. (240) Middle Tennessee WR Richie James (0 snap starter/inactive) - fun, explosive chess piece but unlikely to find a home at any one position where we'll be deep at RB and the slot WR spot.

Originally posted by Koldo:

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by pdizo916:

i've never seen a gm fail at a draft than lynch. He bombed this draft so damn bad. A lot of good players slipped and he selected underwhelming players. The Steelers had themselves a solid draft and my favorite selection for them was James Washington. I thought that st brown would have been perfect later in the draft but lynch didn't want him, i guess.

I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am.

Did you see who Pitt drafted in the 1st? Terrell Edmunds Dude? That was the biggest reach in the 1st rd by far.

It's incredibly dumb to call a draft a bomb before we even see what these guys can do in this scheme

The thing is that some of the FO fanboys will be ready to make all kinds of excuses if these players actually bust (just like they have done it with Solomon Thomas).

Here's a sample:

'This position takes at least three year to develop'

'The CS has yet to find the best position for him'

'The transition from X to Y is very difficult'

'He missed OTAs/rookie camp/the first two days of training camp'

'He needs to put on some weight before he's ready to go'

Solomon Thomas played one year. Calling him a bust is just dumb. Not sure why some of you guys think you know better than the coaches. The only people calling Thomas a bust at this point know nothing about football.

Originally posted by genus49:
Solomon Thomas played one year. Calling him a bust is just dumb. Not sure why some of you guys think you know better than the coaches. The only people calling Thomas a bust at this point know nothing about football.

He is what he's always been. A great interior run defender who's being asked to play the edge for now. Expecting anything more than great run defense + a few sacks a year is probably unrealistic.

I think in this offseason we have given Kyle all the pieces he needs to dial up whatever he can imagine.

Started with resigning Jimmy G, then the additions of Richburg and McKinnon. A competent center that can reach block effectively and get to the second level, and an RB that fits the scheme, runs 4.38 and can catch the ball. The addition of Johnathan Cooper and the Return of JG means three former first round picks starting for guard spots. Replacing Trent Brown with McG instantly improves our run blocking and will now force defenses to play both sides of the field on running plays. With Dante Pettis our screen game just got a whole lot deadlier, call him Mr.Yac. And of course the return of our #1 PG

I think this offense will be a very exciting one to watch.