49ers select Kaelon Black, RB, Indiana at no. 90

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
I did not scout Black so I couldn't make any commentary on his actual ability, I only hated the fact that we took another running back when we already have CMC, Jordan James, Patrick Taylor, and Guerendo. Unless he leapfrogs to be RB2, he will likely get 0 or close to 0 snaps, and I'm not OK with using a third rounder in that scenario.

After watching Black, I see a lot of positives on why they like him. I do not think he is the 5th/6th that NFL.com analysts tabbed him as. I would say he is a least a round higher, R4. A breakdown below:

Positives:
-Fast and explosive
-Pinballs off contact
-Similarly sized build to Frank Gore
-Absolutely yoked, strong AF
-Quality pass protector
-only one fumble lost in his college career

Negatives:
-Runs into his OL's back too much for my liking
-Not a proven pass catcher
-Wants to just fly as soon as he touches the ball, lacks patience
-Almost gets going so quick sometimes it's like he starts losing his feet from out from under him

Some similarities to Bayshul Tuten.

Overall, not a bad player, but still extremely hard to justify unless we know CMC is not going to be around much longer.

I think Maioco or Kawakami asked John whether he thinks Black could develop into a good pass catcher and he pretty confidently answered yes. I hope he does, otherwise - as you pointed out - CMC won't last another year with the 2025 kind of workload.

Thier other justification for picking Black was that our RB's are usually dinged and they needed the depth. FWIW.

Originally posted by Giedi:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
I did not scout Black so I couldn't make any commentary on his actual ability, I only hated the fact that we took another running back when we already have CMC, Jordan James, Patrick Taylor, and Guerendo. Unless he leapfrogs to be RB2, he will likely get 0 or close to 0 snaps, and I'm not OK with using a third rounder in that scenario.

After watching Black, I see a lot of positives on why they like him. I do not think he is the 5th/6th that NFL.com analysts tabbed him as. I would say he is a least a round higher, R4. A breakdown below:

Positives:
-Fast and explosive
-Pinballs off contact
-Similarly sized build to Frank Gore
-Absolutely yoked, strong AF
-Quality pass protector
-only one fumble lost in his college career

Negatives:
-Runs into his OL's back too much for my liking
-Not a proven pass catcher
-Wants to just fly as soon as he touches the ball, lacks patience
-Almost gets going so quick sometimes it's like he starts losing his feet from out from under him

Some similarities to Bayshul Tuten.

Overall, not a bad player, but still extremely hard to justify unless we know CMC is not going to be around much longer.

I think Maioco or Kawakami asked John whether he thinks Black could develop into a good pass catcher and he pretty confidently answered yes. I hope he does, otherwise - as you pointed out - CMC won't last another year with the 2025 kind of workload.

Thier other justification for picking Black was that our RB's are usually dinged and they needed the depth. FWIW.

SHANNY just does not know how to build a team via draft.. he sees these players and imagine how he can use him on CERTAIN plays ONLY... after that, he becomes usells for the team..

I probably would not have minded him around the 5th round, but remind me again, do we not have another RB drafted last year from Oregon?

Originally posted by RonMexico:

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by scottym:
This pick hurt some feelings. How about lets just support the team and stop pretending we all know exactly what should be done, lol.

Was the only pick I got pissy about, but got to remind myself that no one in this board, myself included, really knows s**t lol. So will just see how it plays out

Only thing I know is having 3 drafted RBs that never play behind the one we traded for might be a sign the RB scout isn't great

Originally posted by 9moon:
SHANNY just does not know how to build a team via draft.. he sees these players and imagine how he can use him on CERTAIN plays ONLY... after that, he becomes usells for the team..

I probably would not have minded him around the 5th round, but remind me again, do we not have another RB drafted last year from Oregon?

The draft is just 1/3 of the process. Don't forget trades and free agency is the other 2/3 of the talent acquisition process.

There are a lot of Shanahan coaching deciples in the NFL nowadays. They all like the players Kyle likes - to a certain extent. So one way to stay ahead of them - unfortunately for us - is to reach in the draft. All it takes is for Demeco, Lafleur, Saleh or the Kubiak's to like the same players and poach them from us. Specially if they draft ahead of us.

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by scottym:
This pick hurt some feelings. How about lets just support the team and stop pretending we all know exactly what should be done, lol.

Was the only pick I got pissy about, but got to remind myself that no one in this board, myself included, really knows s**t lol. So will just see how it plays out

I'm with you on this. The pick just makes me shake my head, I really don't get it, but I didn't know anything about him until yesterday so I can't say he's bad.

I do think he'll be another in a growing list of 3rd/4th round RB's who do close to nothing for us, but maybe he'll prove me wrong.

Originally posted by RonMexico:

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by scottym:
This pick hurt some feelings. How about lets just support the team and stop pretending we all know exactly what should be done, lol.

Was the only pick I got pissy about, but got to remind myself that no one in this board, myself included, really knows s**t lol. So will just see how it plays out

Only thing I know is having 3 drafted RBs that never play behind the one we traded for might be a sign the RB scout isn't great

I know this is crazy to say, but with all the RB pick failures, maybe we might also want to look at Bobby Turner's role in the picking of the RB's.

I feel like if they were going to use an early pick like this on a RB it should have been someone like Mike Washington. I'm not saying he's for sure going to be better than Black. He might actually be terrible… but at least then you're shooting your shot on a high ceiling rare size/speed combo with dynamic pass catching.

Or if they want a 25 year old high floor RB with 6 years of college miles on him, wait until the 5th or 6th and hope you get another Eli Mitchell.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
...

Overall, not a bad player, but still extremely hard to justify unless we know CMC is not going to be around much longer.

Thanks for the quick report

As for CMC: he is a RB, will turn 30 and is leaning towards being injury-prone.

Originally posted by 9moon:
SHANNY just does not know how to build a team via draft.. he sees these players and imagine how he can use him on CERTAIN plays ONLY... after that, he becomes usells for the team..

I probably would not have minded him around the 5th round, but remind me again, do we not have another RB drafted last year from Oregon?

End of third you usually won't get starters.

Originally posted by TheFunkyChicken:
I feel like if they were going to use an early pick like this on a RB it should have been someone like Mike Washington. I'm not saying he's for sure going to be better than Black. He might actually be terrible… but at least then you're shooting your shot on a high ceiling rare size/speed combo with dynamic pass catching.

Or if they want a 25 year old high floor RB with 6 years of college miles on him, wait until the 5th or 6th and hope you get another Eli Mitchell.

Agree with this post. Would have rather taken Washington from Arkansas to the the RB room a different dynamic. Guess we will see

I think this pick is Shanny telling everyone that he knows CMC is going to miss games or series due to injury and he is tired of not having a reliable backup who can execute Plan B of the game plan... you can get anyone to run hard, even in outside zone... but if CMC isn't available Shanny has to tilt to game plan more to the pass, which means he needs a RB who can manage pass pro well... pass pro as a RB is complicated, you have to take the free blitzing defender, its not an easy block and you have to have balls to take this guy on, wherever he comes... if there is more than one free blitzer you have to sort that out from inside out... if the blitz was a presnap stunt, or fell off just after the snap, then in a split second you have to know where your route is in that particular play... I think this is what KS sees here in Black, a guy who can come in and fit the puzzle peace when CMC goes down.

Not a proven pass catcher?

How many passes did Roger Craig catch at Nebraska? Mighta been 8.

Originally posted by riverrunzthruit:
I think this pick is Shanny telling everyone that he knows CMC is going to miss games or series due to injury and he is tired of not having a reliable backup who can execute Plan B of the game plan... you can get anyone to run hard, even in outside zone... but if CMC isn't available Shanny has to tilt to game plan more to the pass, which means he needs a RB who can manage pass pro well... pass pro as a RB is complicated, you have to take the free blitzing defender, its not an easy block and you have to have balls to take this guy on, wherever he comes... if there is more than one free blitzer you have to sort that out from inside out... if the blitz was a presnap stunt, or fell off just after the snap, then in a split second you have to know where your route is in that particular play... I think this is what KS sees here in Black, a guy who can come in and fit the puzzle peace when CMC goes down.

Literally all the other guys we drafted at RB couldn't do that…why did we draft them?

Originally posted by TheFunkyChicken:
I feel like if they were going to use an early pick like this on a RB it should have been someone like Mike Washington. I'm not saying he's for sure going to be better than Black. He might actually be terrible… but at least then you're shooting your shot on a high ceiling rare size/speed combo with dynamic pass catching.

Or if they want a 25 year old high floor RB with 6 years of college miles on him, wait until the 5th or 6th and hope you get another Eli Mitchell.

Agree, Scattebo would have been my choice a couple of years back. The way Kyle uses CMC, he needs a RB the size of Juszczyk and runs a 4.3 forty to handle 400+ snaps a year.

Kyle even used a WR as a RB. (Deebo) but he let him go. Too expensive to have both CMC and Deebo on the same team unfortunately.