Baalke and Kelly Fired..

[5_Golden_Rings]

From who? 49ers fans have hated Baalke since Harbaugh. He's been known as Baalknee since 2012.

Nope, not having it. This forum was awash with 9ers fans during the Harbaugh tenure, claiming Baalke was a superior GM to Schneider and the franchise was set for years, based on his drafts. Almost every week another one would appear reiterating the same rose-tinted party line. Got sick of seeing it.

You may question its occurrence as those posters are nowhere to be found now.

I had a long discussion with an uber driver in San Francisco in October. He was an avid 49ers fan and when I tried to point out to him that the 9ers simply lacked talent and that their owner and GM were the core problem, he disagreed vigorously. He pointed out, correctly, that Jim Harbaugh had won with the talent that Baalke provided.

He didn't get it when I pointed out to him that the only reason the 9ers won was because of Harbaugh, not because of any bountiful talent that Baalke provided. There were many 9ers fans who have only soured on Baalke over the course of this season, when they should've known a long time ago that the Baalke/York show was a dumpster fire that Harbaugh had been covering for.

He must have been a bandwagon jumper, as by NOW any real 49er fan knows two things:

(1) The roster Harbaugh won with was built by Scot McCloughan (and even Mike Nolan to a degree).
(2) By 2016 most of the pieces Scot put there were long gone, so the argument that Harbaugh won with the same roster is idiotic.

My guess is you chanced upon a bandwagon fan who joined in 2011.



Don't buy the bolded completely. Baalke made some great picks and free agent signings early in his tenure and I still love the way he manipulated the draft in terms of moving around and acquiring picks...

...but he struck out ALOT in the past few years. He drafted quite a few good players that can fill out a roster, but doesn't look like he took ANY great players after 2011.

There is some talent in SF still. Young guys with upside...but it was time to move on. He had his chance and it was time to clean house.

Such as? You mean Iupati and Davis? Oh snap, they were already on the McCloughan's board. Justin Smith? Nope, that was mostly Mike Nolan, who fellated him on a helicopter.

I'll give you Carlos Rogers and Donte Whitner. And Aldumb Smith, who had great talent. Maybe a few others.



But none of those makes up for even the single 2012 draft, let alone everything since.