We copied the Niners, LOL!
The Niners after 10 or so years of being in the NFL wilderness and getting early draft picks finally reached critical mass with all their early draft picks. J&P have taken our favourite team and turned it around in three short years after Ruskell took just three season after 2005 to cripple it. No copying at all.
We all need to ignore these SF trolls who are easily as annoying as Rams fans were prior to 2004. There is no question the Niners are now a very good team but it has been a long road back to respectability for them.
For the Hawks it finally appears there may be a future that doesn't involve constant mediocrity. It's been fun watch JS and PC massage the roster incrementally adding depth while drafting well to add quite a few especially talented player who are now fulfilling their draft promise or surpassing it. All these small steps over a far shorter period than taken by the 9ers have lead suddenly to a quantum leap forward for yhe Hawks with the exceptional performance of RW. There are lots of others who after coming here have created this team. They are maybe not as well recognized by the national media as the guys from SF just yet, but the Hawks are now a young talented team that has solid depth. Those unrecognized as exceptional will soon get that recognition after just few more W's
The future look bright, a future championship team is being built here.