Why 49ers drafted Buckner....

[Uncle Si]

Wait a minute... Going to high volume passing offenses result in receivers and tight ends having better stats and making pro bowls? Low hanging fruit anyone?

Or just the simple fact that he ignores Baldwin and Kearse (or Rawls?) simply because they haven't left to become better or came from another team where they were Pro Bowlers. They were UDFAs... I feel like they've developed quite nicely.

 

[Popeyejones]

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

If you exclude his rookie year in which he wasn't a starter, last year Jimmy Graham was on pace to put up career lows in receptions, yards, yards per game, and touchdowns (by a wide margin).

C'mon now.

As was the case with Harvin before him, last year Hawks fans were complaining about the lack of integration of Jimmy Graham into the offense.

At the time of that trade I got a lot of crap here for saying that although I understood the logic of it, I wondered if the Hawks might have been mistakenly paying for the offense Graham was in rather than Graham himself (a mid-30s journeymen like Ben Watson put up Graham-like numbers in that offense last year), and might be trying to slot a pretty good square peg into a round hole (what would Graham's inability to block do to the run game?).

Maybe he gets healthy and it turns it back around, but you're wolfing if you think the Graham story for the Hawks so far has been a successful one.

 

[Laloosh]

^^ Baldwin's trajectory going into week 10 was pretty bleak as well. Then he had the best season of his career.

As much as I want to extend an olive branch to you on this, popeye, it's a bullshit conclusion to come to (that players don't get better here).

Graham's targets were down but I don't believe for a second that you think he wouldn't have benefited greatly from the offensive shift that began in week 11 (according to John Schneider) and resulted in Baldwin having as many receiving TDs as any other receiver in football last season.

Plenty to pick on with regard to Harvin but there's no telling how much of that was him being a tool and how much of it was Bevell or Carroll being stubborn about how he'd be used. Don't care, in the past but the argument made by Ninester is absurd.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

If you exclude his rookie year in which he wasn't a starter, last year Jimmy Graham was on pace to put up career lows in receptions, yards, yards per game, and touchdowns (by a wide margin).

C'mon now.

As was the case with Harvin before him, last year Hawks fans were complaining about the lack of integration of Jimmy Graham into the offense.

At the time of that trade I got a lot of crap here for saying that although I understood the logic of it, I wondered if the Hawks might have been mistakenly paying for the offense Graham was in rather than Graham himself (a mid-30s journeymen like Ben Watson put up Graham-like numbers in that offense last year), and might be trying to slot a pretty good square peg into a round hole (what would Graham's inability to block do to the run game?).

Maybe he gets healthy and it turns it back around, but you're wolfing if you think the Graham story for the Hawks so far has been a successful one.

You're arguing two different points - whether the Graham acquisition has been successful or not and also whether or not Graham "became worse" when coming here.

I argue that with his injury it's impossible to say whether or not he "became worse" because whether you choose to believe it or not, he was coming on for the team when his injury occurred. I don't expect you to acknowledge that but understand that you're biased against that reality based on your own admission that you expected it to be a failure when the trade occurred.

Football is full of injuries, so the fact that he was seriously injured and it is potentially career threatening obviously affects the outcome as to whether or not that will have been a successful move for the front office. Unfortunately injuries have derailed a lot of really great career trajectories. It's part of the sport.

Graham, like the other players mentioned, did not suddenly start sucking once coming here. It's a lazy narrative that was perpetuated last year by the media and luckily for you because of his injury you can continue to push it. I don't agree, at all.

I'm not saying acquiring Graham will end up worth what we gave up, if he never recovers obviously in hindsight it was a bad move. Maybe even if he does recover, in hindsight it will still have been a bad move. However, considering we needed a tall redzone receiver and that's what they got, I understand what the FO was doing. "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" and all that. To correlate these issues with your contention of Seattle's lack of success with the utilization or development of players is a flawed argument.

 

[RichNhansom]

Actually I was just trolling the 9er fans. I really think the reason Crabtree, Walker and Ginn improved is because their nee QB wasn't throwing everything 100 miles an hour whether it needed to be or not.

But some great rebuttle in here.

 

[rideaducati]

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

If you exclude his rookie year in which he wasn't a starter, last year Jimmy Graham was on pace to put up career lows in receptions, yards, yards per game, and touchdowns (by a wide margin).

C'mon now.

As was the case with Harvin before him, last year Hawks fans were complaining about the lack of integration of Jimmy Graham into the offense.

At the time of that trade I got a lot of crap here for saying that although I understood the logic of it, I wondered if the Hawks might have been mistakenly paying for the offense Graham was in rather than Graham himself (a mid-30s journeymen like Ben Watson put up Graham-like numbers in that offense last year), and might be trying to slot a pretty good square peg into a round hole (what would Graham's inability to block do to the run game?).

Maybe he gets healthy and it turns it back around, but you're wolfing if you think the Graham story for the Hawks so far has been a successful one.

I'm sure you perform your very best at a new job immediately. Most people don't though. Most NFL players take at least a full season to acclimate to their new surroundings before playing well. Immediate gratification rarely happens. Niner fans...

 

[Marvin49]

Golden Tate became a pro bowler after leaving Seattle.

You'd never know that Jimmy Graham kept DC's up at night once upon a time, if you only saw him last year.

Percy Harvin has NFL tape worthy of some team giving up what the Hawks gave up for him. Unfortunately he went to the wrong team.

Defensive players get better joining Seattle, offensive guys don't. Marshawn Lynch is the only offensive player I can think of that joined the Hawks and became a better player.

49ers for what it's worth maximize defensive players pretty well. Not every single damn one of them, but they've done a decent job, better than most teams. Justin Smith and Ahmad Brooks left Cincinnati and became real forces.

Now on offense you might have a point, and many Niner fans have said that the team didn't develop the guys as much as we would have liked.

But would Crabtree have been a dominant WR if he went to Green Bay or New England instead? I'm not so sure. His 2012 season was pretty good, not sure if he would have done a lot better elsewhere. Hakeem Nicks looked great with the Giants up until that knee injury against the Bucs in 2012. Could Crabtree have been that type of monster?

Maybe.

But no way was Nicks going to do anything more in SF. Or Seattle.

Golden Tate was just as good in Seattle and almost everyone here assumed when he went to Detroit he would show up on the NFL's radar due to the increase in passing %. In no way did Tate suddenly blossom there after sucking in Seattle, it is just volume.

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

Harvin was an obvious mistake, but it wasn't like he has lit the league up after he left our team either. Dude was a headcase and continued to be so on the Jets and the Bills, hence his recent retirement.

All your examples are garbage and your argument is flawed.

I actually think there is a development and utilization problem in SF, which is why your team became REALLY EFFING good when Harbaugh was there (I'm counting assistant coaches as well). I feel like even right now you have a pretty good group of players, that are currently underperforming. Maybe Kelly will help with that, it remains to be seen. Coaching is really important, just look at the Rams.

Totally agree with the bolded. In fact Its one of the reasons I think Harbaugh was fired. To be clear, I'm not saying they were CORRECT in this mindset but there have been reports that upper management became a bit frustrated with players not improving as they thought they should under Harbaughs staff. Now of course that wasn't the ONLY reason, but I have heard that was A reason.

Thats the reason York said repeatedly he wanted a "teacher" before the hire of Tomsula.

Obviously, that was a total trainwreck.

As it stands right now there are quite a few young 49ers I want to see this year and see what they can contribute. I almost feel as if last year was just a throwaway and little can be made of it. They have ALOT of young players who have yet to have gotten an opportunity. This OF COURSE doesn't mean that these guys will be great...or even good. Just interesting to see how they play out. On that list:

Jimmie Ward: he's everywhere in OTAs...Outside, slot, safety. They are trying to maximize his time on the field after playing well at the end of last year.

Eli Harold: Did little as a rookie and seemed to get overpowered at time, but put on TWENTY FIVE POUNDS in the offseason. He's now nearly at 270 lbs.

Tank Carradine: The Anti-Harold. Has LOST 20+ pounds to be a situational pass rusher and OLB.

Arik Armstead: Didn't get on the field early but when he did late he was graded by PFF as one of the best 3-4 DEs in the league.

Jaquaski Tarrt: Didn't play a ton because safety is one of Niners deepest positions, but hits like a truck and looked pretty good at times.

Brandon Thomas: No idea why, but he couldn't sniff the field under Tomsula. Now is playing with the first team in OTAs, tho Joshua Garnett plays that spot and can't take part because Stanford is on quarters system.

DeAndre Smelter: WR, 6'2", 220 lbs, 11" (not a misprint) hands. Had an ACL in collegeso is just getting his first chances now.


I could really go on and on about guys I want to see this year. I almost feel like there is a 20 man rookie class. LOL. All of these guys could totally suck. I don't want to sell this as a new generation of sleeper superstars or something, but I do think there is more talent there than people think.

What I don't know is if any of these coaches can get it out of them even if it IS there. We'll see.

 

[rideaducati]

Golden Tate became a pro bowler after leaving Seattle.

You'd never know that Jimmy Graham kept DC's up at night once upon a time, if you only saw him last year.

Percy Harvin has NFL tape worthy of some team giving up what the Hawks gave up for him. Unfortunately he went to the wrong team.

Defensive players get better joining Seattle, offensive guys don't. Marshawn Lynch is the only offensive player I can think of that joined the Hawks and became a better player.

49ers for what it's worth maximize defensive players pretty well. Not every single damn one of them, but they've done a decent job, better than most teams. Justin Smith and Ahmad Brooks left Cincinnati and became real forces.

Now on offense you might have a point, and many Niner fans have said that the team didn't develop the guys as much as we would have liked.

But would Crabtree have been a dominant WR if he went to Green Bay or New England instead? I'm not so sure. His 2012 season was pretty good, not sure if he would have done a lot better elsewhere. Hakeem Nicks looked great with the Giants up until that knee injury against the Bucs in 2012. Could Crabtree have been that type of monster?

Maybe.

But no way was Nicks going to do anything more in SF. Or Seattle.

Golden Tate was just as good in Seattle and almost everyone here assumed when he went to Detroit he would show up on the NFL's radar due to the increase in passing %. In no way did Tate suddenly blossom there after sucking in Seattle, it is just volume.

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

Harvin was an obvious mistake, but it wasn't like he has lit the league up after he left our team either. Dude was a headcase and continued to be so on the Jets and the Bills, hence his recent retirement.

All your examples are garbage and your argument is flawed.

I actually think there is a development and utilization problem in SF, which is why your team became REALLY EFFING good when Harbaugh was there (I'm counting assistant coaches as well). I feel like even right now you have a pretty good group of players, that are currently underperforming. Maybe Kelly will help with that, it remains to be seen. Coaching is really important, just look at the Rams.

Totally agree with the bolded. In fact Its one of the reasons I think Harbaugh was fired. To be clear, I'm not saying they were CORRECT in this mindset but there have been reports that upper management became a bit frustrated with players not improving as they thought they should under Harbaughs staff. Now of course that wasn't the ONLY reason, but I have heard that was A reason.

Thats the reason York said repeatedly he wanted a "teacher" before the hire of Tomsula.

Obviously, that was a total trainwreck.

As it stands right now there are quite a few young 49ers I want to see this year and see what they can contribute. I almost feel as if last year was just a throwaway and little can be made of it. They have ALOT of young players who have yet to have gotten an opportunity. This OF COURSE doesn't mean that these guys will be great...or even good. Just interesting to see how they play out. On that list:

Jimmie Ward: he's everywhere in OTAs...Outside, slot, safety. They are trying to maximize his time on the field after playing well at the end of last year.

Eli Harold: Did little as a rookie and seemed to get overpowered at time, but put on TWENTY FIVE POUNDS in the offseason. He's now nearly at 270 lbs.

Tank Carradine: The Anti-Harold. Has LOST 20+ pounds to be a situational pass rusher and OLB.

Arik Armstead: Didn't get on the field early but when he did late he was graded by PFF as one of the best 3-4 DEs in the league.

Jaquaski Tarrt: Didn't play a ton because safety is one of Niners deepest positions, but hits like a truck and looked pretty good at times.

Brandon Thomas: No idea why, but he couldn't sniff the field under Tomsula. Now is playing with the first team in OTAs, tho Joshua Garnett plays that spot and can't take part because Stanford is on quarters system.

DeAndre Smelter: WR, 6'2", 220 lbs, 11" (not a misprint) hands. Had an ACL in collegeso is just getting his first chances now.


I could really go on and on about guys I want to see this year. I almost feel like there is a 20 man rookie class. LOL. All of these guys could totally suck. I don't want to sell this as a new generation of sleeper superstars or something, but I do think there is more talent there than people think.

What I don't know is if any of these coaches can get it out of them even if it IS there. We'll see.

I think Harbaugh played the veterans way too much and never got the young players game snaps. Those young players were thrown into starting roles once Harbaugh and the vets went away without having any game experience, so the team suffered. I saw this coming and I mentioned that here while Harbaugh was still coaching because I knew it would become a problem for the niners. Niner fans didn't believe me. See? I told you so.

As far as the young players go, I have next to zero faith in Baalke being able to GM his way out of a wet paper bag, so I doubt they'll be very good players. Especially the WR. Who is going to be throwing him the ball?

 

[ivotuk]

So, they drafted a defensive lineman to get after the QB.

This is the kind of first rate, innovative thinking we've come to expect from the 49ers!

 

[Marvin49]

Golden Tate became a pro bowler after leaving Seattle.

You'd never know that Jimmy Graham kept DC's up at night once upon a time, if you only saw him last year.

Percy Harvin has NFL tape worthy of some team giving up what the Hawks gave up for him. Unfortunately he went to the wrong team.

Defensive players get better joining Seattle, offensive guys don't. Marshawn Lynch is the only offensive player I can think of that joined the Hawks and became a better player.

49ers for what it's worth maximize defensive players pretty well. Not every single damn one of them, but they've done a decent job, better than most teams. Justin Smith and Ahmad Brooks left Cincinnati and became real forces.

Now on offense you might have a point, and many Niner fans have said that the team didn't develop the guys as much as we would have liked.

But would Crabtree have been a dominant WR if he went to Green Bay or New England instead? I'm not so sure. His 2012 season was pretty good, not sure if he would have done a lot better elsewhere. Hakeem Nicks looked great with the Giants up until that knee injury against the Bucs in 2012. Could Crabtree have been that type of monster?

Maybe.

But no way was Nicks going to do anything more in SF. Or Seattle.

Golden Tate was just as good in Seattle and almost everyone here assumed when he went to Detroit he would show up on the NFL's radar due to the increase in passing %. In no way did Tate suddenly blossom there after sucking in Seattle, it is just volume.

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

Harvin was an obvious mistake, but it wasn't like he has lit the league up after he left our team either. Dude was a headcase and continued to be so on the Jets and the Bills, hence his recent retirement.

All your examples are garbage and your argument is flawed.

I actually think there is a development and utilization problem in SF, which is why your team became REALLY EFFING good when Harbaugh was there (I'm counting assistant coaches as well). I feel like even right now you have a pretty good group of players, that are currently underperforming. Maybe Kelly will help with that, it remains to be seen. Coaching is really important, just look at the Rams.

Totally agree with the bolded. In fact Its one of the reasons I think Harbaugh was fired. To be clear, I'm not saying they were CORRECT in this mindset but there have been reports that upper management became a bit frustrated with players not improving as they thought they should under Harbaughs staff. Now of course that wasn't the ONLY reason, but I have heard that was A reason.

Thats the reason York said repeatedly he wanted a "teacher" before the hire of Tomsula.

Obviously, that was a total trainwreck.

As it stands right now there are quite a few young 49ers I want to see this year and see what they can contribute. I almost feel as if last year was just a throwaway and little can be made of it. They have ALOT of young players who have yet to have gotten an opportunity. This OF COURSE doesn't mean that these guys will be great...or even good. Just interesting to see how they play out. On that list:

Jimmie Ward: he's everywhere in OTAs...Outside, slot, safety. They are trying to maximize his time on the field after playing well at the end of last year.

Eli Harold: Did little as a rookie and seemed to get overpowered at time, but put on TWENTY FIVE POUNDS in the offseason. He's now nearly at 270 lbs.

Tank Carradine: The Anti-Harold. Has LOST 20+ pounds to be a situational pass rusher and OLB.

Arik Armstead: Didn't get on the field early but when he did late he was graded by PFF as one of the best 3-4 DEs in the league.

Jaquaski Tarrt: Didn't play a ton because safety is one of Niners deepest positions, but hits like a truck and looked pretty good at times.

Brandon Thomas: No idea why, but he couldn't sniff the field under Tomsula. Now is playing with the first team in OTAs, tho Joshua Garnett plays that spot and can't take part because Stanford is on quarters system.

DeAndre Smelter: WR, 6'2", 220 lbs, 11" (not a misprint) hands. Had an ACL in collegeso is just getting his first chances now.


I could really go on and on about guys I want to see this year. I almost feel like there is a 20 man rookie class. LOL. All of these guys could totally suck. I don't want to sell this as a new generation of sleeper superstars or something, but I do think there is more talent there than people think.

What I don't know is if any of these coaches can get it out of them even if it IS there. We'll see.

I think Harbaugh played the veterans way too much and never got the young players game snaps. Those young players were thrown into starting roles once Harbaugh and the vets went away without having any game experience, so the team suffered. I saw this coming and I mentioned that here while Harbaugh was still coaching because I knew it would become a problem for the niners. Niner fans didn't believe me. See? I told you so.

As far as the young players go, I have next to zero faith in Baalke being able to GM his way out of a wet paper bag, so I doubt they'll be very good players. Especially the WR. Who is going to be throwing him the ball?

The point about playing older players and reduced snap counts for young players is probably a fair one. I don't think I ever argued with you that point but it's possible I'm wrong there. The vets did tho always play significant snaps.

As for "zero faith"....yeah, thats pretty much been your opinion from the beginning so no use arguing.

I don't look at it from a "Baalke drafted him, he must be good / suck really bad" mindset. Baalke doesn't really factor into my thinking. I just like quite a few of the individual players. Another example of that...really interested in seeing Trent Brown next year...their nearly 6'9" RT with over 35" arms. Dude is sneaky athletic with pretty good feet and played decent at the end of the year. Better than Peers by alot.

There are a number of guys like that on the roster. They've had so many picks over the past three years that many of them have just kinda gotten lost in the numbers and haven't gotten a shot. At WR alone: Smelter, DeAndrew White from Alabama, Dres Anderson from SDSU, Eric Rogers from the CFL, Bruce Ellington and several more to go with Torrey Smith. TE and DB are stocked up with young guys as well.

I have no idea who if anyone will emerge, but all of those guys are intriguing to me for one reason or another.

 

[hawk45]

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

If you exclude his rookie year in which he wasn't a starter, last year Jimmy Graham was on pace to put up career lows in receptions, yards, yards per game, and touchdowns (by a wide margin).

C'mon now.

As was the case with Harvin before him, last year Hawks fans were complaining about the lack of integration of Jimmy Graham into the offense.

At the time of that trade I got a lot of crap here for saying that although I understood the logic of it, I wondered if the Hawks might have been mistakenly paying for the offense Graham was in rather than Graham himself (a mid-30s journeymen like Ben Watson put up Graham-like numbers in that offense last year), and might be trying to slot a pretty good square peg into a round hole (what would Graham's inability to block do to the run game?).

Maybe he gets healthy and it turns it back around, but you're wolfing if you think the Graham story for the Hawks so far has been a successful one.

You're arguing two different points - whether the Graham acquisition has been successful or not and also whether or not Graham "became worse" when coming here.

I argue that with his injury it's impossible to say whether or not he "became worse" because whether you choose to believe it or not, he was coming on for the team when his injury occurred. I don't expect you to acknowledge that but understand that you're biased against that reality based on your own admission that you expected it to be a failure when the trade occurred.

Football is full of injuries, so the fact that he was seriously injured and it is potentially career threatening obviously affects the outcome as to whether or not that will have been a successful move for the front office. Unfortunately injuries have derailed a lot of really great career trajectories. It's part of the sport.

Graham, like the other players mentioned, did not suddenly start sucking once coming here. It's a lazy narrative that was perpetuated last year by the media and luckily for you because of his injury you can continue to push it. I don't agree, at all.

I'm not saying acquiring Graham will end up worth what we gave up, if he never recovers obviously in hindsight it was a bad move. Maybe even if he does recover, in hindsight it will still have been a bad move. However, considering we needed a tall redzone receiver and that's what they got, I understand what the FO was doing. "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" and all that. To correlate these issues with your contention of Seattle's lack of success with the utilization or development of players is a flawed argument.

Graham was having a monster game the game he got injured, yes. And yes, Wilson went on a tear after he went out, and even after Rawls went out. However I'm reluctant to conclude that Graham was destined to be a monster in all the games that followed, had he remained healthy. That's the narrative on this board.

Regardless of the reasons, our offense has struggled mightily to integrate weapons. First we have Harvin where we made him much too much of a focus and it took 3/4 of the year for our offense to recover from the warping that took place. Then we have Graham, who we all thought was just plug and play, nothing but a red zone boon, and we can't integrate him enough. In the cases of both players the offense improves when they leave. That is a fact. Graham continuing on a tear after that game is speculation.

It's not a good sign when your offense goes into a tailspin trying to integrate new toys.

I do think the *right* kind of player integrates easily. We haven't had issues with a top notch talent like Lockett. Rawls fit just fine. But the homegrown players always have. It's the ones we acquire we can't figure out what to do with, and that fits a narrative of players "coming here" and getting worse, as in coming via FA.

The Baghdad Bob GIF belongs to the Hawk fans in this thread, not the Niner fans. There is way more evidence to support Bevell figuring out a way to have Graham not fit than there is to support that he just clicked that game and would click forevermore. We all thought there was no way we'd pull out of the spread that was so successful and go back to the run, run, pass offense v Carolina but nope, we completely bucked a successful trend and went away from what was working.

 

[NINEster]

So, they drafted a defensive lineman to get after the QB.

This is the kind of first rate, innovative thinking we've come to expect from the 49ers!

By itself it doesn't make a ton of sense (3-4 DE), but looking back at 2012 draft.....JJ Watt would have been ok over Aldon Smith.

Also, if you improve the pieces on the DL, the existing OLBs will get more pressure.

BTW, as far as "piece of the puzzle" against Wilson.....it's not extreme edge pressure but strong contain and push back of the pocket that gets to #3.

Baalke has a 3 year plan just for Wilson.

Year 1: Armstead
Year 2: Buckner and moving Tank to OLB in pass rushing situations
Year 3: Best OLB edge rusher

The idea is to trap Wilson and use Bowman to make sure he cannot escape through a collapsed pocket up the middle.

 

[5_Golden_Rings]

Buckner's propensity to be average 75% of his snaps will certainly strike fear into Wilson.

That's higher than most defensive linemen even if it were true.

I see Buckner as being a bit like a rookie Frank Clark. Makes a lot of splash plays that are nice, but is a ways off from being a 10 sack guy.

He doesn't play on the outside in the first place. He's a defensive tackle (an end in a 34 scheme). That said, he DID get ten sacks last year.

It's amazing how a guy who was universally considered one of the top picks in the draft is suddenly average here once the 49ers draft him.

I find this amazing too. Like Cleveland, the niners turn "can't miss" prospects into awful players. How can they do that so consistently?

Like who?

First round picks last 10 years:

Arik Armstead: always considered developmental pick; finished very near the top in Pro Football Focus ratings for 3-4 ends

Jimmy Ward: late 1st rounder considered developmental pick since he played safety in college and would play nickleback in the pros; last season finished near the top in coverage per Pro Football Reference, including a three week span where he was rated best in the NFL.

Eric Ried: mid 1st rounder, not considered "can't miss" (some didn't even consider him the best FS in the draft): made Pro Bowl one time and has been above average since.

A.J. Jenkins: late 1st round pick and absolute bust on every team he played. Was rated by some as a 4th round prospect. Baalke raped and murdered the pooch on this one.

Aldon Smith: NOT a "can't miss pick" (the "experts" we're shocked he was drafted that high); was on record setting sack pace until his alcoholism and idiocy derailed his career.

Mike Iupati/Anthony Davis: neither a "can't miss pick" at their position, but both became Pro Bowlers.

Michael Crabtree: could be considered can't miss at pick 10, but there were a few red flags. HIS BEST YEAR WAS IN SAN FRANCISCO, NOT OAKLAND, however. He matched his career total in receptions last year, but in SF when he also had 85 receptions he had more yards. The reason for his two down seasons the previous two years are obviously injury related. It takes time to fully get back up to speed. As for why it took him until the second half of 2012 to be decent, two words: Alex Smith, the same guy who once went an entire season without throwing a TD to a wr.

Kentwan Balmer: late 1st round pick and total bust.

Patrick Willis/Joe Staley: one had a near Hall of Fame career and the other was one of the best tackles in football for five or six years.





So which "can't miss picks" did the 49ers ruin?

 

[rideaducati]

So, they drafted a defensive lineman to get after the QB.

This is the kind of first rate, innovative thinking we've come to expect from the 49ers!

By itself it doesn't make a ton of sense (3-4 DE), but looking back at 2012 draft.....JJ Watt would have been ok over Aldon Smith.

Also, if you improve the pieces on the DL, the existing OLBs will get more pressure.

BTW, as far as "piece of the puzzle" against Wilson.....it's not extreme edge pressure but strong contain and push back of the pocket that gets to #3.

Baalke has a 3 year plan just for Wilson.

Year 1: Armstead
Year 2: Buckner and moving Tank to OLB in pass rushing situations
Year 3: Best OLB edge rusher

The idea is to trap Wilson and use Bowman to make sure he cannot escape through a collapsed pocket up the middle.

Someone please insert gif of Russell making Bowman look silly right here.

 

[RichNhansom]

Jimmy Graham has been here 1 year and suffered a catastrophic injury. If you look past media narrative, you would know he was actually on pace to put up good season numbers prior to that. This example is disingenuous.

If you exclude his rookie year in which he wasn't a starter, last year Jimmy Graham was on pace to put up career lows in receptions, yards, yards per game, and touchdowns (by a wide margin).

C'mon now.

As was the case with Harvin before him, last year Hawks fans were complaining about the lack of integration of Jimmy Graham into the offense.

At the time of that trade I got a lot of crap here for saying that although I understood the logic of it, I wondered if the Hawks might have been mistakenly paying for the offense Graham was in rather than Graham himself (a mid-30s journeymen like Ben Watson put up Graham-like numbers in that offense last year), and might be trying to slot a pretty good square peg into a round hole (what would Graham's inability to block do to the run game?).

Maybe he gets healthy and it turns it back around, but you're wolfing if you think the Graham story for the Hawks so far has been a successful one.

You're arguing two different points - whether the Graham acquisition has been successful or not and also whether or not Graham "became worse" when coming here.

I argue that with his injury it's impossible to say whether or not he "became worse" because whether you choose to believe it or not, he was coming on for the team when his injury occurred. I don't expect you to acknowledge that but understand that you're biased against that reality based on your own admission that you expected it to be a failure when the trade occurred.

Football is full of injuries, so the fact that he was seriously injured and it is potentially career threatening obviously affects the outcome as to whether or not that will have been a successful move for the front office. Unfortunately injuries have derailed a lot of really great career trajectories. It's part of the sport.

Graham, like the other players mentioned, did not suddenly start sucking once coming here. It's a lazy narrative that was perpetuated last year by the media and luckily for you because of his injury you can continue to push it. I don't agree, at all.

I'm not saying acquiring Graham will end up worth what we gave up, if he never recovers obviously in hindsight it was a bad move. Maybe even if he does recover, in hindsight it will still have been a bad move. However, considering we needed a tall redzone receiver and that's what they got, I understand what the FO was doing. "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" and all that. To correlate these issues with your contention of Seattle's lack of success with the utilization or development of players is a flawed argument.

Graham was having a monster game the game he got injured, yes. And yes, Wilson went on a tear after he went out, and even after Rawls went out. However I'm reluctant to conclude that Graham was destined to be a monster in all the games that followed, had he remained healthy. That's the narrative on this board.

Regardless of the reasons, our offense has struggled mightily to integrate weapons. First we have Harvin where we made him much too much of a focus and it took 3/4 of the year for our offense to recover from the warping that took place. Then we have Graham, who we all thought was just plug and play, nothing but a red zone boon, and we can't integrate him enough. In the cases of both players the offense improves when they leave. That is a fact. Graham continuing on a tear after that game is speculation.

It's not a good sign when your offense goes into a tailspin trying to integrate new toys.

I do think the *right* kind of player integrates easily. We haven't had issues with a top notch talent like Lockett. Rawls fit just fine. But the homegrown players always have. It's the ones we acquire we can't figure out what to do with, and that fits a narrative of players "coming here" and getting worse, as in coming via FA.

The Baghdad Bob GIF belongs to the Hawk fans in this thread, not the Niner fans. There is way more evidence to support Bevell figuring out a way to have Graham not fit than there is to support that he just clicked that game and would click forevermore. We all thought there was no way we'd pull out of the spread that was so successful and go back to the run, run, pass offense v Carolina but nope, we completely bucked a successful trend and went away from what was working.

You seem to be carrying your own torch.
What were your expectations of Lockett when he arrived? What were your expectations for Graham? How do they compare at the time Graham went down? You seem to desperately want to discount the offensive philosophy change and Grahams role in it. How did Baldwins numbers look before Graham went down? Your comparison is disingenuous to support your narrative of blaming Bevell.

It's not uncommon for a player to take time to acclimate into a new offense. I think maybe your expectations are more the problem than actual production.

Harvin was a huge mistake and a complete moron so really shouldn't be a factor. It's not like he left here and had success elsewhere. Houshmandzadeh flamed out real bad also but he was before Bevell and Wilson. Sometimes it just doesn't work.

Are you Bagdad Bob?

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

So, they drafted a defensive lineman to get after the QB.

This is the kind of first rate, innovative thinking we've come to expect from the 49ers!

By itself it doesn't make a ton of sense (3-4 DE), but looking back at 2012 draft.....JJ Watt would have been ok over Aldon Smith.

Also, if you improve the pieces on the DL, the existing OLBs will get more pressure.

BTW, as far as "piece of the puzzle" against Wilson.....it's not extreme edge pressure but strong contain and push back of the pocket that gets to #3.

Baalke has a 3 year plan just for Wilson.

Year 1: Armstead
Year 2: Buckner and moving Tank to OLB in pass rushing situations
Year 3: Best OLB edge rusher

The idea is to trap Wilson and use Bowman to make sure he cannot escape through a collapsed pocket up the middle.

A three year plan to combat one opponents quarterback using first and second round draft picks?

How many defenses have bottled him up so far consistently? One?

That team also saves its best for the Seahawks and goes 7-9 every year.

I love the idea the Niners might end up like the Rams (at best).

 

[hawk45]

RichNHansom, the fact is Niner fans in this thread pointed out two recent, high profile examples of players coming here and being worse, and those examples were 100% correct on the facts. Harvin and Graham did get worse.
Harvin was a nut case and Graham probably was going to continue to click, but the facts remain the facts.
Zach Miller is another who was never the same offensive threat in this offense.
I don't even care where or if the blame falls, Bevell has a tricky task maintaining a run first philosophy while also trying to use weapons brought in.
Rather then continue to excuse the facts, it would be more effective to simply point to Marshawn and Giacomini as offensive players who have improved after joining.

 

[Popeyejones]

Just to reiterate the Graham statement and what it was in response to:

Archer said Graham was on pace to put up good season numbers before he got hurt. I replied that he was on pace to put up career lows (not counting his rookie year) in catches, yards, ypg, and TDs.

I wasn't engaging in a debate of imagination over things that hypothetically could have happened but didn't happen, nor do I have any interest in debating imaginary events.

TBF, I don't think anybody was expecting Graham to put up the same numbers as he was on the Saints (or at least should have), but that's kinda the problem also. Everything Graham does with proficiency shows up on the stats sheet, so if you're not getting that stat sheet, what are you paying for?

 

[chris98251]

Just to reiterate the Graham statement and what it was in response to:

Archer said Graham was on pace to put up good season numbers before he got hurt. I replied that he was on pace to put up career lows (not counting his rookie year) in catches, yards, ypg, and TDs.

I wasn't engaging in a debate of imagination over things that hypothetically could have happened but didn't happen, nor do I have any interest in debating imaginary events.

TBF, I don't think anybody was expecting Graham to put up the same numbers as he was on the Saints (or at least should have), but that's kinda the problem also. Everything Graham does with proficiency shows up on the stats sheet, so if you're not getting that stat sheet, what are you paying for?

The complete player, blocking catching and being able to spread the field. No receiver is going to put up numbers they had in a pure passing offense, Tate showed up bigger in the Lions offense because they don't run the damn ball.

Take Dan Fouts out of Coryells offense and put him in the New Orleans offense of that era and then tell me he wasn't good anymore because he didn't match his numbers in San Diego.

That's what your saying about Graham.

Systems, Coaches, and supporting cast has a lot to do with how good a player can look, it may not be the talent as much as how he is used. Hostetler and Gannon did great in Oakland after New Your and Kansas City is another example of a player being used better then where they came from. Which is the reverse of what your saying.

 

[RichNhansom]

Just to reiterate the Graham statement and what it was in response to:

Archer said Graham was on pace to put up good season numbers before he got hurt. I replied that he was on pace to put up career lows (not counting his rookie year) in catches, yards, ypg, and TDs.

I wasn't engaging in a debate of imagination over things that hypothetically could have happened but didn't happen, nor do I have any interest in debating imaginary events.

TBF, I don't think anybody was expecting Graham to put up the same numbers as he was on the Saints (or at least should have), but that's kinda the problem also. Everything Graham does with proficiency shows up on the stats sheet, so if you're not getting that stat sheet, what are you paying for?

The complete player, blocking catching and being able to spread the field. No receiver is going to put up numbers they had in a pure passing offense, Tate showed up bigger in the Lions offense because they don't run the damn ball.

Take Dan Fouts out of Coryells offense and put him in the New Orleans offense of that era and then tell me he wasn't good anymore because he didn't match his numbers in San Diego.

That's what your saying about Graham.

Systems, Coaches, and supporting cast has a lot to do with how good a player can look, it may not be the talent as much as how he is used. Hostetler and Gannon did great in Oakland after New Your and Kansas City is another example of a player being used better then where they came from. Which is the reverse of what your saying.

This also applies to Zach Miller as hawk45 brought up. It's not always about the stats. Miller was hugely beneficial for us and impacted our offense significantly. Were his stats the same as in Oakland? No but his overall production was more to influence the rest of the offense and in that sense he was just as good here.