Marvin49":hughhatk said:
Same can be said for Niners.
Lost Gore? Drafted Hyde last year and Hunter a few years before.
Lost Iupati? Drafted Marcus Martin and Brandon Thomas last year.
Lost Culliver and Cox? Drafted Dontae Johnson, Kenneth Acker, and Keith Reaser last year.
Lost Michael Crabtree? Drafted Quinton Patton and Bruce Ellington in successive years.
Justin Smith may retire? Drafted Tank Carradine and Quinton Dial two years ago.
Brooks becoming expendable? Drafted Aaron Lynch last year.
Lost Willis? Drafted Chris Borland last year...what's that? He what? oops.
To be fair this 9ers draft is the exact same way. It might be a horrible draft and not pan out, but the year-down-the-line strategy is pretty clear.
Armstead replaces Justin Smith next year now that Tank is replacing McDonald.
Tartt is replacing Bethea who is gone after this year.
Harold is replacing Brooks who is gone after this year or sooner.
Bell is going in the rotation to replace Davis who is gone after this year
Davis is replacing Bush and/or Hunter for next year, who are both on one year deals this year
Smelter (who will redshirt this year) is replacing Boldin who is gone after this year.
Pinion is replacing Lee who is gone after this year (if Pinion becomes the kickoff specialist) or this year
Silberman and Brown are PS material in preparation for Boone being gone after this year.
Anderson is PS material for when Davis leaves after this year.
TBH I find the criticism of he 9ers draft by fans and the media to be missing the mark. If people want to complain about the TALENT of the players I'm fine with that, but complaining about not drafting immediate starters is just stupid, as doing so is ignorant of what they were TRYING to do, and people should already know this, given that Baalke has done it every year for five years in a row now.
Since Baalke has been GM the team has only drafted 3 immediate starters, and they moved up for two of them (Reid and Anthony Davis). As a rule unless the team is moving up they're drafting for the next year or two down the line. Heck, even Bowman and Aldon were drafted for the down the line and didn't start in their first years.