2012 draft worst ever

[radtech]

Considering Terry Donahue ran the Niners into the ground with his horrible drafts, this draft was Baalke worst to this point. I have no idea how much input came from others within, but what the hell. Round one AJ Jenkins, looked like he stole money when he was introduced during his introductary press conference, even he knew he was way overrated. Then LaMichaeal James in round 2. Why? There was no way he would be an eventually replacement for Frank Gore.

I have no idea what they were thinking. Both I guess fill needs but were the wrong choices.

Now James is popping off how he doesn't get enough playing time.

With the 2014 draft approaching fast, trading up or down will have to include hopefully LaMike James, Jon Baldwin, and Quinton Dial. I would like to trade all 3 to the Dolphins, who have a need for those positions. It helps clear some cap space. A player who sucks(Baldwin), a player who can be replaced by Quinton Patton on all return duties(James), and a player who can be upgraded(Dial).

[gswhoops]

Those guys hold no, or very minimal, trade value. We might be able to get a 7th rounder for LMJ or Dial. No one will give up anything for Baldwin, he might not even be in the league next year.

But yeah, 2012 was bad. 2011 was great, and 2013 looks promising as well (Reid is already a Pro Bowler, Patton looks promising, and we'll see what we have with Tank and Lattimore this year). On the whole, Baalke has done well with his drafting.

[thesack12]

Yeah, GSW is correct those guys dont hold any trade value...

the 2012 draft was a complete unmitigated disaster. 49ers completely whiffed on that entire draft. Of the 7 picks they made, All of 2 of them are still on the roster (Lamichael James, Joe Looney). James plays minimal snaps from scrimmage, and is a "return specialist." Although his returns certainely leave some to be desired. He is better than Kyle Williams, but that is no credit to him because Kyle Williams is just pure trash, but that is anoter story for another day. Looney has been a practice squad guy for the vast majority of his career, I think he was active for maybe like 3 games this season, and im not sure he even saw the field.

So Yeah, Frisco completely whiffed on the entire 2012 draft, not getting a single rotation player let alone a solid player or even impact player. With the team being as close as it is to winning, you simply can't make those type of mistakes. The effects of the 2012 draft will cotinue to haunt Frisco for the next 2 or 3 years also. When key guys are coming up from extensions, a few will inevitable leave. Missing out on an entire year's crop of young/hungry/cheap players to fill in those gaps is going to be felt at some point.

As for 2013, I'm not nearly as high on it as some people are. Eric Reid was great, hopefully he continues to thrive. After that its basically nothing but question marks and dissapointments. They got zero from Carradine, and next to nothing from McDonald. You simply can't keep striking out with your high draft picks. In order if positive comtribution level, The first 2 rouds of the last drafts have netted Frisco Eric Reid, a guy who's best conribution is he's not Kyle Williams in the return game, McDonald who didnt do anything but make negative plays, A redshirted Carradine, and AJ BUST. That is quite a ways from being good enough, and its borderline unacceptable. Granted both Tank and Vance still have a chance to contribute, but there is very justified logic to limiting the optimism on them. This team is so close, I can't help but wonder if Frisco would have just gotten 1 more solid player out of that bunch, would it have been enough to push the team over. Either way, Frisco absolutely has to get much more impact out of the top of the draft.

As for the rest of the 2013 draft, I am very intrigued with Lattimore (you can take those chances in the laster rounds, but not in the 2nd with Carradine) and do like Patton. But even those guys have big time question marks. Nobody knows how Lattimore's leg is going to react. Patton looks to have the making of a solid wideout, but the foot injury robbed him of much needed seasoning, especially when there was a clear path for him to contribute. After he came back, he made a few quality catches here and there, but he was realy, really quiet overall. Lemonier had like one good game, but was anonymous the rest of the time. The other draft picks, are basically just bodies at this point. Actually, one of the better picks (a 7th rounder) never broke camp with Frisco. Marcus Cooper was pretty solid for KC. Cooper would have been a valuable guy to have around about now with all the uncertainty in the secondary moving forward.

[gswhoops]

Yeah, GSW is correct those guys dont hold any trade value...

the 2012 draft was a complete unmitigated disaster. 49ers completely whiffed on that entire draft. Of the 7 picks they made, All of 2 of them are still on the roster (Lamichael James, Joe Looney). James plays minimal snaps from scrimmage, and is a "return specialist." Although his returns certainely leave some to be desired. He is better than Kyle Williams, but that is no credit to him because Kyle Williams is just pure trash, but that is anoter story for another day. Looney has been a practice squad guy for the vast majority of his career, I think he was active for maybe like 3 games this season, and im not sure he even saw the field.

So Yeah, Frisco completely whiffed on the entire 2012 draft, not getting a single rotation player let alone a solid player or even impact player. With the team being as close as it is to winning, you simply can't make those type of mistakes. The effects of the 2012 draft will cotinue to haunt Frisco for the next 2 or 3 years also. When key guys are coming up from extensions, a few will inevitable leave. Missing out on an entire year's crop of young/hungry/cheap players to fill in those gaps is going to be felt at some point.

As for 2013, I'm not nearly as high on it as some people are. Eric Reid was great, hopefully he continues to thrive. After that its basically nothing but question marks and dissapointments. They got zero from Carradine, and next to nothing from McDonald. You simply can't keep striking out with your high draft picks. In order if positive comtribution level, The first 2 rouds of the last drafts have netted Frisco Eric Reid, a guy who's best conribution is he's not Kyle Williams in the return game, McDonald who didnt do anything but make negative plays, A redshirted Carradine, and AJ BUST. That is quite a ways from being good enough, and its borderline unacceptable. Granted both Tank and Vance still have a chance to contribute, but there is very justified logic to limiting the optimism on them. This team is so close, I can't help but wonder if Frisco would have just gotten 1 more solid player out of that bunch, would it have been enough to push the team over. Either way, Frisco absolutely has to get much more impact out of the top of the draft.

As for the rest of the 2013 draft, I am very intrigued with Lattimore (you can take those chances in the laster rounds, but not in the 2nd with Carradine) and do like Patton. But even those guys have big time question marks. Nobody knows how Lattimore's leg is going to react. Patton looks to have the making of a solid wideout, but the foot injury robbed him of much needed seasoning, especially when there was a clear path for him to contribute. After he came back, he made a few quality catches here and there, but he was realy, really quiet overall. Lemonier had like one good game, but was anonymous the rest of the time. The other draft picks, are basically just bodies at this point. Actually, one of the better picks (a 7th rounder) never broke camp with Frisco. Marcus Cooper was pretty solid for KC. Cooper would have been a valuable guy to have around about now with all the uncertainty in the secondary moving forward.

I don't see how you can hold it against Baakle for getting nothinig out of Carradine this year when we knew on draft day that he was going to be a medical redshirt. If he busts out once he gets on the field then the criticisms will be valid.

[thesack12]

^^^

Well, he did some work at the combine less than 150 days after having his knee recontruction surgery. That fact alone, led many to believe he could suit up after a PUP list stint. It was almost expected. Either way it seems as though the brass didnt do enough homework on the guy, or the medical staff flubbed the situation up.

But my main point, is that perhaps it just wasnt the best idea to take a guy with medical red flags that high. Especially after coming off such an epic fail of a draft the year before. Even had Tank been fully healthy, there is concern about how he will fare against top competiton. He only played major college football for 1 season and change. During this time he was playing with a 1st round pick (Werner) on the other side of the line which certainly look some pressure/attention off him from opposing offenses. The rest of his college days were at a junior college.

9ers had NOBODY from the 2012 crop contributing at all, still don't, so IMO it was far from the best course of action to take a guy in the 2nd that you knew for a fact was going to miss half the season, and with potential to miss the entire season (which did happen). Team was/is way to close to to get NOTHING out of another top pick. They have got basically zero from 3/4 of their top picks the last 2 drafts.

Also, there is a possibility that the medical situation with Tank, led Baalke to chase DE's later on in the draft. Depth up front on the defense was a need, and Baalke obviously knew that it was questionable (at best) that Tank was going to provide anything this season. So that may have led to the triple dipping of DE's, Tank/Lemonier/Dial. Obviously its possible that those guys were atop the draft board at the time they got selected, we will never know the answer. But its entirely reasonable to believe that could be a direct correlation amongst those 3 picks. Triple dipping at a position that was not of major concern, is a questionable diection to take.

SF held the tiebreaker with Seattle, so that means with 1 more win the NFC championship would have been in Frisco. Can't help but wonder if having another solid player (let alone 2 or 3) on the roster instead of (Baldwin {Jenkins}, James, Carradine, McDonald) would have been enough to be the difference in one of those close games (Carolina, New Orleans). Obviously that point is based in extreme hypotheticals, but its fair to ponder. Either way SF can't keep continuing to get minimal production/impact from the top of the draft. Their window isnt going to stay open forever. They need players to push them over NOW.

On a side note, I really didn't understand the decision to make Nick Moody the IR designated to return choice. Not only is Moody a very unimportant player, but they burned their one option for that tag after week 1. Sure enough not long after, Patton breaks his foot so Frisco was forced to carry a dead roster spot for those 8 or 9 weeks. Made no sense to me, why the used that tag on Moody (only get one) and so early on in the season no less.

Also, another side note on roster management. WTF was up the the whoe Chris Harper fiasco. Yes, I get that 9ers and Hawks like to poach eah other's player's. But come on man, Harper was a total project and it was obvious he wasn't ever going to contribute. How about using that roster spot on somebody who actually stood a chance of seeing the field?