Dodub wrote:John Lynch gets a lot of crap because he draft folks that others weren’t expecting or necessarily wanting. If you look back though, John has been pretty darn impressive in the draft over the last few years.
Pick 1.3 – Solomon Thomas, EDGE, Stanford - reach but he’s starting to come into his own
Pick 1.31 – Reuben Foster, LB, Alabama - great player but terrible character makes this a bad pick
Pick 3.66 – Ahkello Witherspoon, CB, Colorado - fantastic pick
Pick 3.104 – C.J. Beathard, QB, Iowa - bad because of the reach
Pick 4.121 – Joe Williams, RB, Utah - bad
Pick 5.146 – George Kittle, TE, Iowa - out of this world pick
Pick 5.177 – Trent Taylor, WR, Louisiana Tech - great pick
Pick 6.198 – D.J. Jones, DL, Ole Miss - great pick
Pick 6.202 – Pita Taumoepenu, EDGE, Utah - not great
Pick 7.229 – Adrian Colbert, CB, Miami - good pick
Pick 1.9 – Mike McGlinchey, OL, Notre Dame - excellent pick
Pick 2.44 – Dante Pettis, WR, Washington - to be continued but he needs to figure it out soon
Pick 3.70 – Fred Warner, LB, BYU - out of this world pick
Pick 3.95 – Tarvarius Moore, S, Southern Mississippi - excellent pick
Pick 4.128 – Kentavius Street, DL, NC State - not great
Pick 5.142 – D.J. Reed, CB, Kansas State - fantastic value pick
Pick 6.184 – Marcell Harris, S, Florida - meh
Pick 7.233 – Julian Taylor, DL, Temple - fantastic value pick
Pick 7.240 – Richie James, WR, Middle Tennessee - fantastic pick
I left out this years draft because the jury is still out but so far that looks like an absolutely fantastic draft class. (Bosa, Samuel, Hurd, Mitch, Greenlaw, Smith, Skule, Harris)
The FO and coaching staff have done a very nice job identifying and developing (and scheming around) later-round picks and UDFAs. That said, I don't entirely agree with all the assessments here.
Thomas was a bad pick. Yes he's starting to come into his own. Yes he had a personal tragedy which affected his development last year. He's still getting outplayed by guys with far less pedigree, and is a solid backup at best right now.
I loved the Foster pick, and he was arguably worth the risk, but the FO's job is to look deeper than we can as fans. Foster imploded, and the FO is largely responsible for that.
I can't give Witherspoon the "fantastic pick" label at this point. He's got the tools, and over short stretches he has put it all together, but he has lacked consistency. If he comes back from the injury and returns to form, then obviously he's looking better as a third rounder.
Beathard was Shanahan, and as I said at the time, even though it seemed like a huge reach, if you like a QB, you don't get cute. That said, I have never seen anything from that guy that makes me think he's even an NFL backup. Sure, he's tough, but when you're a QB and that's the best thing that can be said for you, it's a problem. I'm unclear on why he's still on the squad.
Joe Williams was, again, a failure to look deeper. It wasn't devastating as it was a somewhat lower pick, but there were huge red flags that the guy didn't want to play in the NFL, and sure enough, he didn't.
McGlinchey has been good, but I'm not prepared to call him fantastic given the pick we used on him. He brings a lot to a locker room, I expect him to be a mainstay for years, but with the 9th pick, you're expecting a difference maker, and I'm not sure he is. We'll see going forward.
Pettis has been a major disappointment - particularly after an end to last season that had me ready to eat some crow - and looks like we could have that "going deeper" issue again. Pettis doesn't seem locked in. He plays kind of lackadaisically. He hasn't shown the urgency that he needs to. He admittedly has more talent than I thought he did when we drafted him; his change-of-direction on the run is special. But he seems to have a mental block that he needs to get past. I suppose it's hard for a FO to see that, but it shouldn't have been hard to realize he's a different sort of cat. And I hated and still hate that we traded up for him.
My biggest issue with Moore was trying to move him to CB, although plenty of the guys at PFF would tell you that if there's even a chance, you should try a guy at CB before FS. Still, I can't help but feel that we stunted his growth somewhat.
The Street pick was always a real head scratcher to me. I think he was a fourth-round pick before the injury. With the injury, he was more like a 6th. The jury is obviously still very much out on him, but he'll have to really come on late in his rookie deal to turn this one around. And that's part of the problem with adding an injured player.
Overall, Lynch and Shanahan have done somewhat better than I expected. It's unrealistic in the extreme to expect every pick to hit, and they've hit on more than their fair share statistically speaking. But I think it's very fair to question their use of high picks, their trades, and their proclivity for reaching for certain players. We're already seeing some adverse effects from that, and the cap is going to start tightening up more as we need to try to keep the roster together.