2008 Draft + San Francisco 49ers = Bad Times

It should be clear. What a horrofic situation the 49ers are in in this year's draft.  I can't put it in better words than " it sucks." 

Tampering? Are you kidding me? Doing a quick research called "googling" i looked up what exactly is "tampering" when it came to the NFL and oh how upset I became.  If you gave me a gram of sugar for every time this thing called "tampering" occurred in the NFL then I'd have enough to even rival the amount of sugar in a Rice Crispy Treat, a Krispy Kreme Doughnut, or a serving of Coldstone Ice Cream, the Gotta Love It size. 

And what could've been a top 10 pick, became a 29th pick overall is what the 49ers are sitting at. Oh what joy.

But I suppose we should try to be positive about the situation and make our mock drafts on who we think the 49ers will draft in at least the 1st-3rd rounds. I say what's the point?

Why? Well as you can see what we write around here are mostly based on personal opinions and analysis, so in my personal opinion and analysis, every pick after the 20th pick is complete crap in the 1st round. And possibly any pick in any other round. If we accept that the 49ers are still in the rebuilding process (and oh how bold you would be if you do) then you'd hope they can pick up someone to further impact the needs they need to fulfill. 

But who in the world would be available to do such a thing for the 49ers at the 29th overall pick?  It's usually the case that those who have these late round picks, don't have such crucial needs in many places up and down a roster. But unfortunately that is exactly the case for the San Francisco 49ers.

Okay so I'm ready for the blabber mouths and draft junkies to throw their Early Doucet, Kentwan Balmer, Quentin Groves at me. My counter to all this? Simply put, the best of these players may have potential but don't hold any promise in fulfilling the needs the 49ers have right away. If you're like me, you're tired of dealing with questionable rookies that need time to prove themselves. Though we did avoid this last year with Patrick Willis, but as for our beloved Manny Lawson, Joe Staley, Alex Smith, and even Vernon Davis, though they've played well (in more occasions than others) we're still waiting for them to be on highlight reels, be on the top of stat listings on your ESPN's and NFL.com's, and more importantly, winning the games for the 49ers. 

Before we move on, let me first saywhy in the world are analysts telling us to draft a Linebacker? Passrusher DE I understand, but OLB? Are we arleady giving up on Tully Banta-Cain? Brandon Moore? Manny Lawson? We do lack a pass rush, but only because the front 3 are complete garbage. Well not Bryant Young, but he was way past his prime and can't expect him to do everything. Unless the 49ers can somehow find a DE that will give the pass-rush the 49ers need drastically, drafting a defensive player at our #1 pick is futile.

Besides, the rest of our defense did a fine job, so no need to address it with a #1 pick. And another thing, we're not looking for a guy who can get 3 sacks a game (though it'd be nice), but anyone who can at least be something the other quarterback worries about before every down. That's all. 

What I'm overall trying to say is that our picks aren't picks that will make drastic improvements from the get go.But hey that'd be fine if we were an 11-5 team that won it's division, or a 10-6 team with a growing offense that managed to clinch a playoff berth and perhaps projected to take the conference next year or even a 9-7 team who almost made it but because of injuries we lost a few key games. No, we're none of these. We're a team on the verge of hiring yet another head coach, and (god forbid) set on doing the whole rebuilding process again.

What about the other picks we have you ask? Well how often have we seen, outside of Frank Gore, that the 49ers have benefited greatly from a late round pick in the last 5 seasons or so? What late round pick can you name that plays a crucial role on the 49ers that was drafted in the last 5 seasons, other than Frank Gore? The point is, later round picks are picks that coaches hope to develop into great players. But Nolan has no time to develop them. He needs the team to get better fast, and now.

What would I do? Glad you asked. I'd trade them all. Yes I said it, and by now you've probably stopped reading in shock & awe. But yes, all, for picks next year or maybe some 2nd String WR/DE/OL from some team that has proven himself. This of course is the grand pessimistic point of view, but even so a realistic one at best. Trade them all for picks next year- with the prediction we will have another losing season, and thus a new coach, with a nice number of draft picks that would actually matter and make a difference, and ultimately jump start another rebuilding process.

Okay as I've said before, I have nothing against Mike Nolan. I like the guy, and I like who he has drafted ever since he became the coach..and yes Alex Smith included. The problem is that people are expecting him to improve, and improve fast and significantly.  In the worse case scenario, people may even expect a record better than a 7-9, for him to have chance in staying the coach after next season. In my most fan-based professional opinion, he won't be able to do that with this year's draft. So who needs it? Whether he trades for more picks next year or some 2nd string players from other teams, I say it's more worth it that way. 

Though let me concede for a bit. There is one player in mind that I wouldn't argue against drafting. (This is a heavily biased article, and so we remain biased to the end of it's days). Being a student at CAL, I have had the opportunity to personally witness the abilities of Desean Jackson. I would love it more than ever if the 49ers should draft him. For one thing I'd still get to watch him at the games and another thing, he fulfills a great need that we keep hitting and missing on. He has a reputation, one that intimidates and scares people- whether it be as  PR/KR or a receiver. He has that potential impact to maybe not to automatically score 2-3 TDs per game, but the potential impact to give defenses something to actually worry about and plan for. It's not like Frank Gore is impossible to stop, or Vernon Davis is impossible to cover, as we've seen this previous season that it was not a big problem for defenses to keep the Offense under 200 yards of offense.

Other than Desean, trade them all 49ers. TRADE THEM ALL. Of course they're not going to do that, it's pretty damn obscene.  Maybe they'll get lucky somewhere, it could happen. Like maybe they can find their very own, I don't know, uh Brandon Stokeley, or Devin Hester, or Willie Parker. And if they should find these maybe we'll get even more lucky that these supposed players will make their out-of-no where contributions to the 49ers in one season. Afterall, Nolan pretty much has one season to do it all and keep a job. Though if the 49ers would do what I suggest, it'd be pretty entertaining as Britney's latest shinanigan, or watching various satirical youtube videos about the Patriots imperfect season, or watching Jason Taylor on Dancing with the stars, or perhaps even as entertaining as watching the 2007 49er Offense getting a first down.