The 20 Most Overrated San Francisco 49ers (1960-Present)

The San Francisco 49ers go back 65 years. They were the first professional team on the West Coast. Care to guess the team’s first-ever draft choice (anyone, anyone?) Glen Davis, the famous halfback out of Army.

In those days, teams drafted 30 players a year and many were selected based on what coaches and scouts read in Sunday sports sections. Thus, it is very difficult to gauge how a 1954 first-round pick like Bernie Faloney of Maryland ranks in terms of being overrated among all 49ers.

(Note: There’s no record of Faloney on Pro-Football-Reference.com, and there also was this guy named Y.A. Tittle on the Niners. Maybe the two are connected, eh?)

Thus, it isn’t all that easy to assess who played for the 49ers for a period of time and didn’t live up to expectations, otherwise known as my credo for being overrated,

But here is a list of 20 players from 1960. It can be a little cruel and simplistic, but it’s the nature of the sporting world. Fans have hopes, players have stats and writers have opinions.

Glen Coffee

The second-round running back out of Alabama in 2009 seemed like a capable backup to Frank Gore, but then perhaps former coach Mike Singletary scared him off. Something happened because Coffee left the team before his second season to become a minister.

Let’s just say that 2010 was a bad year for the Niners in terms of personnel and coaching issues. Jim Harbaugh signed in January 2011 and the sun has not stopped shining since.

Bubba Paris

Selected in the first round of the 1982 draft, Paris was meant to be a long-term solution at left tackle. That the Niners won the Super Bowl the previous year with Dan Audick at that position ranks as one of the more underrated miracles of modern pro football.

Paris was big and strong but somewhat slow. Once he got into you, though, you never got off. But along came this guy named Lawrence Taylor, outside linebacker of the Giants, as well as defensive end Chris Doleman of the Vikings.

Out of a three-point stance, Paris couldn’t touch them, opening up Joe Montana to vicious blind-side hits (yes, hence the name of the book). Steve Wallace replaced Paris and the Niner offense got back on track.

Manny Lawson

The second of the Niners’ two first-round selections in the 2006 draft (Vernon Davis was the first), Lawson did not fail for the Niners. Getting hurt early in his career didn’t help, but he was decent in pass coverage.

He was not the edge rusher they wanted, and which they now have in Aldon Smith. I’m not sure that’s all Lawson’s fault, but he never lived up to fans’ expectations.

Braylon Edwards

The former Michigan All-American and Browns-Jets receiver possessed size and speed. Coming to the team in 2011 as a free agent, he seemed a capable deep threat.

Maybe it was the lockout that kept him from getting completely ingrained in the Niner offense. Maybe it was frustration about Alex Smith not being the best deep thrower.

Could be, but there’s no excuse for getting shown the door in December when the team, desperate for a passing attack, is readying for its run in the playoffs.

Fail.

Steve Spurrier

Brash, strong, good-looking and definitely daring, the third overall pick in the 1967 draft looked to be a successor of John Brodie. It never quite worked out that way.

He started 32 games in eight years with the Niners before finishing his playing career with Tampa Bay. Forty TDs to 60 interceptions suggest he was a tad overrated.

Ken MacAfee

The tight end out of Notre Dame was the seventh player taken in the 1978 draft. After two seasons of OK stats, the Niners asked him to move to guard. MacAfee decided to move to dental school.

Bill Sandifer

The defensive end out UCLA started only 26 of his 46 games for the Niners, which isn’t all that great for the 10th player taken in the 1974 draft. But then, the Niners Gold Rush defensive line was in full force.

(Sorry, no picture available.)

Keith Henderson

The running back out of Georgia, a third-round pick in 1989, came in with the promise of providing a home-run effect for a backfield that included Roger Craig and Tom Rathman.

Thirty-seven games in a six-year career included one start, a 3.9 rushing average and 4 TDs. It was the start of the 49er experimentation with Southeastern running backs.

Dexter Carter

So, in an effort to add more spark to the Niners, they tried again with Carter, another first-round selection in 1990. Coming out of Florida State, he was small, shifty and quick, and served mostly on punt returns, where he scored two TDs in 100 games, averaging 9.8 per return. Decent, but hardly worth first-round money.

Reggie McGrew

The first-round pick in 1999 out of Florida was intended to be a replacement for Bryant Young. But he played in only 24 NFL games, the last two for Atlanta, in a career that produced just two starts and one sack.

He was All-SEC in 1998, further proof that a good offense (Steve Spurrier was the coach, and the Gators went on to win the national championship) makes a defense look a lot better.

Saleem Rasheed

The third-round pick in 2002 continued the Niners' struggles with Alabama players. Rasheed was expected to add speed and good pass coverage, but he struggled in the Niners’ elephant defense. He did go on to help the Calgary Stampeders win the Grey Cup, so he’s got a ring.

Terrence Flagler

A late first-round pick in 1987, Flagler represents another 49ers foray into the Southeast for a running back, Flagler came out of Clemson with people raving about his speed and his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. Of course, his path wasn’t all that easy with Roger Craig sitting atop the depth chart.

Flagler did well on kick returns during the Niners' Super Bowl year of 1989, averaging 20.1. He was not a great failure, but not the lightning bolt out of the backfield, either.

'Hollywood' Henderson

Thomas Henderson out of Langston College (anyone, anyone?) was a great addition to the strong Dallas teams of the mid-1970s. But by the time Bill Walsh got him in 1980, he was a mess.

Drugs were his problem and the team waived the former Pro Bowler. That was a time when the Niners were drastically trying to rebuild. Bill Walsh was in his second year and was desperate for bodies.

Earl Cooper

By the mid-1980s, Bill Walsh and general manager John McVay had the draft thing down. But in 1980,  they were both learning. They selected Earl Cooper, a 220-pound running back out of Rice who they expected to be a powerful inside runner and a pass-receiving threat.

The only problem is that Cooper wasn’t a very good runner. He was, however, pretty good catching the ball. As a rookie, he finished second in the league with 83 receptions.

He gets to be call overrated because as the 13th pick he was expected to be a dual threat. That he later moved to tight end proved his lack of NFL running skills.

Yes, it’s a tough standard we have for Niners of this era.

Mike Rumph

This strong cornerback is the victim of some bad breaks to end up on this list. He was never healthy with the Niners, but as a first-round selection he was expected to be a stopper at cornerback.

A bad knee derailed his career. In 2002, the Niners were not making good decisions. Rumph’s selection reflects that.

Rashaun Woods

That this receiver out of Oklahoma State is on this list is not meant to denigrate Woods’ skills as much as chastise again former GM Terry Donahue for trading down twice in the first round to find a player who made virtually no contributions to the team. One year, seven receptions? For a first-round draft pick? Amazing.

The Niners were in salary cap hell, but there had to be better options than Woods.

Taylor Mays

Some players just don’t fit into the NFL. It can be difficult to assess the ability of college receivers and safeties to transition into the faster and more physical NFL.

For receivers, it’s the ability to get away from press coverage. For safeties, it’s less about roaming the deep middle and intercepting passes. It's more about being able to cover and provide that essential run support. Mays, used to roaming free in the USC secondary, couldn’t track NFL receivers. He was a liability.

Yet he had All-American stats at USC and big things were expected. Wrongfully so.

O.J. Simpson

Former GM Joe Thomas sealed his career in the NFL with this disastrous trade. Growing up in San Francisco, Simpson returned with a bad knee and did little. The year 1979 was a personification of T.S. Eliot’s line about ending “not with a bang but a whimper.”

All the juice had been squeezed in Buffalo.

J.J. Stokes

It was supposed to be the great draft-day move for the Niners, similar to the one they made 10 years earlier when they moved up to snatch a wide receiver who would threaten defenses for years to come.

In the 1980s, it was Jerry Rice. In ’95, it was J.J. Stokes. And there the similarities end. Rice was precise, sure-handed, resilient and composed. Stokes was, well, less so. Let’s just say he had a hard time getting off press coverage.

He had good years and a satisfying career, but you can’t really say he met expectations. Stokes had the misfortune of coming after the greatest of all time.

Kwame Harris

When you’re 6’6” and an All-American at Stanford, the credentials scream long-term career in the NFL. Harris, however, could never adjust to the speed of the NFL.

He was an abject failure at left tackle and not much better at right tackle. For fans who were seeing the embers of the great Niner teams of previous years fade to dark, Harris’ play represented the downfall of a treasured franchise.