Looking at my boys

A lot of the various pundits declared that San Fran had a great draft, and while I would not go that far, I like what they did. They addressed their biggest weakness, wide receiver, by trading for a legitimate NFL starter in Darrell Jackson. They also added a high productivity guy in the third round – Jason Hill from WSU. That means they’ll have a lot of young options at WR, if one or two develop they should be okay. They also added to the offensive line, which is nice as they are not bad there, but not outstanding either. Most of their action was on defense. They took an inside linebacker with their first pick, which strengthens a strong position, but if the is the playmaker they think he is it will be worth, as there was a serious call for one last year. They also added a corner in the fifth round, Tarell Brown out of Texas, who I think highly off. CB is deep so he won’t play much at first, but CB is a very good position to be deep in. They also added a safety in the fourth, where they are not nearly as deep. A third of their picks were defensive linemen, all in the third and fourth round, where you can get some quality players. The added a couple of Gators, Ray McDonald and Joe Cohen and some guy from Nebraska. Cohen can be a rotation guy, he’ll help against the run, but they already have a bunch of guys who fill that role. I may like Gators, but McDonald has had two knee injuries and doesn’t even have an ACL in one of his knees anymore. Still he has some passrush ability on a team that is crying for it. But in the pros I think he would be best suited to be a DT (not an NT) and San Fran currently runs a 3-4. The Nebraska guy is a little small for a 3-4 DE and might move to OLB – he’s supposedly pretty fast. Overall I think they spread out some talent upgrades on defense, but it is still far from an elite unit. The most glaring weakness on defense remains the lack of any type of quality passrusher. It is not good when your best passrusher last year was a 3-4 DE…who’s 35!? I love Bryant Young, but he is basically playing year to year. The other passrusher on the team is OLB Brandon Moore, who I like a lot, but that shows the difference between me and a coaching staff that did not make him a starter until week 9. The only other player with more than 3 sacks last year was a journeyman linebacker who wasn’t activated until Week 11 (and I am not sure he was on the team before that). Look, I like signing Tully Banta-Cain but they needed to add a sackmeister and didn’t. They also failed to get a backup for Frank Gore. Sure he had a huge season and got his new contract, and we are glad for him – but that shouldn’t drive all those knee surgeries he had Miami from everyone’s mind? Who’s the backup or change of pace guy? Penn State’s old QB? The add some runningback from KSU in the sixth, but he has major character (work ethic and more) issues. I’m sorry to say it, but this team is not a not contender.