Day after the draft

[dirt]

Ok now we get all of the so called draft experts giving their opinions and grades to each team...picking the reaches and also the steals
Part of the draft experience ritual every year.
What makes me chuckle is the 180 degree flip on many if not most of the so called steals
Just 3 days ago players like Matt Barkley were getting ripped for all of their so called short comings. Today it reads like Chip Kelly has found his quarterback of the near future. All of the sudden the arm strength issues etc are swept under the rug and he will prove "something to everyone who passed him over for 4 rounds"
Many of the so called steals dropped to where they were picked because of holes in their games or size, speed etc issues. Now they are the shiny new toy
Cracks me up how much gloss Barrett Jones is getting!!24 hours ago he was at best a back up with physical issues. Now depending on who you read, Jones or Schwenke were not much different from Frederick who the Cowboys over drafted
The 49 ers had a nice draft. but really!!Lattimore may never be more than a shadow of what he might have become. Carradine was a one year wonder with an acl
D Moore and Okafor had major question marks 3 days ago but now are viewed totally differently
Honey Badger...really!!!!smart teams wouldnt touch him with a 10 ft pole

Basically what I am trying to say is the smart good drafting teams are successful for a reason. They have a plan, they have a type of player that fits their system, all too often they are under the radar when the grades come out the day after but check them out 3 years from now and its no wonder they are perennial contenders

 

[Eskimo]

I do think part of our problems offensively have been due to inability to find quality OL players. The rest of what we do is okay. We were really good in 2006-7 when Romo first came out and with worse skill players than we have now. What happened is we had a bunch of OL vets who got old and lost their ability to play due to a variety of issues - age, injury, degenerative conditions and weight gain. Then we have been trying to rebuild the OL since the 2011 season but the transition hasn't gone smoothly unfortunately. Part of the reason is we have been handicapped by some big contracts to stars who have been underperforming (Free, Rat, Austin).

I hope Frederick is the lynch pin they have been looking for in the interior. I am not sure whether he starts at Center, starts at OG and then moves to Center or just stays at OG. He is excellent at the point of attack and a decent pass blocker so it gives me hope they have a player to build around. I also like the youth and athletic ability of our young bookend Tackles, Smith and Parnell. I do have high hopes that Smith will become elite and Parnell will become average to above average.

As for the defense this is our 5th shift since 2004 season:

4-3 initially
3-4 two-gap of Parcells
3-4 one-gap of Wade Phillips
3-4 multiple front defense of Ryan
4-3 Tampa-2

So that is 5 different defenses in a 10-year span. I do hope this is the last of the major shifts so we can start to find players who fit our unique schemes at times when there is good value available. Right now the league needs good coverage at LB because of all the new RBs and TEs who are more receivers than runners or blockers and we were exposed in the past with our bigger and slower LBs. Now we are moving in the other direction. Even though the Safety play should have been somewhat similar across the different regimes we have failed to find good play at Safety since Roy Williams pulled his disappearing act after the league changed the rules on him.

I have high hopes that Kiffen/Marinelli will turn this thing around and then be able to hand it over to someone else who will carry it forward. These are two of the best defensive minds around and they have managed to keep two very good assistants in Jerome Henderson and Eberfluss. We now need some time to let it all gel although I hope they hit the ground running.