49ers Getting an Edge w/ Freak Athletes?

TheRealDTM

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JGfromtheNW

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Meh, I'm not too worried about either of these guys. I think Gray has more potential than Okoye, some dude who's in good shape who can throw a rock farther than other he-men.

Great athletes, yes, but so raw they might as well be bleeding.

I think if these guys make the practice squad there or can add some depth to their 53, they can be some low-risk high-reward players.

Only time will tell (the story of all drafts).
 

RolandDeschain

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It takes more than freak athletes to make a great player. It's definitely a piece of the puzzle, though.
 

sturg78

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Athletes don't always make great football players. Reference Konz
 

drdiags

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A lot of teams take chances with freak athletes. JPP was one in my eyes. 9ers have nothing to lose. Just as sturg78 states, Konz was that attempt for the Seahawks. Jared Smith and Sweezy are attempts to take athletic players and get a hit on them. Though not exactly freak athletes. The International BB player for the TE position being another attempt to luck out with a physical/athletic specimen.

Player acquisition through the draft, UDFA, FA or local tryouts. It is how things get done.
 

Laloosh

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Niner fans have been ranting about how superior they are for not doing this very thing... they pick/sign "football players and starters" while we deal with "athletes".

Everybody's going to consider a raw athlete with tremendous potential. Teams are always evaluating where other organizations succeed and they will utilize those same tactics to a certain extent. Good for them, hope theirs don't work out as well as ours have.
 

Bobblehead

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I'd a been more worried.. if they drafted Margus Hunt.
 

Scottemojo

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Okoye is not going to be that much of an impact. Britain has a few amateur football teams, Okoye never pursued the game with any of them. Could he be a 3rd down pass rusher? Yeah, I suppose. He has some rugby experience, but there is no news suggesting he was really good at rugby.

Marquise Gray is their attempt at Mike Rob part two. It's a good move, I hope it works out for Gray.

Letting Mike Rob go was a silly move by the Niners.
 

NYCoug

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I have no worries about this at all. The Seahawks are stacked with freak athletes of their own with massive potential and even a little bit of experience playing the game as well. Guys like Korey Toomer, Christine Michael, Winston Guy (see his 66 inch vertical jump or whatever it was from earlier this off-season), Harvin, and the list goes on and on.

Do not let the 49ers propaganda hype machine take you down!
 

Scottemojo

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Quinton Patton is going to be the scary one from this draft.
 

uncle fester

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Scottemojo":yiioepxu said:
Okoye is not going to be that much of an impact. He has some rugby experience, but there is no news suggesting he was really good at rugby.

Okoye was on the books at London Irish's academy, something he couldn't have managed without some degree of ability. While that won't amount to much in the NFL, he'll already be able to wrap up in tackles - which some defenders in the NFL don't seem to hold in high regard. That, coupled with his speed, could prove very useful on kick coverage at the very least.

It's also interesting to note that he was a rugby player prior to taking up discus.

Personally, I wanted JS & PC to get him as an UDFA, but hey ho...
 

Marvin49

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Scottemojo":2x4oyyj9 said:
Okoye is not going to be that much of an impact. Britain has a few amateur football teams, Okoye never pursued the game with any of them. Could he be a 3rd down pass rusher? Yeah, I suppose. He has some rugby experience, but there is no news suggesting he was really good at rugby.

Marquise Gray is their attempt at Mike Rob part two. It's a good move, I hope it works out for Gray.

Letting Mike Rob go was a silly move by the Niners.

Actually agree with you here.

Okoye is interesting, but I put his actual chances at success around 1%. Still, Jim Tomsula is one of the best D-Line coaches in the NFL so its worth a shot to see what he can make out of those raw tools.

Not all that excited about Gray.

I liked Robinson in SF. They tried him at HB and he just never had the lateral quickness needed there. At FB tho its another story. I wish they had kept him.
 

Marvin49

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E.C. Laloosh":3bfarzg3 said:
Niner fans have been ranting about how superior they are for not doing this very thing... they pick/sign "football players and starters" while we deal with "athletes".

Everybody's going to consider a raw athlete with tremendous potential. Teams are always evaluating where other organizations succeed and they will utilize those same tactics to a certain extent. Good for them, hope theirs don't work out as well as ours have.

Really? I've never heard Niner fans say that. I don't think that the Seahawks have the patent on taking raw, talented players. Just look at Kaep.

What the Niners have been doing here for the past few years tho is drafting every guy they can find with freakishly long arms. LOL. Look it up...its comical. It started with Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati and continued with Aldon Smith (that guy can scratch his knees without bending down).

This year tho takes the cake. Reid, Carradine, McDonald, Lemonier, and Dial all have some of the longest arms at thier positions. They have what Baalke refers to as "Long Levers". Okoye has them too.

Who knows if long arms is the key to success, but the Niners seem to have a thing for guys with really long arms.


It also explains why the Niners moved back in round 2 and did NOT take Zach Ertz....and possibly why they took BJ Daniel in round 7 over Matt Scott.
 

Marvin49

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uncle fester":fr5vr1zd said:
Scottemojo":fr5vr1zd said:
Okoye is not going to be that much of an impact. He has some rugby experience, but there is no news suggesting he was really good at rugby.

Okoye was on the books at London Irish's academy, something he couldn't have managed without some degree of ability. While that won't amount to much in the NFL, he'll already be able to wrap up in tackles - which some defenders in the NFL don't seem to hold in high regard. That, coupled with his speed, could prove very useful on kick coverage at the very least.

It's also interesting to note that he was a rugby player prior to taking up discus.

Personally, I wanted JS & PC to get him as an UDFA, but hey ho...

I'm actually wondering if they'll do with him what they did with Sopoaga, Dobbs, and Tukuafu....line him up at TE and FB in jumbo packages.
 

Marvin49

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Scottemojo":2bxk3igh said:
Quinton Patton is going to be the scary one from this draft.

Hope your right....just dunno why he was still sitting there at pick 128.

The only thing I can think of is that he isn't really big, isn't really fast, and isn't super quick....IE outside of production, he didn't have any one trait trait that jumps out at you.
 

Laloosh

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Marvin49":3rnqinqw said:
E.C. Laloosh":3rnqinqw said:
Niner fans have been ranting about how superior they are for not doing this very thing... they pick/sign "football players and starters" while we deal with "athletes".

Everybody's going to consider a raw athlete with tremendous potential. Teams are always evaluating where other organizations succeed and they will utilize those same tactics to a certain extent. Good for them, hope theirs don't work out as well as ours have.

Really? I've never heard Niner fans say that.

What the Niners have been doign here for the past few year tho is drafting every guy they can find with freakishly long arms. LOL. Look it up...its comical. It started with Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati and continued with Aldon Smith.

This year tho takes the cake. Reid, Carradine, McDonald, Lemonier, and Dial all have some of the longest arms at thier positions. They have what Baalke refers to as "Long Levers". Okoye has them too.

Who knows if long arms is the key to success, but the Niners seem to have a thing for guys with really long arms.


It also explains why the Niners moved back in round 2 and did NOT take Zach Ertz....and possibly why they took BJ Daniel in round 7 over Matt Scott.

Apr 27, 2013 at 14:03:54
Originally posted by Pillbusta:
SEA has been selecting ATHLETES with poor production, we have been selecting FOOTBALL PLAYERS with great production that fit our system. Of course up in SEA with the 12th man behind you, the speed and athleticism shines through

That's the first and last time i quote anything from WZ here. Don't let this derail the actual point of conversation here, I'm simply pointing out that it's been said.

As for Ertz, they traded up to beat Seattle to McDonald in the 2nd so I'm still thinking they wanted Ertz at 34 but made a calculated risk to trade back and get perhaps a lesser TE in McDonald in exchange for more picks. Very smart move IMO. No argument from me there.
 

Marvin49

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E.C. Laloosh":2ms0qu58 said:
Marvin49":2ms0qu58 said:
E.C. Laloosh":2ms0qu58 said:
Niner fans have been ranting about how superior they are for not doing this very thing... they pick/sign "football players and starters" while we deal with "athletes".

Everybody's going to consider a raw athlete with tremendous potential. Teams are always evaluating where other organizations succeed and they will utilize those same tactics to a certain extent. Good for them, hope theirs don't work out as well as ours have.

Really? I've never heard Niner fans say that.

What the Niners have been doign here for the past few year tho is drafting every guy they can find with freakishly long arms. LOL. Look it up...its comical. It started with Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati and continued with Aldon Smith.

This year tho takes the cake. Reid, Carradine, McDonald, Lemonier, and Dial all have some of the longest arms at thier positions. They have what Baalke refers to as "Long Levers". Okoye has them too.

Who knows if long arms is the key to success, but the Niners seem to have a thing for guys with really long arms.


It also explains why the Niners moved back in round 2 and did NOT take Zach Ertz....and possibly why they took BJ Daniel in round 7 over Matt Scott.

Apr 27, 2013 at 14:03:54
Originally posted by Pillbusta:
SEA has been selecting ATHLETES with poor production, we have been selecting FOOTBALL PLAYERS with great production that fit our system. Of course up in SEA with the 12th man behind you, the speed and athleticism shines through

That's the first and last time i quote anything from WZ here. Don't let this derail the actual point of conversation here, I'm simply pointing out that it's been said.

As for Ertz, they traded up to beat Seattle to McDonald in the 2nd so I'm still thinking they wanted Ertz at 34 but made a calculated risk to trade back and get perhaps a lesser TE in McDonald in exchange for more picks. Very smart move IMO. No argument from me there.

Well, for the record...I disagree with WZ poster. The Niners have taken their fair share of athletic projects themselves. Aldon played DE/DT in college and they converted him to OLB. Kaep was and is RAW. Miller played DE in college and they moved him to FB.

Then again he may have just been talking about THIS year? Dunno.

As for Ertz....I'm dubious that they ever had a ton of interest in him. The rule of thumb is that if the Niners are publically connected to a player then they likely aren't interested in him. LOL. Ertz has very short arms and that concerned me. It makes his "window" smaller when being passed to and makes it harder for him to be an effective blocker. The national media seems to love to connect the Stanford TEs to SF. They did the same last year with Fleener...and they had a shot at him and passed as well.

I think they were targetting Tank from the beginning. The Niner Pass D fell apart last year when both Justin and Aldon were hurt. dropped from 180 yards per game to over 300. QB rating against ballooned from 72 to over 100. Finding someone far better than Ricky Jean-Francois was tremendously important as was finding OLB depth. Tank provides that depth with the added bonus of being a possible repklacement for Justin down the road. Lemonier also provides much needed depth at OLB.

I dunno if McDonald was the guy they "always wanted", but they did want him enough to move up past Seattle. He also fits what they do really well....swiss army knife player with athletic potential...basically a bigger, slower Delanie Walker.
 

Marvin49

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Bobblehead":3de3vu3f said:
I'd a been more worried.. if they drafted Margus Hunt.

Really? I like Tank much more than Hunt.
 

NinerBuff

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Instead of 49ers looking for Freak Athletes, I think it's more appropriate that the 49ers are looking for high-potential players that have injury concerns and long arms.

In terms of Okoye, more than likely he won't be able to make the roster, unless his obvious freak athletic ability can overcompensate against guys who've been playing for 6+ years. I will say, that at DT/NT, he does have at least a punchers chance at making the roster.

Dorsey was signed to play NT in base downs, but won't offer much in the way of pass rush on obvious passing downs. Ian Williams was an UDFA and has progressed nicely but isn't a matchup nightmare by any stretch. Then there are guys like Tukuafu, Dobbs, and Dial who will all compete. The guys who plays the best ST will make the team.

Here is where Okoye has a chance. He is definitely faster than those guys, so he may have a chance to make the roster as a ST player and rotational pass rushing DT in our 2-4-5 3rd down defense.
 
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