Rotoworld's top ten NFL GMs

[kearly]

Oh, I can name a number of lower round guys who are good, they just aren't starters because they have a vet in front of them.

Daniel Kilgore will start this year (replacing Goodwin). Chris Culliver will probably start this year (replacing Rogers). Kendall Hunter has been a very good #2 RB. Marcus Lattimore and Tank Carradine will get their shots. Joe Looney looks to be a quality player. So does Quniton Patton and Corey Lemonier.

I didn't include any of them because they weren't yet "quality starters". They are unproven. That has more to do tho with the players they are stuck behind than those players abilities.

Not trying to disagree, but this is just my opinion. Lattimore, Carradine, Patton- I thought they were all pretty over-rated when delving into draft prospects last year. Lemonier is interesting, very similar guy to Bruce Irvin, but that's not the highest of praise. I used to like Hunter a lot, but lately not so much. Culliver is okay. Don't know much about Looney or Killgore (0 starts combined, just 21 games active combined out of 80 regular season games). Not starting is understandable, but being active for only 25% of the games over 5 combined seasons? Harbaugh does have a good track record with OL, but it's hard to see those guys as being more than roster fringe.

Culliver and Lemonier were day two guys, not day three guys. Culliver has been par value for a 3rd rounder, Lemonier hasn't, but might be. As far as the day 3 guys, not seeing much to be excited about, other than your fullback. And for the record, I liked Baalke's day 3 draft in 2013, he picked a lot of players I supported. My favorite of the bunch ended up in Seattle though.

 

[Scottemojo]

Everybody loves to blow smoke up Baalke's ass about his first draft. IIRC, McClouhan was fired a month before the draft. Baalke was on Movin the Chains right after it happened and said the NIners draft boards were set for the most part already. Clearly, Baalke should get all the credit for draft day decisions. But lets not pretend that 75% of the work leading up to the draft didn't happen under Scot's direction. None of us can say if his fingerprints were on all those picks, but so far, Niner drafts without him have been a bit meh.

 

[Dtowers]

Rotoworld is great this time of year, you'd be missing out.

Rotoworld's opinion/editorializing on their news items is arguably some of the worst in the business. The only thing of value they do is their statements of fact (eg this player has signed here type stuff). They employ fantasy football writers to make real NFL observations and opinions on players/coaches/teams. There was a thread over on FBG that tracked some of this stuff and showed how not just wildly inaccurate RW was but also how contradictory their own observations were. That is the problem when you don't have a unifying approach and or the actual intelligence or insight to make the type of judgments that are routine in the op/ed piece of RW news items.

In short Rotoworld is great for news pieces if you just read the factual statements and ignore any amount of opinion they stick on the end.

 

[kearly]

In short Rotoworld is great for news pieces if you just read the factual statements and ignore any amount of opinion they stick on the end.

That's what I read it for. It's like following every NFL reporter's twitter feed all in one place.

 

[Dtowers]

Yep exactly.

 

[ivotuk]

This kid is an absolute idiot! He knows nothing.

"Schneider not only pulled the plug on his worst signing after just one season, he gave his head coach permission to bench him for a third-round rookie"

Bill Belicheck is in the 20s. He has screwed up draft after draft after draft yet everyone loves him. He hasn't won anything in forever, he's holding back Tom Brady by letting his pride and ego get in the way of personnel decisions.

The ONLY reason New England wins is because of Tom Brady. Josh McDaniels got Matt Cassell to 11 wins but that was an aberration.

As long as Bonehead Bill is the acting GM, the Patriots will never win another Superbowl. I said it before, and I'll say it again, he's a cross between undead al and jerrah jones with Bill Parcells arrogance. Too bad he doesn't have Parcells strength of character.

 

[Marvin49]

Everybody loves to blow smoke up Baalke's ass about his first draft. IIRC, McClouhan was fired a month before the draft. Baalke was on Movin the Chains right after it happened and said the NIners draft boards were set for the most part already. Clearly, Baalke should get all the credit for draft day decisions. But lets not pretend that 75% of the work leading up to the draft didn't happen under Scot's direction. None of us can say if his fingerprints were on all those picks, but so far, Niner drafts without him have been a bit meh.

Sigh.

Right. Because lord knows Baalke had nothing to do with building the draft board to begin with. Scot was fired because he was an alcaholic, was distracted by his divorce, and was routinely showing up late or not at all to meetings.

Right. THATS the guy that did 75% of the work. THATS why he was fired.

As for afterward, outside of 2012, Baalkes drafts haven't been bad at all. I'll take Aldon Smith, Kaepernick, Culliver, Hunter, Kilgore, Miller, Reid, Carradine, McDonald, Lemonier, Patton, and Lattimore.

Call me crazy.

 

[Marvin49]

Oh, I can name a number of lower round guys who are good, they just aren't starters because they have a vet in front of them.

Daniel Kilgore will start this year (replacing Goodwin). Chris Culliver will probably start this year (replacing Rogers). Kendall Hunter has been a very good #2 RB. Marcus Lattimore and Tank Carradine will get their shots. Joe Looney looks to be a quality player. So does Quniton Patton and Corey Lemonier.

I didn't include any of them because they weren't yet "quality starters". They are unproven. That has more to do tho with the players they are stuck behind than those players abilities.

Not trying to disagree, but this is just my opinion. Lattimore, Carradine, Patton- I thought they were all pretty over-rated when delving into draft prospects last year. Lemonier is interesting, very similar guy to Bruce Irvin, but that's not the highest of praise. I used to like Hunter a lot, but lately not so much. Culliver is okay. Don't know much about Looney or Killgore (0 starts combined, just 21 games active combined out of 80 regular season games). Not starting is understandable, but being active for only 25% of the games over 5 combined seasons? Harbaugh does have a good track record with OL, but it's hard to see those guys as being more than roster fringe.

Culliver and Lemonier were day two guys, not day three guys. Culliver has been par value for a 3rd rounder, Lemonier hasn't, but might be. As far as the day 3 guys, not seeing much to be excited about, other than your fullback. And for the record, I liked Baalke's day 3 draft in 2013, he picked a lot of players I supported. My favorite of the bunch ended up in Seattle though.

Schneider has hit home runs in the late rounds of the draft, so holding anyone up to that standard is impossible. People shouldn't even hold Schneider up to that standard either because its nearly impossible to keep up that pace.

He should be #1 on this list. I've already acknowledged that.

I honestly don't care where GMs get the good ;players...1st round or otherwise. In fact, if they get them in round 1 they are easier to keep because of the 5th year option.

Seattle is good at picking up players late. SF is good at getting a ton of picks a bit higher and taking risks. Sometimes tose risks pan out and sometimes they don't. 2012 for the most part was a miss. 2011 was a pretty big hit. 2013 has yet to be determined. I like those guys you say are overrated.

BTW, Carradine has been working his a$$ off and is up to 295 lbs (played at 275 at Florida St). Really looking forward to seeing him. Lattimore looks to be healthy and to have really benefitted from the redshirt year. We'll just have to see.

 

[Lords of Scythia]

Rotoworld just lost credibility not having JS #1. And another thing: The big physical corner play was PC's influence--modelled after the eighties Raiders bumb-and-run, maul-at-the-line style D. Rotoworld doesn't know what they're talking about. Wilson was JS's baby the whole way--they never mentioned that (apparently are not aware of it).

 

[ivotuk]

Oh yea, and Matt Flynn was not JS worst signing. Charlie Whitehurst was. Just think, CW could have played for Arizona.

 

[Scottemojo]

Everybody loves to blow smoke up Baalke's ass about his first draft. IIRC, McClouhan was fired a month before the draft. Baalke was on Movin the Chains right after it happened and said the NIners draft boards were set for the most part already. Clearly, Baalke should get all the credit for draft day decisions. But lets not pretend that 75% of the work leading up to the draft didn't happen under Scot's direction. None of us can say if his fingerprints were on all those picks, but so far, Niner drafts without him have been a bit meh.

Sigh.

Right. Because lord knows Baalke had nothing to do with building the draft board to begin with. Scot was fired because he was an alcaholic, was distracted by his divorce, and was routinely showing up late or not at all to meetings.

Right. THATS the guy that did 75% of the work. THATS why he was fired.

As for afterward, outside of 2012, Baalkes drafts haven't been bad at all. I'll take Aldon Smith, Kaepernick, Culliver, Hunter, Kilgore, Miller, Reid, Carradine, McDonald, Lemonier, Patton, and Lattimore.

Call me crazy.

i passed on what I heard from Baalke himself. I knew you would show up and defend anyway. So I guess we can go with your story, Scot drank himself into such a stupor for a year that Baalke had to do an entire off seasons worth of work in one month. He scouted everyone of those players, plus all the ones they did not select, in the space of a month, prepared draft boards all by his lonesome, and saved the franchise from disaster by changing everything ol drunkie was about to do.

 

[RichNhansom]

Everybody loves to blow smoke up Baalke's ass about his first draft. IIRC, McClouhan was fired a month before the draft. Baalke was on Movin the Chains right after it happened and said the NIners draft boards were set for the most part already. Clearly, Baalke should get all the credit for draft day decisions. But lets not pretend that 75% of the work leading up to the draft didn't happen under Scot's direction. None of us can say if his fingerprints were on all those picks, but so far, Niner drafts without him have been a bit meh.

Sigh.

Right. Because lord knows Baalke had nothing to do with building the draft board to begin with. Scot was fired because he was an alcaholic, was distracted by his divorce, and was routinely showing up late or not at all to meetings.

Right. THATS the guy that did 75% of the work. THATS why he was fired.

As for afterward, outside of 2012, Baalkes drafts haven't been bad at all. I'll take Aldon Smith, Kaepernick, Culliver, Hunter, Kilgore, Miller, Reid, Carradine, McDonald, Lemonier, Patton, and Lattimore.

Call me crazy.

Scott was fired because of drinking? Wait a minute, doesn't your team lead the league in DUI's since Harbaugh arrived? And don't you have multiple alcohol related arrest every single off season? In fact don't you already have an arrest for drunk in public this off season? Come on now, it would be hypocritical to fire someone from that organization for that wouldn't it?

Maybe he was fired for not keeping up. How many times was he arrested for alcohol events? How many DUI's? Maybe they let him walk because he was the only sober guy at the party.

Lets look at this like anyone else would. When Scott and Baalke were together they drafted a ton of good to elite players. You could question who was the mastermind but until they are separated and one of them has to perform om his own without the assistance of the other, you can't say for sure who really deserves credit so based on that with Scott being part of the draft preparation for 2010 the only fair thing to do is ignore the entire draft and then look at his 2011 and 2012 draft classes. This is the only unbiased way to look at it.

So now looking at the 2011 and 2012 draft classes you have two guys that are starters in Kaep and Ried. Counting a full back is retarded. No matter how you slice it that sucks and in no way should be compared to the guys like John who have built a super bowl champion in 4 years from what at the time he took over, was one of the most talent depleted rosters in the NFL.

Again and this is spot on, If Baalke has yet another poor draft he will be exposed as a below average to crappy GM.

Now you can try and spin your beliefs that those guys that haven't proven anything are all just jems waiting for the talent in front of them to die but come on, I shouldn't have to tell you how hard anyone with an ounce of NFL knowledge would laugh at the idea of giving credit for guys that will perform in the future.

Should I remind you that John Schneider has made Baalke his bitch? You guys pass on Sherman and take Culliver in the 3rd round while we laugh and sit back until the 5th round to take the guy that Harbaugh should have known more about than anyone and Sherman turns out to be the best CB in football. Nice move Baalke. You follow that up by trading up and wasting picks in last years draft to get ahead of us and take Vance McDonald (the wrong TE) in the 2nd round and we again laugh and wait until the 5th round to take the guy you thought we were targeting. It was priceless. You guys waste picks to beat us and take the wrong guy so we knowing he would now be available trade back and get extra picks and still get the better TE.

How many times have you slammed your head against the wall when Baldwin repeatedly molests your team for catches and points? Must be frustrating to watch two guys from Harbaugh's college team thrive on your rival teams roster. Don't you wish your GM was as smart as Schneider?

 

[kearly]

Schneider has hit home runs in the late rounds of the draft, so holding anyone up to that standard is impossible. People shouldn't even hold Schneider up to that standard either because its nearly impossible to keep up that pace.

He should be #1 on this list. I've already acknowledged that.

I honestly don't care where GMs get the good ;players...1st round or otherwise. In fact, if they get them in round 1 they are easier to keep because of the 5th year option.

Seattle is good at picking up players late. SF is good at getting a ton of picks a bit higher and taking risks. Sometimes tose risks pan out and sometimes they don't. 2012 for the most part was a miss. 2011 was a pretty big hit. 2013 has yet to be determined. I like those guys you say are overrated.

BTW, Carradine has been working his a$$ off and is up to 295 lbs (played at 275 at Florida St). Really looking forward to seeing him. Lattimore looks to be healthy and to have really benefitted from the redshirt year. We'll just have to see.

I think Lattimore will probably be a 1000 yard RB if healthy, but that's a very big if. And even when healthy, I think the longest run of his college career was something like 26 yards? Good short area guy, sucky homerun threat. Like Knowshon Moreno if made out of glass.

Carradine was all strength and no skill. And his strength was just okay, he wasn't Justin Smith jr. or anything. We once drafted a player just like him at the end of the first round, a guy by the name Lawrence Jackson. Jackson wasn't a horrific bust, but if that draft were done over he'd probably be a 5th rounder. That's basically how I feel about Carradine. At best, and this is stretching it some, he might be Carlos Dunlap or Michael Johnson, but that's best case scenario. I had a 4th round grade on him.

As far as JS, I give Pete almost all the credit for JS's day 3 magic. Sherman, Chancellor, etc, those are Pete's guys, and Pete coached them up too. Where I think JS deserves praise is that he has no ego, and he won't fight his coach on draft day like Baalke does. He also works his ass off to build the biggest draft board possible, and that has paid some major dividends in UDFA for us.

I think JS's biggest strength is actually in FA. Really shrewd dealer who's not looking to make a splash, but looking for bargains ala Billy Beane. He also works the waiver wires in August/September better than anyone. Hard worker. Busts his ass doing things a lot of other GMs (incorrectly) believe to be insignificant or trivial.

I do not think Baalke is a terrible GM, I just think he's average whereas Harbaugh is maybe the best coach in the game. I know Baalke is technically Harbaugh's boss since he hired him, but SF would be so much better off if they ditched Baalke, paid Harbaugh, and got Harbaugh his own handpicked collaborator GM like what Pete has with JS.