Bleacher Bums Forum

I can't see any way ANYONE could claim McLellin was BPA at 19 last year.  He just wasn't.

In my mind that pick was about 50% to accommodate Lovie, 30% to keep him away from the Packers, and 20% need.  Not saying McClellin won't turn into a decent player but that pick had very little to do with value.  McClellin wasn't even the highest rated DE at that point, much less BPA.

Guys like this are why it's great to be in a position like the Niners with multiple picks in the middle rounds. You can gam*ble a 4th rounder on him and still have plenty of other picks left to fill needs or package for trades.  If he has to spend his entire rookie season on the PUP, no big deal.  If he never gets his game back you cut him and are out hardly anything but if makes it all the way back you've got a 1st round talent for a fraction of the cost.

In fact it wouldn't surprise me if the Niners took Lattimore for just those reasons.  This guy was a straight beast before he got hurt and it would just be the Niners luck to have him up to full strength in 2014 just as Frank Gore is starting to hit his downside.

Those are strategic things you can't do when you're the Bears with only 5 picks and every one of them pretty much has to pay off to some degree right away.

Jackie they need a FA LG and Fluker at RG. The reason I like Fluker at RG as opposed to LG is because Fluker played RT at Alabama and he is a human tank/road grader/power runblocker and we run right. He had trouble on the outside with speedrushers in pass protection at Alabama so moving inside will make him an all pro at RG for the next 10 years.

I can't see any way ANYONE could claim McLellin was BPA at 19 last year.  He just wasn't.

In my mind that pick was about 50% to accommodate Lovie, 30% to keep him away from the Packers, and 20% need.  Not saying McClellin won't turn into a decent player but that pick had very little to do with value.  McClellin wasn't even the highest rated DE at that point, much less BPA.

And why was Lovie accommodated?  Because we had a need for a pass rushing DE.  In 2011, we had 33 sacks (compared to 41 in 2012).  Of those 33, 17 came from our DEs.  11 of the 17 were Peppers.  Idonije had 5 and Chauncey Davis 1.  (Wooten zero).

Both Peppers and Idonije were over 30 and Idonije was a FA.

You can argue that McClellin was not the right guy but we had a need for an outside pass rusher.

Emery obviously felt that McClellin was a better DE than DeCastro was a G even though many scouts rated DeCastro as the best OG to come out of college in several years. 

That still doesn't mean McClellin was the BPA at 19 though.

That is true, but was OL a bigger need?  You might want to ask Cutler what he thought last year. 

Maybe...maybe not.  Carimi was returning from a rookie year and no one was questioning him at RT going into the season.  Same thing with Louis at RG.  Garza was dependable.  At LG, we  had question marks.  But the Bears signed Chilo Rachal and had Spencer as a backup.  Yeah, that didn't work out.  Webb at LT was the biggest question mark going into 2012.  He struggled early but was very solid the 2nd half.  Plus there were no LTs available in the first round and the only guy that played LT in the 2nd round was Cordy Glenn.  The rest were all right tackles.

Emery obviously felt that McClellin was a better DE than DeCastro was a G even though many scouts rated DeCastro as the best OG to come out of college in several years.

That still doesn't mean McClellin was the BPA at 19 though.


BPA, particularly in the first round is a myth.  Look at all our draft talk...it's all centered around the guard position now.  If we were truly taking the BPA we should be talking about HBs, QBs, TEs, DTs, DEs and safeties too.

As far as our current OL situation...  if the season started today it might look something like this.

LT Bushrod (last year Webb) - upgrade

LG James Brown (last year Rachal/Spencer/Brown) - upgrade (if he improves this offseason); otherwise a wash

C Garza (last year Garza) - downgrade; he was barely serviceable last year and doesn't look to be any better with another year of mileage on him

RG - Carimi (last year Louis) - downgrade

RT - Webb (last year Carimi/Scott) - upgrade from Carimi, a wash with Scott

So right now you've only got one position that is a clear-cut upgrade...  the other 4 spots are treading water at best.  Coaching and scheme alone aren't gonna fix all that.  There is still a lot of work to be done on the personnel front, clearly.

Every year folks slam on Garza.  Pass blocking wise he's very solid.  His weakness is probably pushing his guy off the LOS in the run game.  But our run game was ranked 10th in the NFL and the problems we faced in short yardage is our short yardage guy got hurt at the end of the season, plus our guard situation was pretty messed up then too.

Sure you'd like to get bigger and younger at center but you don't HAVE to.

We've addressed tackle in free agency.  We need to address guard in the draft and free agency.  The 3rd priority is center.