They should have taken Cassell first and paid him 7th round money.

I don't know jack about football or the draft, but it seems if 23 GMs passed on Rodgers, then he shouldn't have been picked 1st. The questions are whether Smith should have gone 1st, and who was a better QB. I'm sure reasonable people disagreed on these at the time, and the right answer is too cloudy to disassociate from the results, but the results of draft day do tell us that Rodgers should not have gone first.

vernons 2nd td was such a sweet pass by hill

those planet orange commercials are starting to drive me insane

JOIN THE REVOLUTION!

Revolving door OC's didn't help. In today's NFL, imo, if you're going to take a QB high you MUST get him signed right away and be stable at HC & OC for his first few years. There was some complaining about how much the Falcs paid Ryan. Christ, what difference does a couple mil make at that point they were in? Same deal with Stafford. LOL JaMarcus. Bustoing out w/a high QB can set you back years. Better off just drafting the best lineman rather than reaching or playing hardball with a QB.

ESPN did an article awhile ago rehashing that draft class. It wasn't a great one. Rodgers prolly doesn't do a whole lot better in the Nolan era than Smith did, tho ldo if we had a mulligan we'd take him, or Merriman.

My hazy memory is that no one was under any illusions either was anything close to Peyton, or was all that excited leading up to the draft. Hopefully optimistic sure, but how could things have gotten any worse?

To add a more basic level to your thesis, one could say that a team needs at least a basic semblance of offense before throwing a #1 pick out there.

The Niners somehow reached the conclusion that Rattay was not the future, but really, how could they know. Rattay was thrown behind a porous line with extremely limited talent around him. Under the circumstances, Rattay looked pretty decent. In hindsight, Rattay was very productive.

The Niners then took the same threadbare offense and put Smith behind it, and he did quite poorly. This was not a surprise to much of the fanbase, many of whom figured the Niners stood a very good chance of just ruining a young quarterback. Until Gore started to come around, Smith had primitive offensive tools around him and the (lack of) results were easy to project. When the incessant weekly beating turned into actual injuries, Nolan then turned on him. Really, if you wanted to write a script for ruining a guy, the Niners followed it pretty closely. Thankfully the had the sense not to start Smith this year, but even leaving him in the conversation to draw fan base ire was a mistake.

So, yes, the rotating OCs didn't help, but it was nowhere near as much of a contributing factor to Smith falling flat as much as the basic lack of any offensive talent around him. There were some decent offensive minds around Smith among those OCs, but not much in the way of help on the playing field.

All this makes me much more sympathetic to going the free agent route for QB selection. The value seems better. The Niners in 2005 were not a franchise QB away from being a force. They took a really bad gamble on Smith and then mismanaged his development at every step.

patrick is a mother****ing beast

Dre Bly, that's how you ice a football game.

all you can eat. who wants a piece.

What up boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crush them Lambs.

1.5 game lead on the division. 2 on Hawks, 3 on Rams......Rams are so lol bad.

Thanks god I picked up the D this week in my cash league. 39 points, what what.

one favre away from 4-0, still looking great at 3-1 tho

god for willis
i picked them up for $1 week one. waiver wire money well spent imo

[QUOTE=capone0;13581589]What up boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crush them Lambs.

1.5 game lead on the division. 2 on Hawks, 3 on Rams......Rams are so lol bad.

Thanks god I picked up the D this week in my cash league. 39 points, what what.[/QUOTE]

This. Simply amazing..

had them going in my cash league too,

Simmons' Pole article:

Make that 31/36, 20. Wow.

“Any day you look up and see a goose egg it’s great,” Willis said. “We made a step today. People are going to say it’s only St. Louis. That doesn’t matter.”

every single time i have ever heard a reference to **** teams by players/coaches before or after games i've heard the same tired cliches about them being professionals, how they're still a tough team, can't look past them, etc

first time i've ever heard a player talk down about a team like that

i love it

gogogoogogogo patrick

you know, i'm starting to see crabtree's point: through 4 games this season crabtree has 2 less receptions than DHB

lol jarmarcusaments

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4534306

cashtree meeting w/ SF

it's not all jamarcus. dhb can't catch and he can't stay on his feet, either.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs...%20and%20Q%26A

i think this is all deion sanders's fault. what a dick.

so does that mean he thinks carbtree will sign soon?

i heard some clip from KNBR w/ deion on his nfl show (whatever show it is), dropping subtle hints that he might be closer then we all think

but this season is a waste regardless of if he signs

but omggggggg for next year

Man all these niners fans and I never even knew. I love everyone in this thread. Honestly though this beg of the season has brought me so much joy, maybe I am lacking something.

I have been watching the niners since I could walk. I am in my late 20's now it just brings me back to those younger days. Without a miracle throw and catch of the year they are 4-0 but 3-1 is great. Only worries I have is the passing game, as we set up the run plenty but they don't seem to be running play action at all.

Anyway the Falcons are going down. nuff said'

Very torn this week. Rooting for the niners and recently picked up the D, but also have matt ryan and roddy white on my team.

Niners in a shootout one time!

Not trying to over-react to beating the Rams of all people, but could the Niners not finish with 10-12 wins this year? Their remaining schedule, which looked just rough as can be has been made slightly easier after watching some teams play these first few weeks. Am I crazy for thinking season could go like this?

Atlanta - W
@ Houston - W
@ Indy - L
Tenn. - W
Chicago - W
@ GB - L
Jacks. - W
@ Sea - W
Ariz. - W
@ Phi - L
Detroit - W
@ St. Louis - W

That puts them at 12-4 but even 10 wins should be enough to take the division. Unless they tank it seems like a great time to be a 49ers fan again. I hope lol