those Sooners were a high character team last year

The Jaguars rolled the dice on Oklahoma WR Dede Westbrook in the fourth round, with the knowledge that Westbrook had twice been arrested on domestic violence complaints. In 2012, he was accused of throwing the mother of his two children to the ground. In 2013, he was accused of biting her arm and punching her in the face. He was not charged either time. And on Saturday, ESPN’s Todd McShay said on the air that Westbrook was kicked out of one of his 15-minute combine interviews. I can tell you some teams viewed him as undraftable. When asked for thoughts on Westbrook, one area scout assigned to the Sooners responded, “No thoughts. It is what it is. He’s a degenerate.”

They haven't actually cut him yet, they're discussing it depending on how the accusations of striking a woman play out
Surprised he didn't go higher. Don't have much more info than that (in part because of LSU's typically erratic and low-volume passing game). Really like the other kid they drafted too.
Browns ended up with the best QB in the deal

Great MMQB write-up of the 49ers draft from inside the war room

That MMQB writeup would have been better without all those annoying ads. Very interesting especially as a 9er fan. LOL at the Bears forever.......

what in the world

still getting 2+3 on SF's board they gotta be pleased as punch.

Anyone who's ever seen him play have an opinion on Derek Rivers? I know he tests well so waterwolves probably loves him, but can he actually play football?

I wonder if the Patriots will use him more as an ILB, like how they moved Jamie Collins off the line more.

I think you got a steal and I have no idea why he fell so far.

Amazing how Foster was nearly the #3 pick then fell to #31. Also sounds like a lot of teams turned away the 49ers trade requests before they eventually got it done at #31. Would think the 49ers would be a bit more aggressive negotiating with a team picking at say #20 when they feel they can get a #3 player but whatever they did it worked for them.

Mid round Iowa QB I've never heard of being the only QB Shanny wanted... No interest in the top guys? Cousins to 49ers just got a little more likely for me.

As much as we lolled 9ers/Lynch, they have been pretty solid so far. Still plenty of time to fail, but concussions didn't lead to bad draft strategy.

Can't be any worse than Baalke. Only guy who could figure out how to blow up a potential young perennial team in 1 off season cause he was so full of himself (this goes along with York). At least Lynch doesn't think he is the golden boy and won't waiver to the requests of the coach. Will see if that translate eventually into wins, but I'd prefer to "process" it and lose at least one more season to fill the talent coffers.

We still have giant holes at QB, WR, CB and OL.

If they actually think Foster should have been the 3rd pick in the draft, I would say that's pretty pretty concerning, even if getting him @ 31 is really good value & they obviously made the Bears look silly with that trade.

The terribleness of the free agent signings is a further indication that the Lynch regime could still be a very big problem.

What terribleness is that (stacking no-talent white QBs aside)?

Rivers is legit. IIRC he's too big for the role you're describing, but his athleticism and pass rush ability are real.

Thanks.

2/25/17
DT Earl Mitchell - 4/$16m/$4.7m
Turns 30 in the beginning of next season, & is pretty bad at football. Doesn't have a sack since 2014, averages like 1 tackle a game, no upside whatsoever.

3/9/17
WR Pierre Garcon - 5/$47.5/$20m
Turns 31 before next season starts. Not that good at football. By the time they would hopefully be decent, will be a shell of whatever he was when he was pretty good. Had a bit of a resurgent season last year (2nd 1k season of his career), but seems like a dramatic overpay for mediocrity.

[Barnwell grade: C+]

WR Marquise Goodwin - 2/$6m/$4.5m
I mean he's not really good at football...5'9 guy who isn't really a slot receiver, but at least he's only 26 so there's some upside? Dunno.

QB Brian Hoyer - 2/$12m/$9.9m
I'm fine with this. He's perfectly serviceable. Seems to trend the team toward mediocrity rather than any upside, but I guess you don't want to embarrass yourselves.

FB Kyle Juszczyk - 4/$21m/$9.8m
This is hugely out of line with the market for FBs, so unless they are projecting something else into him that I don't see...? He has 7 career carries, never has more than 41 catches in a season, & averages less than 8 yards per catch. That's a lot to pay for a HB in today's day & age, let alone a FB. Maybe they have some revolutionary plan? But I doubt it.

[Barnwell grade: D+]

OLB Malcolm Smith - 5/$26.5m/$11.5m
Will be 28 at the start of the season, isn't good at football, no upside, pretty useless. Coverage LB who isn't actually good at covering people.

[Barnwell grade: D-]

K Robbie Gould/TE Logan Paulsen
Old, crappy (Paulsen), no upside, but nbd.

3/10/17
QB Matt Barkley - 2/$4m/$0.5m
Seems fine. He's not good, but they're not really paying him anything.

LB Brock Coyle - 1/$1.45m/$0.4m
Seems like an overpay for a guy who did nothing for the Seahawks, but meh? At least he's only 26?

WR Aldrick Robinson - 2/$4m/$0.5m
Not good at football, at all. Turns 29 next season. But, whatever? 54 career games, 931 career yards.

S Don Jones - 2/$2.2m/$0.8m
Has played with 5 different teams, but no tackles since his 2nd year in 2014. Seems useless & not like someone worth spending $$$ on?

3/17/17
LB Dekoda Watson - 3/$5.1m/$1m
29 years old, 89 career tackles, 15 in the past 3 years. Utterly useless.

4/4/17
HB Tim Hightower - 1/$1.1m/$0.3m
I mean it's fine, but he's about to turn 31 & I don't see much point? Maybe they can trade him to a contender with injuries? Don't hate it I guess.

4/18/17
RT Garry Gilliam - 1/$2.2m/$1.3m
Seems to be really bad at football, but at least he's not old? I guess it's fine for a backup?

Bottom Line
They signed a bunch of scrubs to a bunch of money & got virtually no long-term pieces that will actually be useful when/if they ever become good.

They have a ton of money to spend and they have to spend it on something. Honestly most good teams are built from the draft and I don't see too much poison from any of those deals e/c Smith and Garcon.

They potentially got a few good pieces in the draft this year; they will likely suck another season or two.

High Upside/Young Good-
Thomas
Buckner
Foster
Witherspoon
Pinion-P was sadly our most exciting player last season

Solid Vets-
Bowman (injury is a monster concern but they dumped a huge contract on him)
Staley-getting mad old
Bethea-old
Dial
Ward
Reid
Hyde-injury prone

The rest of the team is pretty much trash. But why spend a bunch of money on some guys when your upside is probably 7-8 wins next season if you hit on a few big FAS and screw up the potential "process."

49ers getting too much credit for what was a Bears **** up. They didn't negotiate some brilliant trade. They were in the right place at the right time.

I don't think Ricky Williams type deals are going to happen anymore; teams are mostly smarter. I don't care if the 49ers deserve credit or not; I'm just going to enjoy the fruits of the Bears mistake.

They were at least willing to take the chance of losing the player they wanted to make the trade. I think a decent number of teams would have passed on the trade for that reason, so they deserve credit for taking the opportunity, even if they didn't do anything special to create it.

Bears gonna suck for a long time. RIP

9ers still have a bazillion dollars of cap space and they have to spend $.

Calm down jmurder.

But what were the Bears thinking? That the 49ers like Trubinsky just enough to draft him, but not enough to turn down a few mid-round draft picks? I guess that's what they did with Solomon. But with a QB at #2 overall - it seems a lot more binary - either you think there's franchise QB potential or you don't.

Cubs gonna be in the playoff hunt longer on the calendar than the Bears.

Bears just panicked. Nobody was trading up to #2 for the 3rd best QB in the draft.