I don’t like that they like the pick because it will shore up our run defense. Reason being: our run defense was pretty darn good last year! What we need Balmer to do is help open up the pass rush, dammit! I don’t blame people for looking at cumulative stats and going “oh, they suck!” but our run defense was REALLY not the problem. Balmer is actually a good pick if he picks up at nosetackle and opens things up for Banta-Cain and Lawson to whoop some QB ass. He’s not a good pick if we’re bringing him in to stop the stupid run. That addresses a non-need.

At the risk of pre-empting whatever Paragon SC might be working up, Rachal’s a good kid and certainly seems to have the potential to do well in the pros. He’s one of those guys you don’t hear much about for all the right reasons – stays on the straight and narrow, plays hard, and so on. For all the comments about his ability against the pass rush, there are few to no instances of someone having sacked Booty or Sanchez because they got past Rachal – and he’s a really good run blocker. The main known risk is his knees, frankly. He’s spent some time out for injuries (senior year of high school and first year at SC), though that has dropped off – which makes me wonder if he just needed better care and rehab.

Anyway, I hope for his sake he works out – by all accounts he really wanted to stay for his last year at SC, but his mother is profoundly ill and his father is borderline health-wise for remaining in his construction job , so Rachal came out early basically to make sure they get medical treatment. I’m pretty cynical about the gap between the student athlete rhetoric and reality in college football, but Rachal’s the kind of player I like to see for SC – a good kid who makes the most of his opportunities with hard work. Hopefully next year the folks here who were a little worried about taking him this high in the draft will feel a lot better about him as well.

i’m a little suprised. You always seems to know your facts, but you are very wrong here. If you think the niners had a good run defense, look at the players, stats, or games. Other than P-willie, our front seven was young, franklin, douglas, bani-cain, smith, and that rookie(not pwillie, someone else, plays ROLB blanking on name). So its pretty bad. Then factor in 22nd in yards per game. And if you get a chance, look at the st.louis part II, balitmore, pittsburgh, atlanta, new york, and new orleans games. we got killed. And then factor in the fact that seatle, arizona, and cincinatti don’t even throw the ball, it means that we are in trouble. Balmor can fix that at the nose. But a big issue now has occured. The niners need to watch balmor carefully. If, and a big if, we think he could be a dominate defensive player, then we need to either have him pack on 20 punds or so and become a major force, or change to a 4-3, with smith, balmor, franklin/sagatoga, and lawson in the front 4 and thomas, willis, and banti-cain/ that rookie/ someone else. So it is a pretty good pick. As for the second pick, a maor sleeper. He’s got a huge upside. we will just have to see.

I know this is going to sound crazy, but I was a little shocked when the 9ers took Willis last year. Obviously it was a good move, but I thought there were more pressing needs at other positions. At the time, inside linebacker was a relatively strong position. Derek Smith, Brandon Moore, and Ulbrich were far from a dream team, but they were NFL-caliber players. Other positions had greater need, namely Nose Tackle and Free Safety. The team passed on some highly touted prospects at both of those positions when they took Willis. But it turned out that Willis was the best player on the board and he was the right pick.

The same happened this year. It seemed to me that a guy like Balmer is best fit to play end in the 9ers 3-4 and end is the one position where the 9ers just signed two big contracts – Justin Smith and “Sagatoga” (by the way, montasmob69’s post was hilarious). Maybe Balmer ends up at DT, or maybe Balmer pushes Sopoanga to DT, but whatever happens there’s a reasonably good player getting pushed off the field. This is the same thing that happened last year. In the preseason, Willis pushed Smith out of the lineup, then Smith got back in the lineup but Moore was riding pine. But that was the right thing to do then and I have confidence that this is the right thing to do now.

All this leads me to a conclusion about the McNolan draft strategy. I think most would agree that the biggest hole in the 49ers defense is at ROLB. But they didn’t draft to address that weakness. They drafted the best player available. Hopefully, it works as well this time as it did last time.

it was pretty bad. if it was good than how could warrick dunn run for over 100 yards, as well as 6 other teams. I know it is not our main issue, but it is important none the less. As for the pass rush, he will need to gain 10-20 pounds in order to be consistantly double-teams and free up lawson.