BEWARE rest of the NFL, Mike Iupati is a giant scary nut!
Bigger, stronger and faster. Want to see a roster stacked with ridiculous size/speed combination, look no further SF. The 49ers have used high picks like on players with production (Mays, Davis), injury (Gore, Ray McDonald) and character (Crabtree, RJF) questions. Aside from a few need picks over the last few years they don't seem to draft anyone in any round that isn't a physical beast. Last year we started to see the tangible benefits of this philosophical approach as V.D. and Goldson had break out years and Willis put together another All-Pro campaign. Crabtree did what he could to address the Diva concerns with play that certainly surprised me and I think surprised a lot of people.
The 49ers have showed a great willingness to roll the dice on players who have all the physical gifts but may have red flag that would scare other teams away and they've done it without developing a "Bengals" culture where they blotter and team news are side by side in the local paper.
I'll even give Mike Nolan some credit on this one, he knew when to cut his losses (Antonio Bryant). For the most part though, the 49ers just aren't getting into trouble. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the team had only one arrest this off-season when Ray McDonald was arrested for a DUI, that would be pretty damn good for any organization of 55 or so 23-29 year old males, but for an NFL football team that doesn't even really seem to draft for character as a priority.. Amazing! Of course Singletary has to get a lot of credit for this, but it also seems like the 49ers have a lot of players who have stepped up as leaders and are creating a culture of success both on and off the field.
I'm really excited to see what this year’s class of monsters can do. I think Taylor Mays is going to be a starter early in the season or at least get very significant playing time, and I think he'll make a lot of people regret passing on him, just a hunch. I also think we'll see more of Navarro Bowman than anyone expects, and I think he's another guy that five years from now will look like an absolute steal.



There are 44 Comments. Load Now.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.