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1997 Draft: Drunken Miller vs. The Snake - What Was vs. What Could've Been


1997.  Drunken Miller vs. The Snake.  I won't say the moment the 49ers selected Jim Druckenmiller will go down in infamy, but it sure sucked looking back.  This post is motivated by ESPN's column today, detailing the 50 biggest busts in NFL Draft History.  Fortunately for us, Jim Druckenmiller ranks 11th.  The misfortunes of Drunken Miller have been rehashed to no end, so I thought why not look at what could've been.  Clearly nothing good can come of this, but I'm curious what people think the end result might have been had the 49ers followed Bill Walsh's advice and drafted Jake Plummer.

There are two issues in play.  First, how would this have affected the 49ers short and long term success and two, how would this have affected Jake Plummer's career?

49ers future
Following the 1997 draft, Steve Young put up back-to-back 100+ passer rating seasons.  1999 saw things come to an end, but before the injury, Young was clearly on top of his game.  The 49ers went 13-3 and 12-4 with postseason ending at the hands of Green Bay and Atlanta.  The following season saw Steve Young's career come to an end and Jeff Garcia take over as the starting quarterback.  The 49ers went 4-12 and 6-10 those first two years, before returning to the postseason in 2001 and 2002.  Once Garcia took hold, things were good for a little while.  Even though Garcia never had all the physical skills of a big time QB, he took care of business and made things happen.

What would have happened if Jake Plummer had spent 2+ seasons learning under one of the greatest scrambling QBs ever?  Assuming 1999 plays out the same way, you'd have to think 4-12 just doesn't happen.  Garcia was stuck in a train wreck of a situation.  Plummer would have entered the scene in a situation quite similar to Steve McNair.  Learn for 2 years and then be handed the keys to the car.  It's obviously impossible to predict how the 1999 49ers and beyond would've done, but one has to believe 10-22 between 1999 and 2000 would not have happened.  I think at least one playoff appearance results and more importantly, there's NO WAY IN HELL Dennis Erickson ever becomes coach of this team.  I don't know what would have happened with Steve Mariucci, but the 2003-2004 depression would not have happened.  

And how would Plummer have handled this change?

Jake Plummer future
Jake the Snake came out of Arizona State as a gunslinging, scrambling hero.  After starting 9 games his rookie season, the Snake led the Cardinals to their first playoff appearance in 18 years and a rather stunning road upset of the Dallas Cowboys.  Things immediately went down hill before Plummer ended up in Denver.  While Plummer had a reasonably solid career, he never quite met the expectations coming out of ASU.

What would have happened in San Francisco?  As mentioned above, he would have had the opportunity  to learn under one of the greatest scrambling quarterbacks in history.  Furthermore, you just know Bill Walsh would have gotten his hands on Plummer at some point to work with him.  Plummer seems like he could have been a more talented version of Jeff Garcia: better arm and better scrambling, but a chance to learn as opposed to being thrown in the fire, as happened with Garcia.  

Of course you never know how things would have turned out for Plummer's career, but I think at the very least his career winning percentage would be much higher.  In six seasons in Arizona, Plummer was 34-62, a winning percentage .354.  In San Francisco, he'd have won significantly more and I think you'd see much better statistics.  In Arizona, some combination of Frank Sanders, Rob Moore and David Boston were his big receivers.  In San Francisco he could have worked with guys like Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens.  Throw in some other great skill position players and I think we could have expected big things from Jake the Snake.

Obviously this certainly leaves us shaking our heads at what could have been.  Jim Druckenmiller was a big, fat bust and based on how well things could have gone with Jake Plummer at the helm, I have no problem throwing a nice, big chunk of blame Drunken Miller's way for the franchise struggles since the turn of the century.  So, now let's open the floor.  Besides spewing venom at Druckenmiller, thoughts on what could have been for a 49er Snake?

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Seems pertinent, so I'll X-post
Wrote this in another thread:

"Jake Plummer was one of my favorite players early in his career, and I always had a soft spot for him through the bitter end. He's probably the clearest case, in my memory, of a true talent having the talent just beaten out of him by an awful team. Much more than two easy modern comparables: Harrington and Carr - Harrington who would flash his talent but never started to put it together, and Carr who managed to demonstrate, remarkably, total adequacy in a craptastic system, though never with any flash. plummer was a singular case of a guy who came in and actually developed, who flashed his potential and despite an uphill battle started to really put things together (let's not forget the Cardinal's PLAYOFF appearance under Plummer!) before the weight of the crap around him finally just crushed his ability to keep it going.

In Denver, it was almost a tragic case. You could see that he still had all the talent that was going to make him a great QB before he lost it, but he had been so severely damaged by his time in Arizona that he couldn't return to a place where he could access it freely.

I seem to remember him being a little bit of a jerk in Denver, too, which is too bad if I'm remembering correctly. It's hard to watch players you want to like act like asses."

I would have LOVED to have drafted Plummer instead of Druckenmiller. I honestly think his failures were a product strictly of his circumstances, and that on most other teams he would have put it together and have been a top QB in the league for a long time.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down... over and over....

by howtheyscored on Apr 17, 2008 11:26 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

I still don't understand...
... how the 49ers passed up Plummer.  His arm wasn't as strong as Druckenmiller's, but he was sure as heck more athletic.  On top of that, he had the Bill Walsh endorsement, what more do you really need to ask for?

Just one of those decisions you KNOW the franchise wishes they can have back, but you just can't turn back time.

by sfgfan on Apr 18, 2008 9:23 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

More Athletic?
I'm not sure if it's as cut and dry as you think it was.  Plummer may have been more fleet-a-foot than Druckenmiller but I'm not sure he was "sure as heck more athletic".  I think Druckenmiller dominated some obstacle course at VT that involved pulling station wagons and I think he posted pretty close to a 40" vertical leap.  He was also pretty ridiculously strong for a QB.

I also stumbled on article that mentioned Joe Flacco being eerily similar to Druckenmiller.  Good luck Joe.

Here's an article from '98 in SF Gate discussing this very topic.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/12/31/SP24612.DTL

Here's another article from '97 in the New York Times discussing Druckenmiller.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E0DD1E31F931A35750C0A961958260

Here's to hoping Albert Hanyesworth stomps on Alex Smith's head.

by methodrampage on Apr 18, 2008 9:39 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Drunken Miller vs The Snake
I got the sense that the Niners brass wanted a big, mostly injury-proof QB. Montana and Young tended to get hurt and Young was one hit away from retiring.  They say video of Druck lifting cars with the V-tech  o-line and saw a guy who could never get hurt.  Plummer more or less had a Joe Montana-like body, so maybe that scared them...

by DanaMcLemore on Apr 20, 2008 11:16 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

For what it's worth...
... ESPN has Druckenmiller has the 11th biggest bust in NFL Draft history.  I can't believe Charles Rogers is ahead of Druckenmiller.  Druckenmiller just sucked.  Rogers was almost like a pane of glass early in his career.  I think plain out sucks wins here.

by sfgfan on Apr 18, 2008 9:28 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

The Dirty
As the draft nears and we continue to remember the good, the bad and the ugly... may I divert these thoughts to this:

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/sports.aol.com/fanhouse/media/2008/04/alexsmithdirty.jpg

The Cute, The Drunk and The Mexican

*Fooch can you delete the last comment*

Joe and Steve were under the same system for years... don't expect Smith to be super so soon.

by bayboy on Apr 18, 2008 11:11 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Thanks!
Joe and Steve were under the same system for years... don't expect Smith to be super so soon.

by bayboy on Apr 18, 2008 11:19 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

I think that is El Guapo!
Maybe El Guapo can help provide us with a plethora of wins next season.
"To know clearly what pleases the world is but a brief dream." --Machivelli

by jfainsf49 on Apr 18, 2008 11:53 AM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Coulda been the greatest!
Jim Druckenmiller could have - nay, SHOULD have - been the greatest quarterback EVER!  But Bill Walsh screwed up my...  Er, HIS career!

Good times.

Thinking of giving up sports and taking up heavy drinking.

by Drunken Miller on Apr 18, 2008 1:38 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

ESPN reads Niners Nation!
Wow, here's a testament to your abilities, fooch: Matt Mosley pointed readers of his blog to this article. http://myespn.go.com/blogs/hashmarks/0-6-149/Revisionist-history--The-Druckenmiller-Years.html

by spenczar on Apr 18, 2008 5:22 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

ESPN
As much as I would like to say my general awesomeness lead ESPN to me, I have to admit that I emailed the link to Matt.  I've emailed him a couple of times about this or that and decided to pass along the link since it was related to an ESPN story (the top 50 busts article).  

I try and pass along links to bigger sites.  Figure maybe 49ers fans who haven't found us will stumble across it and come check out NN.  While I certainly want to increase traffic, I also want to get repeat readers.  And of course, maybe Mosley will keep an eye out and link to us in the future.

Niners Nation - The premier 49ers blog on the Internet!

by Fooch on Apr 18, 2008 5:34 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

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