49ers' GM Trent Baalke needs to be able to make the big trade in the NFL Draft

Quarterbacks are special. The NFL may deny it, teams will claim that every player gets the same treatment and they count against the same salary cap, but we all know that quarterbacks are special. Barring a few outliers, teams with great quarterbacks can find success and teams with bad quarterbacks don't.

Having a franchise quarterback is worth more to a team than any other single player and basically most groups of players at a single position. The San Francisco 49ers thought they had a franchise quarterback in Colin Kaepernick, but he crashed and burned in such a spectacular way that he's become disillusioned with the franchise and its fans have lost all confidence.

The 49ers may be in a position to acquire a potential franchise quarterback in the 2016 NFL Draft. I haven't personally spent much time studying this year's group of quarterbacks, but we basically know the top guys, right? Jared Goff and Carson Wentz lead the pack and then there's a handful of guys a tier below after that.

And the 49ers are in the bad position of potentially being able to get one of those guys, or being completely shut out by a team with the same pressing need ahead of them or set to jump ahead of them via a trade. But the actual quarterback the 49ers could end up with is inconsequential to what I'm about to say, and if you've been here at this time in previous years, you'll already know what it is...

If the 49ers believe they have a franchise quarterback and there is a way to get that franchise quarterback, they have to pull the trigger. They absolutely have to. I've been a big proponent of going and getting the thing you want in the NFL Draft, and Trent Baalke has always been a guy to do that. He hasn't always been successful with his picks, but nobody can deny the 49ers have went into their war room on draft day knowing who they were going to pick in recent years.

They knew. And if the 49ers find a quarterback who gives them a similar feeling and there is a team willing to make a deal, then the 49ers simply have to move. If it has to be a ballsy move, then it has to be a ballsy move. But at the rate things are going, Chip Kelly is not going to turn this team around in a season. The 49ers have to take a risk if the guy they want is there.

Mostly, the worst thing that could happen to this team -- worse than losing multiple draft picks over multiple years in a blown first-round trade -- is inaction. The situation is as dire as advertised and yes, the 49ers are one of the worst teams in the league now. The greatness of NaVorro Bowman or the promise of Carlos Hyde doesn't change that.