Don’t bring up that name again or it’s a neg trainIt was Rashaun Woods all over again.
So We Really Gotta Get A 5th String QB Huh....2023 49ers Offseason Thread
- Thread starter Rekkapryde
- Start date
There's a reason why there's so many injuries
the training room not being up to par explains a lot
the training room not being up to par explains a lot
Dat916nigga
Superstar
Makes sense. Injuries with this team have been a big issue since the Harbaugh Era
Is Jed gonna fix it, tho?
jwonder
Superstar
Jmare007
pico pal q lee
Adam Peters did a Q&A with Barrows for an Athletic piece
Are you saying that having no first- or second-round picks is less concerning in a year like this?
Well, that’s the only way we can look at it. We’re picking where we’re picking. And we’ve gotten great players. I mean, we got Christian (McCaffrey) for the picks we gave up. So it’s our job to find guys. And we have a lot of picks. It’s not like we don’t have a lot of picks. We think we’re getting 10 picks. The compensatory picks haven’t been given out yet. We don’t know exactly where they are or how many there will be. But we’re shooting for about 10. So we’re going to have a chance to get some good players.
I know that you don’t grade prospects by round like the media does. How do you grade them?
We grade them by what we think their role is going to be for us. And a lot of times the number we give them equates to a certain round range. But it’s never, This number is Round 1, this number is Round 2. It’s really, What do we think this player’s role is going to be for the 49ers? And that’s how we stack them on our board. Usually the guys who are picked in the first and second round — the third round, sometimes — have starter grades on them. But it really just depends on how the board falls.
It seems that a lot of your later-round picks may have exceeded their initial grades. Talanoa Hufanga was a fifth-rounder who became a starter. George Kittle was a fifth-rounder who became a Pro Bowler. Did Hufanga have a grade that came with an asterisk, one that indicated he had the potential to become a starter?
I think with Hufanga, the grade that we had on him — and it’s been a couple of years now, so I’m just going off of memory — but we had a pretty high grade on him really throughout the whole process. He got bumped down a little bit on a lot of teams’ boards because of how he performed in these types of drills (at the combine), which is only a small piece of the puzzle. His play on the field was awesome at SC and he was exemplary. We talked about it. He was a gold helmet. And those types of players usually end up playing if not to, then above their potential. So with Hufanga, and not just us but all the teams, it was just a matter of recency bias. The most recent thing we saw was that he dropped down to 200 pounds and he ran a 4.6(-second 40-yard dash). And that wasn’t the real him. Your eyes see something totally different when you watch him on Sundays. He’s one of the fastest guys on the field.
What does he weigh now? He’s certainly not 200.
I don’t know exactly. But I can tell you that at SC I think he played around 214, 215. He was trying to run fast at the combine and tried to lose the weight. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.
What do you say to your staff when you trade a couple of first-round picks for Trey Lance and second-, third- and fourth-round picks for McCaffrey? Does the scouting staff have to change course when those top picks are traded away?
We’re sitting here today and we don’t have those picks. But things can change. So our job remains the same. One, for historical purposes, getting guys (evaluated) in the right spot and getting their information. Say a guy gets picked in the first round and the next year his team wants to trade him. Well, did we do all the work in college, do we have all his character information? So you do the same amount of work on those top guys. You may not spend as much time with them on a 30 visit or at the combine. But you’re still doing the full workup on the guys because there are so many different scenarios where that player, that opportunity is going to come up whether it’s this year or four years down the road in free agency.
How much time have you spent with new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks to figure out what he wants in a player?
It’s been really good. Steve came in with a great reputation. Once we hired him I got a bunch of text messages saying not just how smart he is and how good of a coach he is, but how good of a person he is. They all said, you’re going to really like this guy. And sure enough, he’s been fantastic so far. Those guys actually just got into the office this week. So as we were leaving they got in. But we spent a lot of time on the phone and in Zoom meetings with them. And in the meetings we’ve had he’s been really able to communicate and articulate it really well. I’m really excited to work with him.
Is his background with defensive backs?
Yeah, I think he’s gonna really concentrate there. You know, we have a lot of young defensive backs, so I think he’ll help them a lot. And I think that probably will be his day-to-day focus, on top of calling the defense.
The 49ers have a very specific run-blocking scheme. Are there any colleges that use that style of zone blocking?
Yeah, there are. I would definitely single out Iowa. Because they’ve been doing it forever and they’ve been doing it at a high level for a long time. They’ve been running the wide zone and just how coordinated and in-sync their offensive linemen are. They’re coached really, really well there. So I think Iowa is the bell cow and there are a few more. But it’s few and far between. You’re watching a lot of spread offenses and you’re trying to project. And then when you project the player still has to adjust to it. That’s why it’s tough to develop O-linemen and get them to play well and to play early.
How do you project an offensive lineman to the 49ers’ scheme? Are there certain tests and drills you look at more than others?
LSU, for example. Last year they ran very little wide zone. But what’s really cool now with all the technology is you can click a button and pull, out of a thousand snaps, their 10 wide-zone plays. So you use all these little bits of information. Obviously, the player in that situation probably isn’t going to be as good because he doesn’t rep it as much. But you can tell how fast he gets off the ball, how fast he moves. There are drills at the combine, drills at the pro day you can have them do to get a little bit better gauge of how it would translate to our level.
And then the Senior Bowl always has been a good tool for us, not just the O-line but everything. That’s where you find the Fred Warners who play out in space and then (at the Senior Bowl) they’re in the box. You get to see them do different things. And we hope that the Senior Bowl team that’s coaching is running a similar scheme. … Last year the Jets coached the Senior Bowl, so that was helpful. It’s an apples-to-apples comparison in a lot of respects, so it helps us for sure. (The 49ers drafted two players, offensive lineman Nick Zakelj and cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields, who were coached by the Jets at last year’s Senior Bowl).
Defensive line coach Kris Kocurek looks at 10-yard splits when it comes to defensive linemen. Is that valuable for offensive linemen?
Yes. All those guys in the trenches there. Because none of them are running 40 yards, and if they are it’s usually to celebrate.
I’ve seen your centers run 40 yards every now and then.
Yes, I think we have a viral center’s clip every year. Ben Garland had one against Seattle. And Jake (Brendel) had one this year, too. I think it was against Arizona. Sometimes we joke that they’re doing it just to show off — they just want to get in the frame.
Well, that’s the only way we can look at it. We’re picking where we’re picking. And we’ve gotten great players. I mean, we got Christian (McCaffrey) for the picks we gave up. So it’s our job to find guys. And we have a lot of picks. It’s not like we don’t have a lot of picks. We think we’re getting 10 picks. The compensatory picks haven’t been given out yet. We don’t know exactly where they are or how many there will be. But we’re shooting for about 10. So we’re going to have a chance to get some good players.
I know that you don’t grade prospects by round like the media does. How do you grade them?
We grade them by what we think their role is going to be for us. And a lot of times the number we give them equates to a certain round range. But it’s never, This number is Round 1, this number is Round 2. It’s really, What do we think this player’s role is going to be for the 49ers? And that’s how we stack them on our board. Usually the guys who are picked in the first and second round — the third round, sometimes — have starter grades on them. But it really just depends on how the board falls.
It seems that a lot of your later-round picks may have exceeded their initial grades. Talanoa Hufanga was a fifth-rounder who became a starter. George Kittle was a fifth-rounder who became a Pro Bowler. Did Hufanga have a grade that came with an asterisk, one that indicated he had the potential to become a starter?
I think with Hufanga, the grade that we had on him — and it’s been a couple of years now, so I’m just going off of memory — but we had a pretty high grade on him really throughout the whole process. He got bumped down a little bit on a lot of teams’ boards because of how he performed in these types of drills (at the combine), which is only a small piece of the puzzle. His play on the field was awesome at SC and he was exemplary. We talked about it. He was a gold helmet. And those types of players usually end up playing if not to, then above their potential. So with Hufanga, and not just us but all the teams, it was just a matter of recency bias. The most recent thing we saw was that he dropped down to 200 pounds and he ran a 4.6(-second 40-yard dash). And that wasn’t the real him. Your eyes see something totally different when you watch him on Sundays. He’s one of the fastest guys on the field.
What does he weigh now? He’s certainly not 200.
I don’t know exactly. But I can tell you that at SC I think he played around 214, 215. He was trying to run fast at the combine and tried to lose the weight. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.
What do you say to your staff when you trade a couple of first-round picks for Trey Lance and second-, third- and fourth-round picks for McCaffrey? Does the scouting staff have to change course when those top picks are traded away?
We’re sitting here today and we don’t have those picks. But things can change. So our job remains the same. One, for historical purposes, getting guys (evaluated) in the right spot and getting their information. Say a guy gets picked in the first round and the next year his team wants to trade him. Well, did we do all the work in college, do we have all his character information? So you do the same amount of work on those top guys. You may not spend as much time with them on a 30 visit or at the combine. But you’re still doing the full workup on the guys because there are so many different scenarios where that player, that opportunity is going to come up whether it’s this year or four years down the road in free agency.
How much time have you spent with new defensive coordinator Steve Wilks to figure out what he wants in a player?
It’s been really good. Steve came in with a great reputation. Once we hired him I got a bunch of text messages saying not just how smart he is and how good of a coach he is, but how good of a person he is. They all said, you’re going to really like this guy. And sure enough, he’s been fantastic so far. Those guys actually just got into the office this week. So as we were leaving they got in. But we spent a lot of time on the phone and in Zoom meetings with them. And in the meetings we’ve had he’s been really able to communicate and articulate it really well. I’m really excited to work with him.
Is his background with defensive backs?
Yeah, I think he’s gonna really concentrate there. You know, we have a lot of young defensive backs, so I think he’ll help them a lot. And I think that probably will be his day-to-day focus, on top of calling the defense.
The 49ers have a very specific run-blocking scheme. Are there any colleges that use that style of zone blocking?
Yeah, there are. I would definitely single out Iowa. Because they’ve been doing it forever and they’ve been doing it at a high level for a long time. They’ve been running the wide zone and just how coordinated and in-sync their offensive linemen are. They’re coached really, really well there. So I think Iowa is the bell cow and there are a few more. But it’s few and far between. You’re watching a lot of spread offenses and you’re trying to project. And then when you project the player still has to adjust to it. That’s why it’s tough to develop O-linemen and get them to play well and to play early.
How do you project an offensive lineman to the 49ers’ scheme? Are there certain tests and drills you look at more than others?
LSU, for example. Last year they ran very little wide zone. But what’s really cool now with all the technology is you can click a button and pull, out of a thousand snaps, their 10 wide-zone plays. So you use all these little bits of information. Obviously, the player in that situation probably isn’t going to be as good because he doesn’t rep it as much. But you can tell how fast he gets off the ball, how fast he moves. There are drills at the combine, drills at the pro day you can have them do to get a little bit better gauge of how it would translate to our level.
And then the Senior Bowl always has been a good tool for us, not just the O-line but everything. That’s where you find the Fred Warners who play out in space and then (at the Senior Bowl) they’re in the box. You get to see them do different things. And we hope that the Senior Bowl team that’s coaching is running a similar scheme. … Last year the Jets coached the Senior Bowl, so that was helpful. It’s an apples-to-apples comparison in a lot of respects, so it helps us for sure. (The 49ers drafted two players, offensive lineman Nick Zakelj and cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields, who were coached by the Jets at last year’s Senior Bowl).
Defensive line coach Kris Kocurek looks at 10-yard splits when it comes to defensive linemen. Is that valuable for offensive linemen?
Yes. All those guys in the trenches there. Because none of them are running 40 yards, and if they are it’s usually to celebrate.
I’ve seen your centers run 40 yards every now and then.
Yes, I think we have a viral center’s clip every year. Ben Garland had one against Seattle. And Jake (Brendel) had one this year, too. I think it was against Arizona. Sometimes we joke that they’re doing it just to show off — they just want to get in the frame.
Dat916nigga
Superstar
Good read
I’m not sure if we’ll get an instant starter in this draft but I have confidence that we’ll get a future starter or two. The scouting department usually does its best work on Day 3
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
B90X
All Star
Good read.
I think they trade up in the draft to the top of the 3rd round and grab a center. There are some good ones to be had. No way we use all 10 picks a la Baalke.
Dat916nigga
Superstar
Using all our draft picks could happen. We had 9 picks last year and used all of them without any trades
But whether they trade up and down the board or stay put, we need as many picks as possible. The more expensive the roster gets, the more crucial hitting on those picks become
jwonder
Superstar
I wanted Armstead cut after that horrible shyt he did. That was a safety gift. The one on Bosa in the Seacock game was just plain ridiculous.
jwonder
Superstar
They don't draft well until after the second round anyway.
Jmare007
pico pal q lee
B90X
All Star
Insurrection talking like a normal human being
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
We are going to have to draft really well again...
