I think it's a mistake to go into "reload" mode

[imac_21]

i hope we don't force picks. i'd rather trade out of the 2nd instead of forcing a pick

When we're on the clock with the 61st pick, there will be a best player on the board. Forcing the pick would be drafting the 120th best player to fill a need. If we draft the 61st (or 65th for that matter) best player, we aren't forcing the pick.

 

[Flyingiguana]

When we're on the clock with the 61st pick, there will be a best player on the board. Forcing the pick would be drafting the 120th best player to fill a need. If we draft the 61st (or 65th for that matter) best player, we aren't forcing the pick.

taking a wr in the first two rounds sounds more like taking the best player at X position not the actual best player. who very well could be a center or a corner.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Revisiting one of Iguana's posts, John Carlson is a guy who might bear some consideration. I don't know what his health situation is, but I really thought he was a guy who was on the rise before Carroll arrived in town. After two bad years, he might come cheap, and adding TEs to Harbaugh's offense might be a good fallback if we are having trouble landing WRs.

Having said that, I think the five-players-from-excellence argument is pretty ridiculous. If we need pro bowl-caliber players at every position to have a good offense, we've got a pretty big problem at the QB position. If Smith can't make our offense click without superior talent at every single position, we need to move on. I don't necessarily think that's true, but if we even think it is, we may need to give Kaepernick his shot sooner rather than later.

 

[Flyingiguana]

i'd like to see us run a double TE offense like stanford and the pats run. carlson if healthy will have a big year. if not, we have delanie or a guy like dwayne allen in the draft if we take him in the 1st.

u need talent to be an excellent offense. we have one of the worst pass blocking lines in the league and the run blocking was maybe even worse. it was a reason why our redzone o was so bad.

we need a center big time and another player would make it a very good group. ideally i'd like to see an upgrade at LT, but not sure if we can do it. glenn is a possibilty but after the senior bowl i think he's gone by 20. *IF* we can get glenn and *IF* he can play LT, that moves staley to RT and davis to RG. that's a heck of a right side imo and it helps to limit both staley's and davis' weaknesses. our interior line with an upgrade at center will hold up much better. that'll help hold the pocket longer and help in those short yardage situations.

wr we need help, two starters are needed, but with a legit starting TE we could get away with crabtree or morgan as a #2. problem is i don't see a legit starting TE. carlson is a maybe if he can get back to his pre-injury form.

one offensive line upgrade and two upgrades at either wr or te would make the offense above average. excellent would require 4-5 upgrades and/or smith taking the next step.

 

[dredinis21]

I think that there is going to be a HUGE push towards drafting TE to mimic the mismatches that the Pats created consistently. That prediction also goes towards FA as well, where I believe guys like Carlson will be given a bankroll that could choke a hippo regardless of injury history simply because of the receiving potential. I really wouldn't be surprised to see some Jordy Nelson-type WRs still around in the 4th/5th rounds that could be had.

Part of me wants to get a BIG TE a la Gronk and join the craze, but the other part of me wants to see our WR corps solidified first before adding TEs which to me are luxury picks given our current situation with VD and DW.

 

[dredinis21]

Revisiting one of Iguana's posts, John Carlson is a guy who might bear some consideration. I don't know what his health situation is, but I really thought he was a guy who was on the rise before Carroll arrived in town. After two bad years, he might come cheap, and adding TEs to Harbaugh's offense might be a good fallback if we are having trouble landing WRs.

Having said that, I think the five-players-from-excellence argument is pretty ridiculous. If we need pro bowl-caliber players at every position to have a good offense, we've got a pretty big problem at the QB position. If Smith can't make our offense click without superior talent at every single position, we need to move on. I don't necessarily think that's true, but if we even think it is, we may need to give Kaepernick his shot sooner rather than later.

I don't believe that we need 4-5 pro bowlers on offense but we do need to start looking at addressing our OL and WR weaknesses. Our WR just do NOT create separation at all and our interior line suffered a bit this season. Goodwin was ok, but not worth the contract he got and Rachal sucked out loud. Snyder wasn't great but looked like a ProBowler after coming in for Rachal because Rachal was just THAT bad.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

i'd like to see us run a double TE offense like stanford and the pats run. carlson if healthy will have a big year. if not, we have delanie or a guy like dwayne allen in the draft if we take him in the 1st.

u need talent to be an excellent offense. we have one of the worst pass blocking lines in the league and the run blocking was maybe even worse. it was a reason why our redzone o was so bad.

we need a center big time and another player would make it a very good group. ideally i'd like to see an upgrade at LT, but not sure if we can do it. glenn is a possibilty but after the senior bowl i think he's gone by 20. *IF* we can get glenn and *IF* he can play LT, that moves staley to RT and davis to RG. that's a heck of a right side imo and it helps to limit both staley's and davis' weaknesses. our interior line with an upgrade at center will hold up much better. that'll help hold the pocket longer and help in those short yardage situations.

wr we need help, two starters are needed, but with a legit starting TE we could get away with crabtree or morgan as a #2. problem is i don't see a legit starting TE. carlson is a maybe if he can get back to his pre-injury form.

one offensive line upgrade and two upgrades at either wr or te would make the offense above average. excellent would require 4-5 upgrades and/or smith taking the next step.

There is, of course, no doubt that we need some upgrades on offense. But we shouldn't need Davis, another very good TE, two pro-bowl caliber WRs in Colston and Lloyd, and two upgrades on the OL to be great, as you have suggested, unless we have a serious problem at QB.

A great QB makes everyone around him better. As much as Smith improved this year, he's still not making his supporting cast better. I'm hopeful he can improve next year, but he took an awful lot of sacks he probably shouldn't have this year, missed more than his share of open receivers, and failed to hit open guys when he did throw. Smith's play wasn't the only thing holding us back by any means, but he had too much talent on the field to produce such a piss-poor passing offense. Our biggest struggles on offense came on 3rd down and in the red zone. If you ask me, that's more of a reflection on the QB than the OL. To be fair, we didn't throw all that much in the red zone, but that seems to reflect a lack of trust in the QB. And when we did throw, Smith didn't make plays nearly enough. He completed only 40% of his red zone passes, and guys like Matt Ryan, Matt Hasselbeck, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Mark Sanchez threw more red zone TDs than Smith threw TDs period. Smith's redzone numbers were worse than Tarvaris Jackson's. That's simply inexcusable.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

I think that there is going to be a HUGE push towards drafting TE to mimic the mismatches that the Pats created consistently. That prediction also goes towards FA as well, where I believe guys like Carlson will be given a bankroll that could choke a hippo regardless of injury history simply because of the receiving potential. I really wouldn't be surprised to see some Jordy Nelson-type WRs still around in the 4th/5th rounds that could be had.

Part of me wants to get a BIG TE a la Gronk and join the craze, but the other part of me wants to see our WR corps solidified first before adding TEs which to me are luxury picks given our current situation with VD and DW.

I can't see Carlson getting a lot of money. I wonder how much attention he drew outside the division, and now that he's had a bad year and a year on IR, I just can't see him getting paid a ton. He'll almost certainly leave Seattle at they have Miller (who they don't even take advantage of). I'd take a look. It's not a huge class of TEs, but with guys like Jermichael Finley (prob gets re-signed), Fred Davis, Visanthe Shiancoe, even Jacob Tamme available, I would be somewhat surprised if teams opened the vault for Carlson.

As much as part of me would love to go after a big-ticket FA WR, I'm not sure it will happen. There are quite a few interesting lower-price options in FA. I think we might add several of those guys on short deals, kick the tires and see if we can come up with something.

 

[Flyingiguana]

There is, of course, no doubt that we need some upgrades on offense. But we shouldn't need Davis, another very good TE, two pro-bowl caliber WRs in Colston and Lloyd, and two upgrades on the OL to be great, as you have suggested, unless we have a serious problem at QB.

A great QB makes everyone around him better. As much as Smith improved this year, he's still not making his supporting cast better. I'm hopeful he can improve next year, but he took an awful lot of sacks he probably shouldn't have this year, missed more than his share of open receivers, and failed to hit open guys when he did throw. Smith's play wasn't the only thing holding us back by any means, but he had too much talent on the field to produce such a piss-poor passing offense. Our biggest struggles on offense came on 3rd down and in the red zone. If you ask me, that's more of a reflection on the QB than the OL. To be fair, we didn't throw all that much in the red zone, but that seems to reflect a lack of trust in the QB. And when we did throw, Smith didn't make plays nearly enough. He completed only 40% of his red zone passes, and guys like Matt Ryan, Matt Hasselbeck, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Mark Sanchez threw more red zone TDs than Smith threw TDs period. Smith's redzone numbers were worse than Tarvaris Jackson's. That's simply inexcusable.

a lack of red zone target and the lack of push from the offensive line was a big problem in the red zone. 3rd down the pass protection wasn't good. when teams can pin their ears back on a 3rd and long it isn't pretty for our offense. the line improved a lot from the start of the season, but it started from one of the worst lines i've ever seen. not to mention fade passes to ginn in the red zone isn't gonna get things done, but the play calling is another issue.

i'd like to see a replacement for delanie. his hands are spotty and i don't think carlson would cost much coming off an injury. harbaugh uses two tight ends a lot and smith had his best success throwing to te's last year. which might have more to do with the lack of wr's. if carlson works out and turns into the 1st round talent that he should be, then we won't need both colston and lloyd.

whether or not smith can take the next step, we need to put some talent around the guy. we can't have goofballs like crabtree wasting space. vernon picked up his game in the playoffs, crabtree stunk up the joint in both games.