OVERRATED WALSH, OVERRATED DRAFT

Walsh's last draft ranks average

April 25, 2000 (NHS) -- If suffering through a draft in which the 49ers actually pick a decent player and slightly improve themselves is the price we have to pay to finally see the end of the flood of "Bill Walsh is a genius" garbage spewing forth from the media, we'll take it ... because at this point, it really can't get any worse.

The assault came early and often and from all sides. "49ers, Chargers Appear to be Winners in Draft", gushed the San Francisco Chronicle. Sure, forget about Seattle and St. Louis and the other teams that added serious starting talent -- apparently only the 49ers, who took the second- or third-rated defensive end and some other guys not ranked in the top three on anyone's lists, as well as the near-afterthought Chargers, happened to be the Big Winners. The San Jose Mercury couldn't bear to be left out of the fun and branded Walsh as a "Picasso" (you'll see a recurring theme here very soon) who is "so many steps ahead that we can barely follow" his Genius.

And then there was a grandiose piece from one of our favorite Niner lackeys, Dan Pompei of the Sporting News. Given that this would be the Genius's last draft at the helm of the great 49er ship, Pompei decided to tag along for the ride to see greatness in action. The result? A two-part fluff piece exalting the legendary Old Man, complete with sickening "journalism" such as "Walsh was more artist than architect" and that "he saw more in five minutes than others saw in five hours." Pompei didn't bother to mention that Walsh may not have even spent the requisite five minutes scouting Reggie McGrew before picking that bust in the first round two years ago.

With the blizzard of media sewage in full effect in the days leading up to the draft, us poor unenlightened fans were led to believe that the Genius (or is he now the Artist -- or is that Prince? We forget ...) was going to pull some more magic and trade down to stock up on a bunch of lower picks. Instead, he had targeted defensive end Andre Carter, a relentless though undersized defensive end, as his top pick. With the Bears also looking at Carter as one possible option at the #8 overall slot, and the Niners scheduled to pick one slot later, Walsh had to pull a deal to move up instead of down.

This was easily accomplished by picking up the phone and calling his old buddy Mike Holmgren, who was eager to trade with the Niners. Holmgren and his mentor (remember, Walsh is somehow personally responsible for the success of every coach in the NFL, whether or not he's ever worked with them at any point in their careers) put together a quick deal that allowed the Seattle coach to recoup a third-rounder he had a lost in an earlier trade with Green Bay. Walsh gleefully stepped into the #7 slot and snagged Carter, and according to Pompei, verily, there was much rejoicing in the Niner war room. Hallelujah, praise onto thee, oh Wonderful Genius.

ESPN chubster Chris Berman, another famous Niner shill, couldn't wait to get the pretentious codger on the video conferencing line and dissect the intricate deal with him. "He was a tough negotiator," Walsh said of Holmgren. "I'm not sure where he learned that." Hmm, could the implication be that he learned it from you, Bill? Nah, the Genius would never be that self-serving... would he?

Berman also found time to chastise the Bears for blabbing about their pick. Inexcusable, he said. Funny that we don't seem to remember Berman laying the same blame on the Niners three years ago when they openly coveted tackle Mo Collins, only to watch the Raiders trade right in front of them to select him, forcing Steve Mariucci to select R.W. McQuarters. Mooch hilariously had the gall to call McQuarters "Plan AA", yet this was somehow happily swallowed by the media. Of course, we wouldn't expect any sort of consistency from Berman, whose favorite city in the world, as he is so fond of saying, is San Francisco.

As for the pick itself, we can't really find fault here. Some scouting reports list Carter as undersized and not necessarily a great pass-rusher, but some of us NHS types watched him play at Cal and came away fairly impressed. He won't necessarily become a star, but it wasn't a bad pick or a reach by any stretch. Unfortunately for the Niners, Carter is only a start towards respectability, not a final piece of a puzzle.

Therefore, knowing that he still had roughly five thousand needs to fill and about seven dollars' worth of cap room to do it, meaning that he had to build through the draft, the Genius went after defense again in the second round, taking linebacker Jamie Winborn. While this may have been a need pick for the Niners, it was too high a spot for Winborn to go -- he wasn't among the top forty players on any boards and was actually rated at around the fifth-best available outside backer by several major scouts and pundits.

Meanwhile, the Niners still hadn't addressed their running game, which is not only devoid of talent, but of actual players -- Charlie Garner bolted for better climes across the Bay, and Garrison Hearst is unlikely to ever play again on his chronically bad ankle. San Francisco went after a RB in the third round and came away with Kevin Barlow, which immediately solicited a call from Bronco coach Mike Shanahan (a completely impartial observer with no ties to Walsh -- whoops, we must be thinking of hockey player Brendan Shanahan), who told the Genius that Barlow was probably the best back in the entire draft. All the pundits beg to differ, but who knows -- if Barlow ever gets the chance to run behind Denver's line, he could become an All-Pro like the rest of the scrubs Shanahan drafts that turn into gold. At least Shanahan's words made for good print in all the Bandwagon papers, and that's all that's really important to the Niner fans, anyway.

The rest of the picks were pretty nondescript. With five picks in the last two rounds, San Francisco got a receiver from Tennessee who averaged only 11 yards a catch his senior year -- hell, they just got rid of Jerry Rice, who did the same thing, so why would they want to replace him? The remainder of the draft take was just as unimpressive.

Still, we can't fault the 49ers for this draft, although we definitely won't go so far as to call them "winners". The Rams got three defensive starters, and the Seahawks took three players rated as the best at their positions -- teams like that were the real winners. The Niners came out probably average to above average, which is more than we can say for their drafts over the last several years, yet to hear the media talk of it, Walsh pulled his "magic" one last time.

Thankfully, soon the draft crescendo will die down, the season will approach, reality will hit, and as Walsh saddles up and heads off into the nursing home sunset, all his great draft picks will piece together a wonderful 7-9 season this year, at best. And, thankfully, we will never have to endure another draft season of countless stories talking about the "artistry" of Bill Walsh.

Of course, if any of these players pan out, we'll still be subjected to the near-posthumous media splooging about Walsh's draft acumen in the coming years, but blissfully there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. After all, Jamie Winborn can't play forever, can he?

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