What a difference a Walsh makes

Media treating 49ers like any other team in 2003 draft

April 30, 2003 (NHS) -- It's often said that there are no guarantees in the NFL draft, but it wasn't that long ago when one certainty was that on the Monday following the draft, the media would trumpet all the gems, steals, and next "best evers" drafted by the 49ers in their role of reminding the Bandwagon just how much smarter, more clever, and oh-so-much-more classy the 49ers were than all the rest of those other piddling NFL franchises.

After all, how could any of those sorry teams ever hope to compete against Bill Walsh, a man that's "more artist than architect" and who "sees more in five minutes than others see in five hours," according to a 2001 draft review from one of our favorite unbiased experts at The Sporting News. Yes, the draft used to be that time in the offseason when Niner fans' juices started getting going for their next divine Super Bowl run, which is what makes this week's silence in the Bay Area so deafening.

Walsh has given way to new GM Terry Donahue, and with the media's favorite guru of the past no longer calling the shots at Niner Draft Central, we're seeing some lukewarm responses coming from the traditional bastions of Niner-licking. Take for example the "C-" from ESPN.com. This is ESPN's lowest grade for the 49ers since the NHS was born in the mid-'90s.

Was this really the 49ers' worst draft since 1995? To refresh your memory, we're talking about drafts with top picks like Israel Ifeanyi, Jim Druckenmiller, R.W. McQuarters and Reggie McGrew. In 1995, the 49ers got the only "A" given by ESPN, even though they drafted four total players: Tim Hanshaw, Antonio Armstrong, Herbert Coleman, and that stroke of genius, the supposed coup of the draft, future Hall of Famer J.J. Stokes.

So after years of ESPN trashing any sort of objectivity in covering the 49ers' drafts, why the "C-" now?

If we take a fair look at the picks, it seems that ESPN's grade and the overall antipathy from the Bandwagon to the 49ers' draft has less to do with their actual draft performance and more to do with sending a message to Donahue: that he's no Walsh.

The Niners picked late in the first round -- the only good thing that came out of their easy schedule and inflated record last year -- yet still luckily had one of the highest-rated OTs going into the draft, Stanford's Kwame Harris, fall to them. There's a good chance he will start should the 49ers do the right thing and can the overrated Derrick Deese. Yet to hear ESPN today, Harris was overrated and is a project at best. Funny, the same could have been said (and in fact was in some pre-draft scouting reports) about former 1st-rounder Andre Carter, yet once he became a 49er he was instantly dubbed "the next Jevon Kearse" by ESPN's John Clayton.

The 49ers' second pick, Penn State's Anthony Adams, will also probably start due to the fact the 49ers are looking for any warm body to man their horrendous D-line. Then, contrary to the days of the 49ers only drafting four total players due to Walsh trading away all their picks, Donahue actually added some depth with a couple WRs, DE and TE.

Finally, the 49ers decided it was time to generate some buzz in the waning minutes of the draft by picking Ken Dorsey. Back in the day, such a pick would have set the media agog (need we remind you of the hype around the Drunkenhumper, or even Gio Carmazzi?). Today ESPN groused, "That impressive 38-2 record as a starter can't camouflage a poor arm and lack of athleticism."

What is that, a scouting report from 1979? Don't tell us ESPN has already forgotten the whole "best ever 1980s" and the success of Joe Montana, who succeeded despite that exact description? Say it ain't so, Chris Berman!

ESPN also complained, "Why the 49ers wasted even a seventh-round pick on former Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey is puzzling." What's so puzzling? They took a flier on a former Heisman Trophy candidate in the irrelevant seventh round. Big deal.

By now we might be frightening some folks since it appears we're actually defending the hated 49ers. Sorry, but despite those that are stuck in the mentality that the NHS paints everything about the 49ers as "it sucks", our actual job is to tell it like it is, and in this case, the Niners had an okay, average draft. They didn't do anything great, but they didn't make any huge reaches or stupid moves. Yeah, Dorsey was probably a waste of a pick, but it was the 7th round, and at least it provided a splash of intrigue.

In our book such a draft is much better than blowing an entire draft for the sake of living up to your reputation, such as when the Niners traded virtually all of their picks for J.J. Chokes. (By the way, you may of heard of the guy that was drafted with that 1st round pick the 49ers sacrificed for Stokes: Ray Lewis?) Also, taking a chance on Dorsey, whose only weakness is arm strength, in today's NFL where weenie-arms like Jeff Garcia's are thriving thanks to the spread of the cheesy West Coast Offense, is a much better 7th round pick than, say, picking Sean (or was it Sam?) Manuel in a P.R. stunt to match him with his twin brother. In both those cases the Bandwagon hype was unbearable, while today they are stifling their yawns.

Not that Niner-haters are complaining. It's perfectly fine by us if the grading of the 49ers becomes a bit more, shall we say, realistic than in the past and the stomach-churning Bandwagon hype that we became accustomed to over the years is all but non-existent. Looking at the front page of the S.F. Chronicle on Monday you'd never even know the NFL draft happened over the weekend. Tuesday's San Jose Mercury contained no 49er stories.

Out of all the draft grades we looked at that are publicly free to view (TSN can pry the money for their "inside expertise" from our cold, dead hands), the only real stodgy Niner-smoocher left among the big media outlets was Pete Frisco -- er, Prisco -- at NFL.com, who gave the 49ers an overrated "B-". And some idiot named Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised it to a laughable "B+", so there is still plenty of room to peddle Niner-smooching to the ignorant public out there.

Still, this is a far cry from the days of the not-so-distant past, when EVERY media outlet analyzed the 49ers' drafts with a level of integrity equivalent to Arthur Andersen auditing Enron. Back then, Kwame and Ken would have been hailed as the next Bubba and Joe, so you have to like what's happening now. And while we don't know how long the Bandwagon is going to hold a grudge against the current 49ers regime for not being their beloved heroes of the past, rest assured Niner-haters will enjoy every minute of it.

Return home.

We welcome comments.