2004 Draft Review

Future is past for Bandwagon

April 30, 2004 (NHS) -- As the 49ers sat down to draft their team of the future, the Bandwagon only cared about the past.

It used to be that you couldn't get a Bandwagoner to shut up at draft time, but ever since the roster purge and offseason announcement that the Niners have shifted into another rebuilding era, the typical 49er fan completely doesn't care about today's 49ers. Thus, the media resorted to the bread and circus of nostalgia to keep their vanishing Bandwagon audience's attention.

The most laughable of these efforts was on Thursday before the draft, when the San Jose Mercury actually ran a story headlined, "For 49ers, number 16 a lucky one". The gist? Because the 49ers have the #16 pick in the draft, they will certainly end up with a great player. After all, look at the evidence:

1. The 49ers first championship was Super Bowl XVI (16).
2. Joe Montana wore #16, of course.
3. Jerry Rice was picked #16, the Best WR Ever.
4. Julian Peterson was picked #16, soon to be the Best LB Ever.

So it is a scientific conclusion that anything involving the number 16 will be Best Ever for the 49ers. At the very least, the 49ers have established enough to patent the number, so if you come across yourself using it in your less-than-best-ever daily routine, please send your $16 royalty check to Niner Headquarters at 4949 Centennial Blvd., Santa Clara (Suite 16, naturally).

Yes, "the number 16" concept was the best offering the Bandwagon media could come up with to try and get Niner fans excited about their team just days before what's often called the second-most important day of the NFL season behind the Super Bowl. The hype, pomp and circumstance we were force-fed with every 49ers draft in the past have vanished. No longer do the media bigwigs from Sports Illustrated and ESPN camp out in the 49ers' war room, swooning with love over Bill Walsh like awe-struck groupies. The 49ers aren't a story any more for them -- unless an opportunity to smooch some 49er of the past pops up, of course.

It's that theme of the past that was the most significant to this year's 49er draft. Any mention of who the 49ers might take was met by a huge Bandwagon yawn, so what we got were more discussions of the Glory Days of the 1980s and the number 16. Apparently that's all that's left that sells the local newspapers. After all, what's a Bandwagoner more interested in: a list of some college players that aren't really going to help a team that's going nowhere, or a yarn of how great things used to be (in their little world)?

Outside the Bay, the mock drafts seemed to agree that 16 would be a magic number for the 49ers. Some, like Fanball.com, even had them landing USC's sophomore sensation Mike Williams, one of the most hyped and exciting (and certainly the youngest) WRs available. No doubt Fanball.com's staff had visions of Williams blossoming into "the Next Jerry" or "the Next Terrell" -- since that's what all good Bandwagoners do -- but, alas, the U.S. Courts ended that pipe dream and ruled Williams (along with Maurice Clarett) ineligible for the draft.

Most other mock drafts had another one of the top WRs, Reggie Williams, as a lock to the 49ers. After all, coach Dennis Erickson knows the Pacific Northwest and Williams went to Washington, so it was perfect. Too bad such mock experts out there still haven't quite figured out that the draft isn't about convenient appearances. Despite the "perfect match", Williams went long before the 49ers' #16 slot.

Ergo, instead of riding the supernatural number 16 to Best Ever Greatness, the 49ers traded down, twice, ending up with Rashaun Woods, WR from Oklahoma State, at #31. Woods is a talented, polished receiver that should immediately become a contributor to a team that needs any sort of warm body to contribute, but isn't considered to possess superstar potential, so compared to the mock draft dreaming, he's a disappointment.

Why the Bandwagon has to continue their idiocy of thinking the 49ers always have a chance to land the most exciting player in the draft or even one of the top players on the board, regardless of where they are drafting, is hardly a mystery. Good isn't enough for the fickle Bandwagon that subsists solely on hype and insists on the facade of "best ever". Thus, the 49ers seemed almost embarrassed about ending up with Woods after all the elite WR choices vaporized before they came to bat (so much for the magic of #16). Erickson even claimed they were "very close" to trading down a third time from #31 before going with Woods. They took another WR, Clemson's Derrick Hamilton, in the 3rd round as if to make the point clear. Just days after the draft the 49ers brought in free agent WR D'Wayne Bates to work out, and will enter camp with no less than 11 WRs in the hopes that something resembling an NFL-quality receiver will emerge (the very definition of throwing detritus at the wall to see what sticks).

Nevertheless, the strategy of the 49ers to go for quantity over quality was well received by the national media. The 49ers' draft graded out mostly in the B/B+ range. After sticking it to GM Terry Donahue last year, the media seems to be back to giving the Niners a break again with the attitude of "they're not very good so give them props where you can, and at least they kept to their plan of drafting a lot of bodies".

The local media, however, was less forgiving. The San Francisco Chronicle flat-out bad-mouthed GM Terry Donahue's performance, clearly because they are still angry that their bread-and-butter, the 49ers, are no longer the Best Ever story they once were. The Chron's infamous 49er-smoocher Ira Miller penned a ranting, nonsensical piece dedicated to ripping their draft, once again reminding everyone Donahue is no Walsh. For example, about Donahue he said, "That's just dumb luck, if you trade down 15 spots and get a guy you said you wanted."

Just two paragraphs later Miller wrote, "Walsh's masterful 1986 draft was the greatest example of trade-down in NFL history."

(Don't bother asking why Walsh's trade-downs are "greatest in history" while everyone else's are "just dumb luck", that's just part of the Bandwagon Bible that can't be questioned.)

Obviously, the Chronicle is still stuck on the "he's no Walsh" kick, and are using largely unfair, irrational criticisms of the present to continue to spin the past 49ers into untouchable heights of Best Ever Greatness. They've thrown in the towel on the present, only using today as a contrast to their fabrication of the past into something greater than it actually was.

The SJ Mercury's take on the draft, big surprise, contained no follow up to their Pulitzer-candidate "lucky number 16" article -- no protests over allowing a pagan team the use of the hallowed #16 pick or anything. Instead, the Mercury moved on to more "expert" insider stuff, like how it was "destiny" that Shawntae Spencer would be drafted by the 49ers (in case you're curious, it's because his dying Uncle's favorite team was the 49ers, which somehow translates in Bandwagonese to "destiny").

The Merc drank yet again from the well of the past when they featured an article on Isaac Sopoaga. The touchy-feely, feel-good fluff piece was very reminiscent of the good old days when the 49ers were drafting the Manuel twins. Sopoaga, from Samoa, might be the strongest player taken in the draft, but he played just two years of high school football and then at a small school in college, so he will be a project for a team desperate for immediate help.

If this sounds familiar, you're right. Once upon a time, Jim Druckenmiller was hyped as the Strongest QB Ever. Also, the 49ers tried to develop Nigerians Israel Ifeanyi and Iheanyi Uwaezuoke back in 1996. All were utter failures in the NFL. But like the same hype surrounding those eventual busts then, the Mercury couldn't resist hyping Sopoaga because he is a "story" instead of other guys that are just boring good football players -- and guess which is more important to a Bay Area dot-fan?

But more importantly, by focusing on Sopoaga there was once again the main angle of tying things to the Glory Days: "Among the 49ers' scouting reports was one from former offensive lineman Jesse Sapolu, another Hawaii player, who got to know Sopoaga," the article stated.

So there you have it. If Best Ever Jesse from the 1980s says the guy is great, he must be, right?

All in all, to realistically sum up their draft, the 49ers played it conservative (or perhaps cheap) by trading down and gathering a couple extra picks, then got extremely lucky in landing Woods because the draft was so deep at the one position they most needed help. Their other picks were nothing special and will be part of the typical crapshoot of some panning out, some not.

As far as the media goes, in all the hyperbole and puffing about how great the past 49er drafts once were, the Bandwagon has overlooked the realities of then and now. Then, the 49ers system was such a gimmick that their draft was an exercise in picking up pieces to fit a cheesy system that no other NFL team was utilizing.

For example, despite the belief that "Walsh is a genius because he drafted Joe Montana", the truth is that no other NFL team had use for a small, mobile yet weak-armed QB in the early '80s -- believe or not, most teams played real football back then where they threw the ball downfield and had power running games -- so the 49ers ended up with Montana by default. He fit their system perfectly while he would have been a failure with any other team. Besides, Walsh didn't even want to draft Montana -- but that's another story for another time.

Today, the 49ers' system is in disarray. Coach Dennis Erickson claims -- and the Bandwagon has laughably endorsed -- that he wants to throw the ball downfield -- but he wants to still throw short and have a power running game to control the clock, too.

Funny, that sounds just like every other team in the NFL.

Thus, instead of having a great draft almost by default thanks to being able to pick up the perfect pieces for their cheesy system that no other teams were looking for, the 49ers are now drafting for the same talents all the other teams are looking for -- and no surprise ended up with an average draft just like any other team. It's certainly not a crop that's not going to go very far in turning around a team already talking about a rebuilding era.

So it was that while the 49ers were drafting for their future, the Bandwagon was daydreaming about the past -- and didn't get either right.

Return home.

We welcome comments.