Whose Fault Is It?
The San Francisco 49ers have begun the season dismally, to say the least, at 1-4. It’s beginning to look like another wasted season for the 49ers, their third bad season in a row. So, the question everybody is begging is: whose fault is it? The person people have been blaming the most is the owner of the franchise himself, Jed York. Then there’s Chip Kelly, the new head coach brought in over the offseason who was fired by the Eagles, where he had a 26-21 record serving as Philadelphia’s head coach. You could argue that his offense is predictable and that every other NFL team has his offense figured out by now, but no, he is not the source of the 49ers’ failure.
The person to blame is Trent Baalke, the 49ers’ general manager. The 49ers haven’t been winning for the past three seasons because of their utter lack of talent on their roster. Think about it. Ever since he landed the GM position, who has Trent Baalke drafted that has been good? Aldon Smith has talent, but has off-the-field problems. Colin Kaepernick is a truly polarizing player, and I still believe he can be good again, so I won’t comment on him. Eric Reid is a good hard-hitting safety, I’ll give Baalke that. Jimmie Ward is a good cornerback, but let’s be honest, he can’t really cover anybody taller than 6’2” (watch his tape versus Brandon Marshall and Kelvin Benjamin). Carlos Hyde was a good pick, I’ll give Baalke that. Aaron Lynch is a great outside linebacker. Again, I’ll give Baalke credit for that. Arik Armstead showed some promise in his rookie year, but has been invisible on the field this season. Maybe it’s because of his shoulder injury, but he hasn’t been great. Another good pick by Baalke has been Trent Brown. He is huge, and can destroy defensive ends. (Remember Michael Bennett getting lit up by Brown a couple weeks ago? That had to feel good for 49ers fans.) DeForest Buckner has been good stopping the run, but can’t rush the passer at all. The last good pick Baalke made was Rashard Robinson, the corner out of LSU. He is a great cover corner, and if he can clean up his off-the-field issues, I believe that he can develop into a Patrick Peterson type of corner.
Okay. We’re finally done going over Baalke’s good picks. It looks like I mentioned a lot of good players out of his drafts, right? Reid, Ward, Hyde, Lynch, Brown, Robinson. Okay, that’s six players. Six good players Baalke has drafted. But let me remind you, Baalke has started drafting for the 49ers since 2011. So, Baalke has drafted SIX good players over SIX years. One good player per year. Great. Just great. The 49ers are basically a college football team coached by NFL coaches.
The 49ers’ roster is terrible because of Baalke. In the NFL, you need the best roster to have a legitimate shot of winning a championship, and Baalke has proved that he cannot come up with a good roster. He can’t scout players, and he ignores team needs. Why didn’t the 49ers draft a quarterback early or an inside linebacker? The team is currently stuck with Michael Wilhoite and Nick Bellore starting at inside linebacker. Geez, that was hard to write.
Don’t blame the 49ers’ recent failure on Chip. No coach in the NFL can generate wins out of this roster completely devoid of talent. And yes, you can blame Jed, but don’t blame him as much as Baalke. I believe Jed has at least some motivation to win. Jed’s not drafting the players. Baalke is, and he’s absolutely horrible at it. The amount of success Trent Baalke has had with drafting players is disgraceful, and has led to the collapse of this once-great franchise.
