Sports Radio Service


		New kids on the block at 49ers can make difference By David Zizmor April 27, 2009

	SANTA CLARA--This was a big surprise for the 49ers everything that we read it seems to tell us that even the 49ers didn't expect Michael Crabtree to be sitting there with them at number ten in the draft selection. Maybe the 49ers ought to send a fruit basket over to the Raiders for picking Darrius Heyward-Bey instead of Crabtree at number seven because that pick by the Raiders more or less let Crabtree to slip to the 49ers they were the team that needed a receiver more than those other ones between the Raiders and the Niners. So Crabtree becomes the new successor to the R.C.Owens, Billy Wilsons, Freddie Solomons, Jerry Rices, Dwight Clarks, Terrell Owens, he becomes the successor to that fantastic wide receiver legacy in San Francisco. 49ers fans should be real excited about this guy putting on the red and gold. Crabtree is a fantastic wide receiver. Crabtree at Texas Tech had over 200 receptions, over 2,000 yards receiving with 40 touchdowns, this is only in two years at Texas Tech he was a red shirt he just basically finished his Sophomore year. Crabtree has only played two years and put up those fantastic numbers let's also remember the Texas Tech Red Raiders system is one of those run and gun spread offenses where they pass way more than they run. They use a pass specifically they use the short pass almost as the short running game. So instead of running it up the middle for three yards they threw a short pass to the left flank for three yards to get the same effect and Crabtree was kind of the beneficiary of that. Never the less despite those amazing numbers the consensus was that Crabtree is easily the best wide receiver in this draft and the only reason why he fell as far as to number ten is because he had a stress fracture in his foot that only became apparent after this football season and during the combine season. Because this happened during the combine season he wasn't able to work out, he wasn't able to run a 40 yard dash, he wasn't able to hold private work outs for teams, and because of that instead to have to go on those numbers Crabtree was evaluated exclusively on game film and what he did on the field. For whatever reason teams seem to shy away from guys like that they think "If I can't measure his 40 yard dash time then I'm going to knock him down a couple of notches on the draft board." Crabtree if you watched him over the last two years at Texas Tech you know he's a special talent. He has a big body, he's about 6'1 at 215 pounds, he's incredibly strong, runs very good routes, and while people think he's not the fastest guy in the 40 yard dash, he's very fast on the field, he's fast enough to run by guys for touchdowns 41 times. It's kind of like what people said about Jerry Rice when he came out of college from Mississippi State College they said he wasn't fast enough, they said his time wasn't good enough, never the less Rice some how managed to score over 200 touchdowns in his career and had plenty enough time to do what he had to do on the field and Crabtree has that kind of speed. Other 49er picks: The 49ers had a pretty solid group in the later rounds. In the second round they had a pick but they decided they didn't like any of the players as far as they're value concerned and they traded their second round pick and their forth round pick to the Panthers and in exchange the 49ers received the 49ers fourth round pick for next year. This is a good move it's a good way for the 49ers to set themselves up to get some really good impact players in next year's draft they will have two first round draft picks which is number one always fun for the fans and number two it's great for the team. In the third round the Niners picked picked Glenn Coffee he played running back for Alabama and he was a second stringer for a couple years but last season he became the starter and ran for over 1300 yards. Let's not forget Alabama is in the SEC one of the toughest conferences in college football and if you can run for over 1300 yards and score touchdowns in that conference your a pretty solid running back. Coffee is going to be Frank Gore's back up and he's a guy who can definitely contribute a good power game he's good between the tackles and chances are your going to see him a lot between third and fourth downs plays and he's a great guy for those short distance bursts. He should be a contributor right away. The 49ers had a couple picks in the fifth round and the first guy they took was Scott McKillop he's a linebacker from Pittsburgh this is another guy whose in that Mike Singletary mold to be honest. McKillop is an inside linebacker and he's probably going to end up playing back up to Patrick Wilson to Takeo Spikes and he's also going to see a lot of time on special teams but this is a guy who was the defensive player of the year in his conference. He's supposed to be a tackling machine and very good about getting away from guys and just finding the ball. He also a guy who has a great motor and he's one of these guys whose always on and his just a hard worker and when you get an inside linebacker like that and you pair him with one of the all time greats Mike Singletary that's a good combination and McKillop is going to be a very good player he's going to start as a back up and you'll see him a lot on special teams. This is a guy in a year or two that could take over Spikes position at one of the inside linebacker spots. The other fifth round pick was probably one of the more important ones for the 49ers they selected Nate Davis he's a quarterback from Ball State this is a guy who has a lot of potential to be a very good quarterback in the NFL and yet he could end up being a starting quarterback and that's what the 49ers are hoping for. Davis has a very good arm all the scouting reports say he could hit every throw on the field. He's a big guy he's strong, he's very accurate, he's not the most mobile quarterback but he seems mobile enough to get around in the pockets. Some people think that some of the offense that he's played in he has some learning to do as far as NFL offenses are concerned that's kind of the case of a lot of quarterbacks these days never the less this is a guy who is a fifth round pick and is going to come in as the fourth string quarterback as the starter in his first season. Davis won't have to worry about that unless all three quarterbacks ahead of him go down with injuries. Davis is going to be riding the bench studying the play book and he's a guy who can surprise so you don't expect to see him on the field outside of the pre season but do expect to see him starting to contribute in garbage time at the end of this year and maybe expect to see make an appearance as he moves up the depth chart in 2010. David Zizmor will have coverage of the remaining three 49ers draft picks on Wednesday for Sportstalk Radio