San Francisco 49ers: 5 Best, 5 Worst Draft Picks in the Trent Baalke Era

San Francisco 49ers’ GM Trent Baalke’s under fire and under pressure to ace the 2016 NFL Draft.  How good has he been drafting to this point?

Just how good has Trent Baalke actually been at drafting for the San Francisco 49ers?  His skill is somewhat questionable, at best.  While it can’t be denied he’s an expert at moving up and down the board, getting value for his trades, the actual players he has selected haven’t all worked out as well as one would hope.

From first-round busts to flyers that don’t pan out, Baalke has had more than his fair share of draft swings and misses, and with the 49ers currently hanging out in the bottom quartile of NFL teams, it’s very easy to focus on the negative, and wonder if Baalke is in fact the right general manager to draft the 49ers out of this slump.

It’s easy to forget, however, that Baalke’s first two drafts in charge, in 2010 and 2011, were loaded with talent, and that his 2014 draft looks to be above average as well.  I’d agree with the popular opinion that Baalke has had more misses than hits, but he’s made his share of great picks in his tenure.

With that in mind, and the 2016 draft rapidly approaching, it’s a good idea to look back over Baalke’s six drafts and identify his five best and five worst selections—a trip down memory lane, as it were, with plenty of ammunition for both the pro- and anti-Baalke camps.

Some caveats before we begin:

First of all, it’s difficult to judge a player in his first few seasons in the NFL; I normally like to wait five years or so before really giving a final grade to a draft class.  Obviously, limiting this article to just two Baalke draft classes wouldn’t be very interesting, so we’re doing a little bit of projecting future results for more recently selected players.  I am still leaving the last two first-round picks, Arik Armstead and Jimmie Ward, off the list, however—both have so far underperformed their draft slot, but it’s still too early in their careers to write them off.

This is also a list of the best and worst picks Baalke has made, not the best and worst players he has taken.  A list of the best players Baalke has drafted would include Anthony Davis, Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick, while looking at the worst picks would just give us a list of seventh-round selections who never made an NFL roster.  Draft position matters!  A fifth-round pick of an above-average starter might be a more impressive selection than a top-10 selection of good player, and a first-round pick who never gets it together might be less impressive than a seventh-round pick who was never expected to do well in the first place.

With no further ado, let’s rank Baalke’s biggest hits and misses.

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