2016 NFL Draft: How Trent Baalke Botched the 49ers’ Final Pick

The San Francisco 49ers had 11 picks in the 2016 NFL Draft and general manager Trent Baalke made solid selections. However, his final selection stands out as a botched pick.

The San Francisco 49ers had a relatively successful draft. General manager Trent Baalke absolutely knocked the first night out of the park in selecting Oregon defensive lineman DeForest Buckner and Stanford offensive lineman Joshua Garnett. Baalke made it clear, we’re building from the inside out. Good. They need to.

But when it came time to make their final selection in the 2016 NFL Draft, Baalke couldn’t have sent a more confusing message to the fans. Yes, the 49ers’ final pick on Day 3 of the 2016 NFL Draft was Prince Charles Iworah from Western Kentucky.

Let’s begin by saying that Iworah can play. He seems like an impressive athlete with major speed and explosiveness. This is not an indictment on his ability to develop into an NFL-level cornerback. However, in selecting Iworah–and more specifically, passing on other available players–Baalke left a bad taste in the mouth of fans.

At number 249 overall, the 49ers had one of the final picks in the 2016 NFL Draft. Most assume that any seventh-round selection will have an awfully hard time making the roster. That’s understandable. They’re drafted late for a reason. The 49ers were not the only team to pass on a number of players.

The 49ers’ justification for their selection of Prince Charles Iworah–a cornerback prospect that will have a lot of work to do to make the roster–was that they wanted competition. Fair point.

In fact, general manager Trent Baalke discussed the process of selecting three cornerbacks in the NFL Draft by saying, “You can never have enough skill at that position. You can never have enough competition at that position.”

Alright, got it. The 49ers are taking developmental projects late to add some competition at critical positions, regardless of the amount of players already on the roster at any given position.

If that’s the case, what happened with the other positions on the roster that could’ve used some competition?

Want some examples? Quarterback. Wide Receiver. Inside Linebacker.

At each of those positions, there are some names on the 49ers roster that fans notice. But each of those positions certainly needed an upgrade. The 49ers selected Aaron Burbridge, a wide receiver from Michigan State, in the sixth round but that’s only one. So according to Baalke’s logic, they could’ve grabbed another.

Quarterback? Why not throw another hat in the ring and let players compete?

Inside linebacker? Sure, Hodges may be ascending but behind him and Bowman it’s Michael Wilhoite and Shayne Skov. You know what you’re getting with those two. At best, they are quality backups.

So, the “We added numbers at an important position with this selection” justification rings a little hollow given the other positions on the team that could’ve sorely used an upgrade as well.

Well, what about the idea that the team was taking a developmental prospect with skills that they believed could translate to the NFL? Iworah has elite speed and, if nothing else, is going to look really good blazing down on coverage units during the preseason.

What other prospects in the draft, that were available when the 49ers selected at 249th overall, might have offered a similar situation?

One player available had 164 tackles in 2014. He forced five fumbles, had 15 sacks and won so many awards that it got hard to keep track. But he had some technical flaws that made it difficult to believe his skill would translate to the NFL against bigger and heavier competition.

Another player threw for over 2,500 yards with 26 touchdowns compared to just six interceptions. He completed nearly 65 percent of his passes and was routinely praised as one of the most-gifted passers in the draft. But he’s short. And small. And he only produced for one year. How could he possibly play in the NFL?

An available wide receiver caught 96 passes last year. He had 1,588 yards and eight touchdowns. But he played in the Conference USA. No way that skill and dominance would last at the next level. The 49ers couldn’t take a chance at the 249th overall selection.

Instead, they grabbed Iworah. Except that Prince Charles Iworah played in the Conference USA at Western Kentucky. He’s undersized and he only has one year of true production. But hey, he’s good enough for the 49ers to take a shot on. Not enough cornerbacks on the roster. Gotta have some competition.

Nope. Inside linebacker is set. Quarterbacks? Sure, the best one is unhappy and hates the front office but they’re set there also. Wide receivers? No problem. The guys there just need a chance to prove themselves.

The 49ers chose Prince Charles Iworah. In doing so, they passed on Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright, who had arguably one of the most productive seasons for a collegiate defensive player ever. He was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the very next pick.

The 49ers passed on quarterback Vernon Adams from Oregon, who has tryouts with the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins. They passed on wide receiver Keyarris Garrett from Tulsa. Garrett signed with the Panthers as an undrafted free agent.

The issue is not that Baalke passed on those players in favor of Iworah, but why. Bleacher Report Lead Draft Analyst Matt Miller recently tweeted something that may have been a major clue into the approach that Baalke took with the 49ers’ final choice.

In the seventh round, Baalke probably wasn’t feeling pressure to hit a home run or to play it safe. But if the team selected Scooby Wright–and all of his accolades–and failed to make it work, Baalke would be scrutinized. If the team selected Vernon Adams and he never panned out, people would question how Chip Kelly couldn’t make a quarterback work in a system that seems tailor-made for him.

Baalke passed on players that would’ve brought expectations from fans along with them. The early picks were no-brainers, but why not take some risks with the late picks as well? Don’t consider the seventh round selection a throw away. If it is, why not choose someone like Wright?

What does this lack of confidence say? Perhaps, Baalke knows that fans are growing increasingly anxious and less forgiving to the draft-day misses. Seventh round or not, fans would be clamoring if the team selected someone like Wright and he failed to produce.

Let’s not mince words–Iworah probably won’t make this roster and is likely a “throw away” pick.

Baalke didn’t botch his final selection because he didn’t select the players fans have spent the last couple of months falling in love with. He botched the final selection because he drafted to not look bad in the future. He drafted without much confidence in the coaching staff.

If he was confident, then the two highly-touted cornerbacks he took earlier would be enough. He would demonstrate faith that Kelly’s staff could develop an inside linebacker, despite the lack of prototypical size. Baalke is sitting on the fringe of trusting the players on the roster and worrying that the well-known athletes that he could’ve drafted would reflect on his ability to evaluate.

When Iworah fails to make this roster, nobody would notice. That’s good for Baalke.

When a player like Scooby Wright or Vernon Adams fails to make this roster, Baalke, Kelly and the coaching staff all look inept. And fans aren’t interested in an inept coaching staff or general manager. We’ve already seen that narrative play out.

The 49ers’ final pick, regardless of who it was, would have a hard time making the roster. Despite needing upgrades, there simply aren’t jobs for 11 rookies to come in and win. Baalke didn’t botch his last pick on the last day of the 2016 NFL Draft. He botched it when he tried to sell fans a hollow excuse of why he chose Iworah over others.

Next: 10 49ers On The Bubble in 2016

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Sports Reference.com. All height, weight and 2016 NFL Combine measurements are courtesy of NFL.com unless otherwise indicated.