Thoughts on Chip Kelly wanting to draft Dak?

[Todd4State]

I used to live the 49ers growing up because they had a player from Starkville named Jerry Rice. Then I ended up with Joe Montana as my football hero and Bill Walsh will always be my favorite football coach of all time. Walsh made football coaching look easy even though it's anything but.

So while I would have LOVED for Dak to be a 49ers, I think without a doubt he ended up in a MUCH better situation for him.

I do wonder if Chip Kelly really wanted to draft Dak or if that's sour grapes towards Baalke the 49ers GM. It makes sense that Kelly would want a QB like Dak that had run a very similar if not pretty much the same offense as the one he wanted to run in the NFL. That said, it would have been a very rare good personnel decision by Kelly and that makes me think that it was something where he was discussing taking Dak and told the GM and they both decided to go a different direction and now he us using hindsight to his benefit.

[ShotgunDawg]

Saying you told someone to draft someone is way overrated.

Even the best scouts are correct on less than half their evaluations. It's a job of constant failure. Predicting future human performance is dicey

I say all that to make the point that, GMs become numb to who told them to take who because the guy telling the GM to take a particular player is correct less than 50% of the time. Thus GMs don't want scouts to tell them who to take. They want scouts to give their opinion on the player, and then the GM collects all the organizational information and scouting reports and makes the best decision possible.

There is no such thing as a super scout. There are only superior processes and organiational values.

If Kelly would have had a 1st round grade on Dak, like he should have, then I'm fairly positive Baalke would have taken him before the Cowboys, but he didn't. If he believed in him that much, he would've had a 1st round grade.

Lastly, remember that becoming a GM is a dream job. If you had your dream job, would you place your career in someone else's hands? Would you allow a 1st year head coach, that you didn't give personnel power to, make the drafting decisions?

Of course Baalke looks like an idiot here, but that doesn't mean his process was wrong or any different than the best GMs would've used.

[I seen it dawg]

Kelly is a douchebag

[MedDawg]

Nobody foresaw Dak's success as a rookie, including the Cowboys. Dallas can act like they knew or were smarter than everyone for drafting Dak, but even Dallas waited until the 4th round to draft him.

[ShotgunDawg]

Nobody foresaw Dak's success as a rookie, including the Cowboys. Dallas can act like they knew or were smarter than everyone for drafting Dak, but even Dallas waited until the 4th round to draft him.

Agree, while that's true, you also have to give the Cowboys credit for taking Dak before anyone else.

No one knows what a player will be, but the Cowboys had a process in place that offered them the opportunity to get Dak before anyone else, & for that they should be given credit.

[MedDawg]

Agree, while that's true, you also have to give the Cowboys credit for taking Dak before anyone else.

No one knows what a player will be, but the Cowboys had a process in place that offered them the opportunity to get Dak before anyone else, & for that they should be given credit.

I disagree, and that's kind of my point. Everyone had at least 3 opportunities to get Dak before Dallas, including Dallas, so they got lucky. I did notice right after they drafted him they said a lot of really good/optimistic things, which pleasantly surprised me.

However, I say 'being smart instead of lucky' in the draft would be taking a player much earlier than predicted and then it working out well. If they had taken Dak in the first or second round ahead of higher rated QB's and he outperformed them like he did, then we could say they were smart.

I'm not saying it's lucky that Dak turned out good. It has worked out for both Dallas and Dak because Dak is a really good QB and leader. I've been a fan since he committed to State and led his HS team to the State Championship game (or semis). I look forward to watching him every week.

[FISHDAWG]

he wasn't even their first pick of the 4th round ... can't remember who but they weren't available by the time it got to the Cowboys so they took Dak .... they def got lucky

[LC Dawg]

Dak was drafted in the fourth round by a team that liked him but did not necessarily want him. Therefore, everyone in the league missed on Dak. I don't believe anyone who now says they wanted to draft Dak higher than he was drafted. The fact that some teams bumped him down on their boards because of a bogus dui charge proves that teams had so little interest in Dak that they didn't even take the time to investigate the charge. Dak was not highly regarded because he came from a spread system. NFL people talk today of how Dak has grown as a passer this year when his most actual growth as a passer came at Mississippi State. I don't know if NFL people are lazy in regards to evaluating all players but they were lazy in evaluating Dak.

[Liverpooldawg]

Dak was drafted in the fourth round by a team that liked him but did not necessarily want him. Therefore, everyone in the league missed on Dak. I don't believe anyone who now says they wanted to draft Dak higher than he was drafted. The fact that some teams bumped him down on their boards because of a bogus dui charge proves that teams had so little interest in Dak that they didn't even take the time to investigate the charge. Dak was not highly regarded because he came from a spread system. NFL people talk today of how Dak has grown as a passer this year when his most actual growth as a passer came at Mississippi State. I don't know if NFL people are lazy in regards to evaluating all players but they were lazy in evaluating Dak.

THIS. Remember 34 and his ridiculous "Checkdown Charlie" stuff? That was Dak growing as a passer.

[smootness]

I disagree, and that's kind of my point. Everyone had at least 3 opportunities to get Dak before Dallas, including Dallas, so they got lucky. I did notice right after they drafted him they said a lot of really good/optimistic things, which pleasantly surprised me.

However, I say 'being smart instead of lucky' in the draft would be taking a player much earlier than predicted and then it working out well. If they had taken Dak in the first or second round ahead of higher rated QB's and he outperformed them like he did, then we could say they were smart.

I'm not saying it's lucky that Dak turned out good. It has worked out for both Dallas and Dak because Dak is a really good QB and leader. I've been a fan since he committed to State and led his HS team to the State Championship game (or semis). I look forward to watching him every week.

Eh, not necessarily. I think Dallas did get lucky, since it's clear they targeted several other QBs ahead of Dak and only finally took Dak because they didn't like any of the deals they would have had to make to get someone else.

But taking a guy later in the draft, around or just slightly ahead of where he was projected, and then having that player turn out to be very good, is not always luck. Sometimes it's actually smarter to wait on a guy you think should be drafted where you're picking if you're confident he'll be there when you pick again. For example, if you believe a guy with a 6th round grade should be taken in the 1st round, it isn't smart to take him in the 1st round. It's smart to wait until you believe you can't wait any longer, then make the pick. Obviously it's always at least a bit of a gamble, and it requires knowledge of how the player is viewed by other teams in the league, but if you can get that player and another 1st round player, then you end up better off.

So if you feel like there's no way the player goes before the 4th round, why would you take him in the 1st? At least wait until the 3rd, then you get him plus a 1st and 2nd rounder.