(02-05-2020, 12:27 PM)Bullseye Wrote: I looked around for takes on the Baalke hiring, and most outside observers I saw seemed to trash the move, so I decided to do a little more digging.

In 2010, he took Anthony Davis at 11, right after Gene Smith took Tyson Alualu.  He made the same mistake Smith did, bypassing Earl Thomas, and JPP,  In 2012, he took WR AJ Jenkins (a colossal bust) at the bottom of the first round over Alshon Jeffery and like too many team, bypassed Russell freaking Wilson at the bottom of the 2nd round.  Yeah he took a decent TE in Vance McDonald at the bottom of the 2nd, but took him over Travis freaking Kelce who went to KC at the top of the 3rd.

Bottom line:  he certainly isn't beyond reproach.

First off, welcome back!

Second, I agree, we could have done a lot worse. My concern is that much like I think the Khans are doing with the Jay Gruden hire, they're trying to use Baalke as an in-house replacement should Caldwell fall flat again. In some ways, that's good. The next GM will have input into the first two first-rounders of his tenure. In others, it's worse because now we have a guy in place that might keep Khan from looking at other guys from other successful teams next year. Baalke's not a solid-gold hire by any means, but he's a lot better than most retreads.

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