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The tendency when talking about Bill Walsh of the 49ers is to simply think of him as an
offensive guru.
That is both right and wrong.
Yes, he is an offensive genius. But don’t sell him short as simply a great
offensive mind. Walsh is much more than that. He is a great builder of teams, and you
don’t just build the offensive side of the ball when building a club.
Walsh has again showed he understands this fact with his first-round pick today.
Despite the major question of who is going to run the ball for the 49ers next season,
Walsh went defense by taking DE Andre Carter with the seventh pick in the first round.
Let’s face facts. The 49ers are not building to win big next season. They are
building to win big somewhere further down the road. Great running backs are a lot easier
to find than great defensive ends, so it makes sense that Walsh had defense on his mind.
The value was also better at defensive end than running back.
Plus, Walsh proved his understanding of the 49ers’ defensive needs in last
year’s draft as well. San Francisco’s first four picks last year all were on
defense when the 49ers took LB Julian Peterson, CB Ahmed Plummer, DE John Engelberger and
CB Jason Webster. They also took LB Jeff Ulbrich and S John Keith in the third and fourth
rounds.
Stud DT Bryant Young also has a lot left in the tank, so the building blocks are there
for the 49ers to get their defense turned around.
The offense was obviously terrific last year. Jeff Garcia looks like a fine
quarterback. WR Terrell Owens is coming off a monster season. The offensive line may not
look impressive on paper, but it gets the job done very nicely.
Not long ago, the 49ers were in salary-cap hell, and it looked like it was going to
take forever to turn the team around. Very quickly, they have put some very nice building
blocks in place. On both sides of the ball. This isn’t a championship team yet by a
long shot, but it is a club that has improved a lot more a lot quicker than I would have
imagined.
Kudos to Walsh for his work on both sides of the ball.
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