Not too surprisingly with two years of poor records, the 49ers were left in good position in the draft. Either using a high pick or using it as trade bait to acquire more draft picks the 49ers were able to bring in a higher level of talent. So players like Ahmed Plummer, Julian Peterson and Andre Carter were not simply a matter of good evaluation, but also a matter of having less margin of error.

Now I would never venture to take anything away from the Genius - but we'd all have to be blind not to notice that he's had some help along the way. Surely if his picks were in the lower part of the rounds they couldn't be as strong when evaluated as a whole when compared to the higher round picks. It's a simple concept where if there's more talent available, even if you don't pick the most talented individual chances are they will still be more talented than the rest of the pack. Evidence of this can be found from Walsh's first draft in his return to the team - it was strong, but not nearly as strong as the past two seasons.