Mitch Wishnowsky - Punter (Utah) is a 49er

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Makes sense he runs a 4.64. Those Aussie footballers don't just stand around hands on hip. Me think he can make a good tackle too. Returners be warned.

He can run his own punts down with that pace if he wanted

I wonder if he will need much time to adjust to a NFL Football, ( AKA - the Duke ). Versus a collegiate football. My guess is because the NFL ball is little bit more aerodynamic that he will do even better on his hang time and accuracy. As far as picking him in the 4 th round, my thoughts are that the FO thinks that we as a team will have a much better overall record and therefore be in more close games late in the 4 th quarter so that field position becomes even more critical. I have always been a big believer in field position. I do not have the stats, but the scoring difference between a team starting on their own 40yard line versus starting on their 20 is significant. Was that worth where we selected him, I do not know, only time will tell.

Originally posted by highway49:
I wonder if he will need much time to adjust to a NFL Football, ( AKA - the Duke ). Versus a collegiate football. My guess is because the NFL ball is little bit more aerodynamic that he will do even better on his hang time and accuracy. As far as picking him in the 4 th round, my thoughts are that the FO things that we as a team will have a much better overall record and therefore be in more close games late in the 4 th quarter so that field position becomes even more critical. I have awarded been a big believer in field position. I do not have the stats, but the scoring difference between a team starting on their own 40yard line versus starting on their 20 is significant. Was that worth where we selected him, I do not know, only time will tell.

He will be right mate. Australian Football League players are used to punting under pressure and being accurate. NFL gains yards by the QB passing it forward to a player or passing to a running back to barge through the DL. In AFL they punt it to gain forward ground until in goal range. The basic skill in AFL is to punt it the required distance to your player or to the goal and hence you must be accurate and be able to do it under pressure, sometimes on the run with opposition players running at you from any angle.

See the clip below of AFL and where Wishnowsky honed is incredible skills. This guy is the best Aussie punter to get into the NFL. Forget Dickson and the others Wishnowsky will make new benchmarks and be a top shelf player. Great investment for the 49ers!

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by 49ers81:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by 49ers81:

Here's an idea I saw posted that I think is worth repeating. For all of you who are bagging on this pick, make a list of players you would have rather had at this spot, who were actually available. Post it in the thread now so that there isn't any temptation to add late round gems who no one saw coming but ended up making a big impact on their respective teams. At the end of the season we can revisit your picks and compare how much of a difference they made on their teams to the impact that Wishnowsky makes for the 49ers. To begin with he will be a day one starter, which gives him a tiny step up on probably anyone who was picked after him. So there is that, even if he is only a punter. If he is able to consistently put kicks inside the 10 or limit the amount of punt return yards that teams get against us than that seems like it would be well worth a fourth round pick as opposed to some guy who turns out to be a back-up at his position. But we can let the contributions of the players you list actually determine their value rather than assigning some arbitrary value to them based on their draft position. That way you will all have a chance to prove how much smarter you are than the 49ers front office.

LOL...was wondering who left that comment.

Start with Pick 9 and keep going...

https://www.nfl.com/draft/tracker/picks?round=4

About the sort of response I would expect from all of the armchair GM's in here. No problem with endlessly complaining about a pick but unwilling to go on the record with an alternative selection and being held to account for it even in someplace as meaningless as a fan forum. Easier to talk about all the guys we "could" have had with the pick than to actually pick one who fills a need on the team and will in their opinion produce at a more meaningful level than Wishnowsky might. I am perfectly willing to be proven wrong in argument, are any of you?

I hate to break the news to you but we're all armchair fans and GM's, including you. If you're going to label fans armchair GM's for not thinking we got good value at #110 and consider punter at the bottom of the position board that affects games the most, does that make you a "FO defender?" A Joe Fann of the forum? Of course not.

And again, you massively miss the point. I haven't seen a single fan NOT like the player himself.

The issue is the FO tendencies to overvalue and massively overpay for positions that have the least affect on W-L's while deprioritizing those that do. They also lazer focus on players, freak out and draft them way too early and don't appear to read or care what the rest of the NFL is doing.

They're a FO that puts $20 down at the poker table, wins two hands and cashes out immediately vs. playing the long game of value against the field.

A punter at #110 is just symbolic of these trends we've seen every draft thus far.

We love the kid/man. Love our Aussie fans.

In fact, I kind of feel bad for him because he knows he was way overdrafted and the expectations are unfair now. He feels that already.

If he flops, that could have an effect on future Aussie punters. If Dickson didn't go in the 5th last year and find success, would ShanaLynch drafted MW in the 4th? Of course not (well, maybe not). It works both ways.

I personally hope he kicks ass and "Oi, oi, oi!" becomes the chant with every punt. Roger Goodell would love that! All Niner games would be televised there and become the home team.

But this isn't really about Mitch, is it?

It's about a FO who after three years, still doesn't know how to play poker at the big boy table.

You mean like QB and ER? Oh wait they actually didn't overpay for those positions

Originally posted by Goatie:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:

Makes sense he runs a 4.64. Those Aussie footballers don't just stand around hands on hip. Me think he can make a good tackle too. Returners be warned.

He can run his own punts down with that pace if he wanted

Lol, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Teams only carry one punter on their rosters and can't have them getting hurt covering kicks. You want them as the last line of defense and nothing more. Still, it's nice to have an athletic punter because if someone happens to get a big return, you still have to beat Wishnowsy and that won't be as easy as beating most normal kickers.

Originally posted by Goatie:

Lol if I remember correctly he didn't know the rules about spiking.

is he participating in rookie mini-camp and if so - how is he punting??

The video of him kicking from his own 5 to opposing 17 was pretty dang impressive. Out kicked his coverage a bit but that's flipping field position. 78 yards in the air.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Yeah, nearly 30% is actually really good. It's 50% for round 1. But the missing point here is projecting those players to OUR roster and that 30% goes up significantly. To a Championship roster, down to 10%. Throw in our 5-year injury history and the odds increase that even if player X doesn't win a starting spot outright, he'll still play significant snaps. I think there were a lot of players that could have provided much more value at bigger, more important positions of need. But like you said, ShanaLynch have their own board...and it certainly doesn't match up to the rest of the NFL by conventional standards.

Just because they become starters doesn't mean they are actually any good. Lots of bad OLs across the league that are still starting. Hell Jordan Devey still has an NFL roster spot.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by flynhayn15:

Having a guy that fast and not afraid to tackle on both the kickoff and punt return teams is another reason why I am okay with him in the 4th round.

Also, statistically speaking, only 29% of the OL drafted in the 4th round ever become starters and only 17% of DBs, which are probably the two positions that we could have drafted an upgrade for our team in the 4th. Not to mention, that Shanahan said they graded Greenlaw as a 4th rounder, so he very well could have been our pick at 110.

Finally, let's not forget last year when all the arm chair GMs were pissed that we didn't draft Josh Sweat when we clearly needed an upgrade at Edge Rusher. Sweat had 1 tackle and 1 QB hit in 9 games last year as a rookie. Maybe, the 6 OLineman, 4CBs, and 5 Safeties we passed on before we took Greenlaw weren't viewed as obvious upgrades.

Yeah, nearly 30% is actually really good. It's 50% for round 1. But the missing point here is projecting those players to OUR roster and that 30% goes up significantly. To a Championship roster, down to 10%. Throw in our 5-year injury history and the odds increase that even if player X doesn't win a starting spot outright, he'll still play significant snaps. I think there were a lot of players that could have provided much more value at bigger, more important positions of need. But like you said, ShanaLynch have their own board...and it certainly doesn't match up to the rest of the NFL by conventional standards.

I disagree that the term starter should be a relative term. Just because Chilo Rachel started for the Bears after we cut him doesn't make him a starter nor does it justify us drafting him. Also, no matter how bad our Edge Rushers were last year, it doesn't make Josh Sweat any better as a football player. He might have been able to steal some snaps, from Marsh and Blair, but we would still need to draft Bosa and trade for Ford this offseason anyway, so drafting him last year would have zero impact on our team this year and going forward.

Also, just because statically 37% of 4th round DLinemen are starters, doesn't mean that all draft classes are created equal. Last year was a down year for edge rusher, and this year was a down year for CB at least, so the 4th round numbers are probably below the trend.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Yeah, nearly 30% is actually really good. It's 50% for round 1. But the missing point here is projecting those players to OUR roster and that 30% goes up significantly. To a Championship roster, down to 10%. Throw in our 5-year injury history and the odds increase that even if player X doesn't win a starting spot outright, he'll still play significant snaps. I think there were a lot of players that could have provided much more value at bigger, more important positions of need. But like you said, ShanaLynch have their own board...and it certainly doesn't match up to the rest of the NFL by conventional standards.

Just because they become starters doesn't mean they are actually any good. Lots of bad OLs across the league that are still starting. Hell Jordan Devey still has an NFL roster spot.

True but it's not hard to beat out Erik Magnuson, Mike Person, Joshua Garnett, Ben Garland...Tomlinson is pretty average as well.

Originally posted by flynhayn15:

I disagree that the term starter should be a relative term. Just because Chilo Rachel started for the Bears after we cut him doesn't make him a starter nor does it justify us drafting him. Also, no matter how bad our Edge Rushers were last year, it doesn't make Josh Sweat any better as a football player. He might have been able to steal some snaps, from Marsh and Blair, but we would still need to draft Bosa and trade for Ford this offseason anyway, so drafting him last year would have zero impact on our team this year and going forward.

Also, just because statically 37% of 4th round DLinemen are starters, doesn't mean that all draft classes are created equal. Last year was a down year for edge rusher, and this year was a down year for CB at least, so the 4th round numbers are probably below the trend.

Right, which is why the %'s by round is odd because of the ever-shifting landscape of players available and team needs at that time. It adds zero context...just a rough average by round. Teams like the Pat's don't need what teams like the old crappy Browns do. For us...lots of players that could have helped. IMHO of course.

Yet another impressive highlight from Wishnowsky. The athleticism to juke the defender out of his cleats, then he punts it 40+ yards off his opposite foot. He also would've pinned them inside the 2 if the ref didn't blow the call and rule it out of bounds at the 13.

Originally posted by Nastastical:
The wild part is neither King or Morstead were coming close to the near 6secs of hang time by Wishnowsky. His ability to moon shot the f*** outta the ball is pretty ridiculous. You could barely see the ball in his videos because of how high was he kicking it.

Where did you get that MW has a 6 sec hang time? It was 5 sec on the videos