In hindsight, was Vernon Davis worth the 6th Overall in 2006?

Originally posted by 9ers4eva:

Originally posted by jcs:
Didn't help that the GM hated the HC during that stretch.

Also didn't help the HC and OC are clueless about the pass game

Might have something to do with the limitations of the QB's they had.

Yes he was. He was overshadowed a bit by gronk and graham but they had breeze and brady. If he was on either team he might have been even better than those two. He wasn't as fragile.

Yes. He was our only receiving threat for years.

With that horrible '06 draft class? Hell yes! I remember this place like it was yesterday when half the Zone wanted Vernon, including myself, and the other half wanting huff
Could say The Hitner but then we wouldn't had both of them during the '11-'13 harbaugh run.

Originally posted by elguapo:
Easily. He shattered TE records in the playoffs and was the only TE to catch 13+ TDs in multiple years until recently I believe. Also, he was doing this with an AVERAGE qb at best. Alex Smith was not good until later on in his career.

VD was also being bracketed and doubled covered quite a bit bc we rarely had great wrs or a great qb. Imagine if he had Brady or Brees or even a good an throwing to him.

I saw somewhere they had him ranked above Gronk by 2012/2013....great run blocker, tremendous speed.

Originally posted by jcs:

Originally posted by 9ers4eva:

Originally posted by jcs:
Didn't help that the GM hated the HC during that stretch.

Also didn't help the HC and OC are clueless about the pass game

Might have something to do with the limitations of the QB's they had.

QB and coaches. think about it, one of his best seasons was under Mike Singletary lmao.

imagine if somehow the Pats got their hands on him in the draft.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by jcs:

Originally posted by Waterbear:
Vernon Davis has become one of the most underrated players in NFL history imo. Even 49ers fans think he's maybe 2nd or 3rd best TE we've had.

Kittle and Jones were probably better. Kittle might end up setting all time records at the position and Jones was a borderline HOFer on the last of the Dynasty teams. 3x Superbowl winner, 2x All-pro and 4x Probowler over his career.

...and Jones was TOUGH! It is amazing he still has hits wits about him after all the hits he took going over the middle. Davis only took one hit as hard as the ones Jones took about every fourth game.

Still doesn't make him the better player. IMO Davis was a lot better than Jones and I love me some Brent Jones.

The pick was fine. The team could have gone with Michael Huff or Donte Whitner, but I don't know that those two would be a better pick. The other who were picked in the next 10 picks would have been worse picks or played a position that made little sense (QB Jay Culter)

Originally posted by krizay:
He was never worth the #6 pick. He was supposed to revolutionize the position. Too big too fast. People saw his physical attributes and thought he'd learn to be a complete TE. Completely dismissing his short comings.

Now here we are 15 years later

And just like that I turned it into a QB thread. My bad!

Michael Huff sure would have been a better pick huh krizay?

It's odd to me that 49er fans didnt love Vernon Davis. He was great.

I loved Vernon and wish he had a competent QB other than Alex Smith. We'll never forget The Catch 3. Sadly he got ruined by Kam hit.
I hated when they let Delanie Walker leave to keep Vernon and draft bumass Vance.

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by 9moon:
I didn't want Davis, I just believe that TEs can be found any round of the draft.. No matter what Davis stats is, I still don't think he was better than Brent Jones - Wesley Walls - Eric Johnson and today's Kittles... and these TEs are not even in the HOF..

Eric Johnson had 9 career TD's.

9 TD??? that's great considering who his QB was..

Originally posted by richterkbelmont:
I loved Vernon and wish he had a competent QB other than Alex Smith. We'll never forget The Catch 3. Sadly he got ruined by Kam hit.
I hated when they let Delanie Walker leave to keep Vernon and draft bumass Vance.

the ONLY play you should remember about Davis is the ball he couldn't hang on too after getting hit by Seahawks' safety because after that play... HE WAS NEVER THE SAME..

he went from being a GOOD TE to a BELOW AVERAGE TE.

Love this thread topic, what a conversation starter

Super difficult to answer this one. He needs to be cut slack for being on a lot of bad passing teams. An entire season in his prime was spent under the most overrated OC on turf who never used a TE properly in his entire coaching career. He was a mismatch nightmare that was too strong for CBs and too fast for LBs to handle. He is extremely underrated as a blocker and his blitz-pickup/run-blocking was best-in-class. The 1st round of the 2006 draft was kind of terrible as a whole and in hindsight you could not reasonably say that there was someone else we shouldn't have passed on.

That said, he had some critical flaws as a player that held him back. Unlike his blocking, he played very soft beyond the LOS where he was often alligator-arming passes and not being as physical as you'd expect in coverage. Because of this, he almost exclusively relied on his insane athleticism to put himself in positions to catch passes. That's why his production fell off a cliff in his latter years because athleticism is the very first thing that declines with age.

All considered he was worth the 6th pick. He was the best pass catching threat the Niners had for years, he was a prolific blocker, he played a big part during those playoff runs, and he had a more productive career than the majority of folks drafted around him. One could argue that perhaps the Niners should've traded down to nab more assets considering the state of the roster in 2006. There were too many holes to fill for us to have invested a top pick in a TE like that, something that is more of a luxury for better teams.

Originally posted by TD49ers:
A guy with his athletic ability should have been a much better player. His route running was brutal. Ran a wheel route...thats it. Not a good blocker.

Not a good blocker? Okay....