10 days and counting down...

Back to talking football: even though there is a lockout going on now because of the need for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the players and the owners (it's so complicated, I don't want to know the details - I just want me some football!), the NFL draft is nevertheless coming up and it starts 10 days from today on April 28th.

And as you all know by now, I'm a 49er fan. So what will they do? Realistically speaking, only they should know and nobody else. Shhh... it's a secret! Because the draft is another game, just another aspect of the all-encompassing competition that is professional sports. The less the other teams know about 49er plans the better (unless other teams are fed enough right or wrong information to help serve Niner purposes... bwahahahah). I find it endlessly fascinating because there are 31 other teams trying to do the same thing. We (I'm going to go ahead and say 'we' and 'us' although I'm just a fan, okay?) need to have the better plans and the better instincts as to which players will perform better as NFL players. And there need to be contingency plans in place; after all, we can try to project which players will even be available for us to pick at what times, but any of the other teams may well draft them ahead of us.

Since there isn't a new CBA in place right now, teams aren't allowed to sign players or make trades involving players. So teams will be going into the draft with less knowledge about their rosters than in normal seasons. And the 49ers have a new head coach, a mostly new coaching staff, and an unsettled quarterback situation. I've read articles stating that new coach Jim Harbaugh should know exactly which quarterback to target in the draft come draft day; however I contend that maybe he'll have several quarterback prospects he would like to work with and believes he can mold into champions. If two he likes get snagged by other teams, then the third will work just fine. They each have their different strengths, and Coach Harbaugh can coach each one of them up, as long as they are within the pool of quarterbacks that he approves of. The way I see it? Whichever players the Niners draft are the fortunate ones, especially the QB(s)!