the 49ers are getting a lot of legitimate praise for their draft -- a great trade with the Bears in terms of accumulating assets, still got the same guy they would have picked at #2 at teh #3 slot (i.e., they got those addtl draft assets for nothing), and then got a top 10 talent in Foster at the end of the 1st round. That said, the MMQB article makes pretty clear that the Bears trade had a lot to do with just taking what was offered (which is not to be sniffed at, to be sure -- some GMs lack the moxie to do that). But the more damning element is that, if the Bears had taken Thomas at #2, the 49ers were supposedly going to take Foster at #3 overall. With all the reports out about Foster being off of teams' draft boards due to injury concerns, there's an alternate scenario where the 49ers would be getting reamed right now for a wild overdraft of Foster and John Lynch the amazing rookie GM would be John Lynch the dunce rookie GM.
In other words -- you need to be a bit lucky to be smart.
