Niners taking a risky approach in this draft...

[madinmaryland]

The San Francisco 49ers are taking a risky approach to this year's primetime NFL draft.

Heading into the most important draft in years, they're flying without a general manager.

Oh, they have a guy who's the point person on the draft. His name is Trent Baalke and he spent 10 years as a scout before becoming the 49ers director of player personnel two years ago. And coach Mike Singletary is going to be heavily involved -- he even missed team organized training activities to go out on the road for a scouting trip and getting-to-know-you session with Baalke.

But a general manager? Nope. Not now. Maybe never.

"I don't know if we're going to have a general manager," team president Jed York said a few days after a "mutual parting" with Scot McCloughan. McCloughan was the team's general manager until his awkward departure just five weeks before the draft.

If the 49ers wanted evidence of what a bad concept the GM-less football team is, all they would have to do is glance across the bay to their neighbors in Oakland. The Raiders have been operating without a true general manager ever since Bruce Allen left for Tampa Bay in 2003. Allen's stability and credibility was never replaced and in the seven years since the Raiders have won just 29 games.

Most NFL teams need a well-defined general manager. A clear chain of command. Someone who can be the final decision-maker.

Apparently not Bay Area teams.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/ann_killion/04/20/49ers.draft/index.html

So Jed York is running the draft for the forty-niners.

[Auggie]

1. According to the beat writers for the San Francisco Chronicle

Baalke is showing more experience than others tend to him credit him for. That's not an excuse for not having a GM though. Why the 49ers passed on home-grown Mike Holmgren will forever be a mystery, but I suppose it's because the Yorks are too fucking cheap.

Jed is not running the draft. Get that out of your head.