49ers need to draft Joe Stud, not Joe Schmotz

SANTA CLARA - Two things about 49ers general manager Scot McCloughan:

1) He exclusively represents the team for the draft. He alone met the media on Wednesday to discuss what the Niners need — the best athlete available, yada yada. In the past, deposed coach Mike Nolan horned in on the proceedings, vying for the legendary trigger, but new coach Mike Singletary was not there. So the onus of this Saturday/Sunday thing is on McCloughan.

2) McCloughan seems entirely too comfortable with the draft almost here. At the media confab, he acted like a guy who might play 18 and then take a swim and round out the day with a game of gin rummy.

McCloughan should not be comfortable and I’ll tell you why. The 49ers haven’t had a winning record the past six seasons. Their first-round draft pick last year was ... Well, here’s a quiz. Who was their first pick in 2008? The clock is ticking. It was — trumpet fanfare here — defensive tackle Kentwan Balmer.

Do you have a clear picture of anything startling Balmer accomplished last season? Does his last name remind you of embalmed?

When your first choice in 2008 was Balmer the Embalmed and you had a losing record, you should not look in love with life. You should exhibit a sense of urgency, a clear need to get things done now.

Does McCloughan have a clear need to get things done now? You make the call.

He was lounging in a chair in the media trailer, saying the 49ers’ first pick on Saturday, who could be No.10 or they could drop down, well, his first pick won’t be guaranteed a starting job. McCloughan seemed proud of this.

“You can’t force a guy out there,” he said. “He has to be ready. He has to earn it.”

I thought I understood what he meant but I actually couldn’t believe it. He went on with the no-hurry approach to the draft choice to whom they will pay millions. He said the new guy (fill in the name here) may not be ready for Year One.

“If it’s Year Two or Year Three, we go in knowing that," McCloughan said.

We do?

So I asked a question. I asked No-Hurry McCloughan if he expects the new first-round guy to make an immediate impact. He seemed unruffled.

“It would be great if he could,” McCloughan said. “I don’t live year to year. It’s important to win right now. We all understand that, and we plan on winning right now. Also I’ve got to look two, four, six years out.”

I’ve got news for McCloughan. At the rate he’s going, there may not be two, four, six years out, although there may be out.

Let me get this straight. McCloughan says it would be peachy if the No.1 pick has an impact, but that would be gravy. It’s clearly not required. He also said he looks long-term. Is he trying to deflect the pressure from himself or is he in dreamland?

The Niners need a player who can make an impact right now. Their lineup isn’t great or even particularly good and a decent first-round rookie should break into that lineup right away. I mean, a wide receiver who walks with a cane ought to be able to crack that lineup.

Not that the Niners are taking a receiver. According to McCloughan, it even could be a quarterback or some kind of lineman, or whatever. Spin the magic wheel, Scot.

McCloughan doesn’t seem to understand he’s being judged, too. He drafted Frank Gore and Patrick Willis and we praise him for those picks, but he got Balmer and Alex Smith, Smith being his signature pick, and the jury is still out on Vernon Davis who may have hands of stone.

McCloughan needs to perform just as the players must perform, and part of performing is getting a player who contributes immediately. It will be discouraging if on draft day he greets the media with, “We’re thrilled we just drafted interior lineman Joe Shmotz at No.10 and we expect him to start sometime in 2012.” Huh?

He went on with his delayed-gratification philosophy. He might draft a QB at No.10, but don’t expect this QB to matter any time soon.

“You’ve always got to add youth to it,” he said. “It might be Year Three before you see it. We need to keep adding to that position.”

Year Three? This from a man who groveled before the shrine of Kurt Warner? This from a man who, along with his coach, has no great love for his two front-runner quarterbacks - he shouldn’t.

But pay no attention to any of that. If he drafts a quarterback. he wants the guy ready in 2011. So what happens in the intervening two years?

Oh, one other thing. After McCloughan left, a Niner public relations guy marched right back into the media trailer and said he wanted to make a clarification of an impression McCloughan may have given. The PR guy said McCloughan told him the first draft choice will compete for playing time.

He didn’t say when.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular go to the Cohn Zohn at blog.pressdemocrat.com/cohn. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.