Former 49ers GM Scot McCloughan impressed by first-round pick Reuben Foster

SANTA CLARA - What’s Scot McCloughan’s assessment of linebacker Reuben Foster?

“Stud.”

Who’s the most unique player he’s ever added to a roster?

“Justin Smith.”

What about players he’s drafted who have a shot at the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

“Frank Gore and Patrick Willis.”

McCloughan, a former 49ers general manager, joined Twitter last week and immediately opened the vault, answering questions about his previous stops in a way few former top executives have done.

Washington fired McCloughan in March and he has resurrected the scouting service - evaluating draft prospects for NFL teams - he ran between his stint with the Seattle Seahawks and being hired by Washington in 2015.

McCloughan was let go a month before the most recent draft, after he had finalized the team’s draft board. He has said Washington largely followed that board in its selections.

He said the same thing about the 49ers’ 2010 draft, one that Trent Baalke ran after McCloughan was ousted in March of that year and which brought in players like offensive linemen Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati, as well as linebacker NaVorro Bowman.

“It was set just like with the Skins this year,” McCloughan wrote when asked about the 2010 draft board.

One of McCloughan’s biggest regrets, or at least a player who continues to puzzle him, is defensive lineman Kentwan Balmer. He was McCloughan’s first pick in 2008, a draft class (Chilo Rachal and Cody Wallace were other selections that year) that rivals Baalke’s 2012 class (A.J. Jenkins, LaMichael James, etc.) for San Francisco’s worst in the past decade.

McCloughan also weighed in on perhaps the league’s most controversial topic at the moment: Is Colin Kaepernick good enough to be a starting quarterback in the league this year?

“Yes,” McCloughan wrote.