Select company: join us inside the 49ers' draft room for a look at Mike Nolan's first draft and first franchise-turning decision. His move to take Alex Smith No.1 overall will go a long way toward determining whether the team can restore its lost glory

Sporting News, The, May 6, 2005 by Paul Attner

Inside the 49ers' draft room, Mike Nolan is minutes away from officially announcing his first--and what might be his most important--draft decision as San Francisco's new coach and front office czar. He's pacing, hands in his pockets. On ESPN, they are speculating that phones are ringing incessantly within the room, callers dangling trade offers for Nolan's consideration. Inside the room, everyone chuckles. Things are quiet, just as they have been for an hour. Moments earlier, Nolan had picked up two phones, one for each ear. "Conference call," he had said with an impish grin.

Nolan is about to play the final card in a game of draft poker that he has dominated for the past month. Through a combination of good fortune and skilled maneuvering, he and the 49ers returned high drama to the selection of the No. 1 pick in the draft, frustrating draftniks and generating publicity and energy for a once-elegant franchise sorely in need of both. Even now, moments before commissioner Paul Tagliabue announces the team's choice of Utah quarterback Alex Smith, the outside world still is not quite sure how Nolan is thinking.

"This is why it is easy to play cards," he says late Saturday night. "If you know you have a pair of aces, how hard is it to play?"

The game begins a few days before March's NFL Scouting Combine when Nolan and Scot McCloughan, the team's gem of a vice president of player personnel, have their first formal draft discussion. Neither has run a draft before. Until he was hired in January, Nolan, 46, had been a career assistant coach. McCloughan, 33, who was added two weeks later, had been Seattle's college scouting director.

The two men meet for the first time at McCloughan's initial interview with the team, and now they have the task of choosing a player worthy of a $50 million-plus contract. In this first draft get-together, Nolan asks McCloughan for the best players. McCloughan responds with three names: Smith, California quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Michigan receiver Braylon Edwards. From that point, the club focuses an immense amount of time and resources trying to find any reason not to draft Smith.

That debate, driven by Nolan's relentless questioning--"He took on the role as devil's advocate, always asking why," says McCloughan--nearly has the coach persuaded at various points to jump Rodgers ahead of Smith. For weeks, that's the speculation about the No. 1 choice, that it will be Rodgers, which is OK with Nolan. The 49ers actually think Edwards is the draft's best player, but they believe quarterback is their greatest need, and they remain convinced--even after the draft--that both Smith and Rodgers are worthy No. 1 selections. That many of their NFL peers don't agree just gives Nolan more incentive to quiz McCloughan.

Although Nolan will have the final say on all picks, the onus to get this choice and this draft in proper order falls to McCloughan, son of Kent McCloughan, the former Raiders player and longtime Oakland scout, and a protege of Ron Wolf, the former Green Bay general manager. Nolan spends much of the early offseason hiring a staff and establishing the structure of the football operation. He doesn't have time to live in the scouting room. He quickly gains comfort in McCloughan's steady confidence and grinding work habits. A scout for just 10 years, first with the Packers, then with the Seahawks, McCloughan comes across as much more mature. There is no hesitation, only firmness, in his voice.

"I can't be nervous about this," he says two days before the draft, sitting a few strides away from the team's draft board. "1 have prepared well, I have watched enough tape, done my due diligence. 1 have no problem now stepping up and saying, 'I want this guy.' "The team photographer tells him Bill Walsh always wanted a picture of the final board. "Take one, and give it to me in three years but only if it turns out right," he tells the photographer. "Otherwise, burn it." A few hours later, all the scouts attend a party at Nolan throws at his house, something no prior 49ers coach has done.

The 49ers have a shot clock in the draft room that counts down every pick. It now shows 5 minutes are left on the initial choice. Nolan tells an aide to inform the league that Smith is their selection. Nolan calls the quarterback. "Come in prepared to get going," he tells him. Everyone is standing, watching television as Tagliabue strides slowly to the podium. Nolan has limited the access to the room. He and McCloughan want it quiet and very much business-at-hand. When Tagliabue finally announces Smith's name, scouts and coaches applaud and everyone shakes hands. Owner John York, who is trying to reshape the franchise through Nolan and McCloughan, converses with Smith's father on another phone.

"Nice job; good work," Nolan says to the scouts, all of whom remain from the prior regime. Even now, ESPN is saying the team could unload Smith in the next hours. But no club calls, nor are the 49ers interested. Before the draft, only Washington, Minnesota and Chicago even discuss trade specifics but nothing serious. With the personnel needs of a 2-14 team, Nolan would be foolish not to listen to proposals, though he would prefer to stay put. He's delighted to hear rumors about trades or any other gossip about the choice. Indeed, he fuels the talk with constant chatter about value and keeping his options open. And because he and McCloughan don't discuss the pick even internally, there are no organizational leaks. Unlike the past few years, when the first choice has been known before the draft, debate about this selection keeps the 49ers constantly in the spotlight. It is simply marvelous theater, belying Nolan's inexperience at this game.