San Francisco 49ers Discussion

taidghbaby

adrian522 wrote: »

Interesting, I presume he will play OLB in the NFL?

If so i'd say he will have a battle to get onto the roster.

Currently at OLB we have:

Aldon Smilth
Ahmad Brooks
Corey Lemonier
Aaron Lynch
Dan Skuta
Morgan Breslin

I'm not sure we would carry 6 on the 53 man roster but if Smith gets a long suspension then who knows?

I'll keep an eye on him for sure.

Will tank play OLB? Watched a lot of Florida after the Colts took Wener last year and I have to say I thought Tank was the far better player of the two!

adrian522

I'd always assumed he'd play DE when healthy, he was a 4-3 DE but seems most people assume he would transition to 3-4 end rather than OLB.

I'd just be happy to see him on the field.

adrian522

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

You guys have made a gem of an UFA pick up in Morgan Breslin. My favourite USC player the past couple of years despite the injury. Really confident he'll do well for you and I'll be rooting for the 49ers because of him.

Breslin has been released due to injury.

If he clears waivers he may be placed on the non football injury list.

http://www.ninersnation.com/2014/5/27/5755306/49ers-waive-2-players-sign-2-tryout-candidates-kevin-greene-chase-thomas

adrian522

If you have a few mins (OK, a fair few mins) there is an excellent article over on Sports Illustrated on Bill Walsh and his coaching tapes.

Walsh recorded most of his team meetings including pre game team talks, writing up plays etc and the article talks about how valuable they are.

The tapes are mainly stored at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When Jim Harbaugh joined as head coach he secured a copy of the tapes for the 49ers and him and Greg Roman spent some time going over the tapes.

Anyway thearticle is really interesting and is well worth a read if you have some time.

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/05/28/nfl-history-95-objects-bill-walsh-49ers-coaching-tapes/

adrian522

The 49ers get their (pre) season under way tonight at 12:30am on NFL Network.

We play the Ravens with a little bit less on the line than when we last played. Doubt I'll stay up for this but will probably watch it tomorrow evening.

Interested to see how the ILB's (other than Willis) perform. With Bowman out there will need to be someone to step up and start for at least half of the season. Wilhote and Borland should be interesting to watch.

At Running Back it will be interesting to see how Hyde performs, he looks like being Gore's primary backup with James and Hunter not playing.

At Wide Reciever Patton and Ellington will both be interesting to look at. Patton showed promise at times last year but had a foot injury for a lot of the year. Ellington has generated a lot of buzz out of college. With Crabtree, Boldin, Johnson as the clear top 3 that leaves the above 2 + Brandon Lloyd trying to make the roster. Not sure all 6 will make the team.

Finally CB is interesting also. Culliver and Brock are the presumed starters but as for as Nikel and Dime packages are concerned, that is up for grabs. Rookie Jimmie Ward will look to impress while Perrish Cox, Chris Cook and Eric Wright will also be in the mix.

We will probably also see a lot of Blaine Gabbert tonight

randomCluster

The secondary looked weak out there tonight. In a pass happy league this is already a worry.
Defensive line looked capable at times. Wilhoite seemed a yard behind the play.
Blame Gabbert's stats say it all, 3 from 11 - though 2 easy passes dropped.
Hyde looks excellent. Balance, power and acceleration. Very excited.
Ellington has a bit of pace.

adrian522

Liked:

Carlos Hyde, could well be talking about the steal of the draft.
Ellington's returns and one play from scrimmage.
Quinton Dial, was excellent I thought
Chris Cook's INT, never got one in Minnesota
Okoye

Disliked

Defensive Line, couldn't stop the run at all, we were walked all over
Gabbert, looked very nervous or something, needs to relax a bit
Didn't see enough offense at all, couldn't convert on 3rd down
Defense in general was poor.

I wouldn't overly worry about the secondary, we saw very little of the starters, I though the main problem was the front 7.

Looking forward to seeing the new stadium next week.

Preseason football in general is pretty uninspiring, good opportunity for the guys on the fringes of the roster though.

mickmc7

I never realised how irrelevant pre season games were. I was getting a bit concerned when I heard the result to the broncos last night until I read this:
"SANTA CLARA – Go ahead and consider the 49ers’ 34-0 loss to the Denver Broncos as proof.

The 49ers almost certainly will get blown out of any game in the regular season in which. . .

--Colin Kaepernick plays two possessions.
--Frank Gore touches the ball twice.
--Anquan Boldin, Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis combine for one reception.
--No starters on the defensive line suit up.
--Patrick Willis’ on-field contributions are limited entirely to his pregame speech.
--And their best cornerback, Tramaine Brock, does not play, either.

If all those things happen, the 49ers simply will not be able to compete against any team in the NFL."

Phew!

adrian522

Well, here we are, the season is just 1 week away, how do you think we are shaping up?

Decent WR corp this year:

Crabtree
Boldin
Davis(TE)
Johnson
Patton
Ellington
Lloyd

We will possibly see one of those guys cut by tomorrow but in any case it's a very good group of recievers, no real excuses this year for the passing game to falter.

Johnson and Kap apparently having some issues so it would be not much surpise to see him talke a while longer to get up to speed. Crabtree, Boldin and Davis will get the majority of the targets anyway.

Running Backs

Gore
Hyde
James

Not really as deep here as I thought we would be. Lattimore and Hunter out for the time being at least. Hyde has looked good, I'd expect the running game to be close to last year. A concern has to be the offensive line. They didn't play as well last year as their reputation would have us believe.

Alex Boone is still a no show and we have a new center. Iupati has not been great in preseason, but it is pre season. This area is obviously very important as a poor O-line can derail the whole offense, hoepfully they get it sorted.

Front 7:

Aldon Smith will get suspended, it should really have happened by now, no excuse for how it has taken so long. Navarro Bowman will miss at least half the season and will take a while to get back to 100% once he is fit. The defensive line is solid but a lot of them are edging towards the last few years of their career. Justin Smith, Ray Macdonald etc.
With the injury to Dorsey we a little light in that area, hopefully Ian Williams works out.

I think we will be ok on pass rush, Carradine, Skuta, even Aaron Lynch look fine to rotate in. Looks like Whilhote will fill in for Bowman. While all sounds good on paper, that is a lot of change and we won't know how they will do until they start playing.

Secondary

Again a lot of change. Out go Whitner, Brown, Rodgers. Starters now look like being Culliver (coming off a season long layoff) and Tarell Brown at CB. Jimmie Ward at Nikel, Reid and Bethea being the safties. A lot of change but I think we will be ok here, I actually think our pass ocverage should be better than last year but we will miss Whitner in run support. I guess we will see soon enough.

The start of the season is crucial for us.

We start @ Dallas, v Chicago, @ Arizona, v Philadelphia

All of those games look like they could go either way. If we start 4-0 we have a good shot at the division, if we start slow and are 2-2 or worse I feel it will be difficult to catch up with Seattle at that point.

We have road games in Denver and New Orleans which will obviously be very difficult as well as playing Seattle in weeks 13 and 15. You'd happily take 2-2 from those games.

On a side note we seem to be playing in New Orleans every year, are they back in our division by the back door?

Tough schedule and fair few injuries to deal with, but I still think 12-4 is realistic and we could be looking at getting some guys back from injury for the run in. Excited.

Podge_irl

adrian522 wrote: »

Secondary

Again a lot of change. Out go Whitner, Brown, Rodgers. Starters now look like being Culliver (coming off a season long layoff) and Tarell Brown at CB. Jimmie Ward at Nikel, Reid and Bethea being the safties. A lot of change but I think we will be ok here, I actually think our pass ocverage should be better than last year but we will miss Whitner in run support. I guess we will see soon enough.

The start of the season is crucial for us.

We start @ Dallas, v Chicago, @ Arizona, v Philadelphia

All of those games look like they could go either way. If we start 4-0 we have a good shot at the division, if we start slow and are 2-2 or worse I feel it will be difficult to catch up with Seattle at that point.

We have road games in Denver and New Orleans which will obviously be very difficult as well as playing Seattle in weeks 13 and 15. You'd happily take 2-2 from those games.

Brock?

First four games will tell us an awful lot. Not massively confident but hard to see how the offence can't improve on last year and the D is still quality if a bit thin.

adrian522

Podge_irl wrote: »

Brock?

First four games will tell us an awful lot. Not massively confident but hard to see how the offence can't improve on last year and the D is still quality if a bit thin.

yeah, lost my train of thought there, brown is gone, brock is the starter and looking like a great corner too,

It's a very young secondary actually.

I share your apprehension but really the things that made us a good team over the last 3 years are still there. Beat the Cowboys, then take it from there.

adrian522

I love these All 22 analysis pieces that you see on niners nation, this one is very long and detailed about how Kaepernick performs when going through his reads on pass plays and where he needs to improve.

Very interesting reading indeed.

http://www.ninersnation.com/2014/9/3/6096747/colin-kaepernick-49ers-quarterback-film-breakdown-reads

shotgunmcos

Woohoo good start, albeit off takeaways. I guess you play the cards you are dealt and we played them well.


Kap's unbalanced delivery to Davis for his first TD was cool. Some of the tackles were NFL highlight reel stuff. WRs generally started better than last year which can only be good.


Impressed with Hyde and great to see that solid backup to Gore.


Secondary, despite Beasley being a squirmy thing to get hands on, were on form with picks and coverage.


Run D for me was a worry. Dallas front wasn't that good but we still allowed a lot on the ground too easily IMO


I wonder if there were more penalty yards across week 1 than previous years? Some marginal call for pass interference in the first 5m?

adrian522

Main concern for me is the depth of the secondary moving forward.

Brock picked up an injury while Culliver and Ward both picked up concussions. The secondary will be very light if those guys can't suit up next week.

We can't take too much from the game given how bad Dallas were. Chicago will provide a much stiffer test.

Podge_irl

Well Brock was supposedly ok to return to the field if necessary. I missed the end of the game - what happened to Ward?

adrian522

Concussion like symptoms apparently

mikemac1

A vacancy for a running back has appeared in Baltimore

I see LaMichael James who was a 2nd round pick has been released.

I don't know a whole lot about him. I know the niners have Gore and a collection of young backs too so competition for a roster spot must be fierce.

Is James a good waiver wire pickup?

tehboz

James would make a good backup running back
his play the last few seasons with the 9ers was very limited but i found he was a bit too much of an east/west runner and he didn't have great patience behind his blockers

he could be a good option for someone to pick up tho

adrian522

There's been a lot talk about how well the 49ers have drafted since Ballke came on board.

He's received a lot of praise, most of it justified, but usually the 2012 draft is glossed over.

It's proved to be pretty absymal.

1st - AJ Jenkins

No catches first season; Traded for little or nothing

2nd - LaMichael James

Generally disappointing, released.

3rd - Traded this pick to the Colts, was used to pick TY Hilton.

4th - Traded pick from the Colts to Miami who spent it on Lamar Millar.

4th - Joe Looney G - Still on the roster, currently covering Guard until Alex Boone returns.

5th - Darius Flemming - Injured his ACL twice, was eventually released and is currently on the Patriots.

6th - Trenton Robinson - Released prior to the 2013 season

6th - Jason Slowey - didn't make the team, signed with the Raiders, now retired.

7th - Cam Johnson - Made the practice squad then Traded to the Colts in September 2013.

Fair to say that is a draft best forgotten.

shotgunmcos

Aye, so let's put it behind us and look forward to the Levis opener . Tis bear hunting season!

shotgunmcos

Woohoo C4 showing Bears game, albeit at miss work o clock ( I won't, so its record and watch Mon night instead) . Thought about gamepass but not convinced what its like on android to part with 100 yoyos. Plus between SS, Setanta and C4 lots to catch every week. How do you 49ers fans get your fix each week?

adrian522

I'll watch on gamepass generally, but given Channel 4 has HD I may watch it there instead.

It's best for Sunday evening though as you can switch between all the game depending on what is interesting.

I guess if you have sky you will generally get 2 good games on Sunday, then the late game on C4 and the Monday game on eurosport.

tehboz

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Woohoo C4 showing Bears game, albeit at miss work o clock ( I won't, so its record and watch Mon night instead) . Thought about gamepass but not convinced what its like on android to part with 100 yoyos. Plus between SS, Setanta and C4 lots to catch every week. How do you 49ers fans get your fix each week?

Games that are not on sky/c4 I generally use firstrowsports for as long as you have a good ad blocker it usually fairly grand

shotgunmcos

Penalties
Pressure
Picks
Poor decisions
Poor Levis baptism

1-1

adrian522

Well the season is going badly, very badly even.

The game plan seems to make no sense, doesn't help that both our TE's are injured but we really have to figure out these penalties or this season will quickly get away from us.

The unbeaten Eagles arrive in Santa Clara next week, and the best spin I can put on it is that they are due a loss while we are due a win.

Really though on defense we are getting no pressure on the QB and as a result the secondary is giving up some big plays.

The offense looks ok at times, but we should really be running it more. Once Arizona made some adjustments yesterday we never looked like moving the ball.

some silly penalties but also some bad calls.

Bright side, we were 1-2 this time last year as well.

shotgunmcos

And the penalties and muppetry continues... :mad:




.....Phew! Time for a haiku
D yay
Cap boo
2-2
Woohoo

adrian522

shotgunmcos wrote: »

And the penalties and muppetry continues... :mad:




.....Phew! Time for a haiku
D yay
Cap boo
2-2
Woohoo

No penalties on the defense I don't think.

Harbaugh's stupid challenges continue. 2 delay of game penalties and wasting another timeout rather than taking a delay of game penalties.

Good win all the same. Gore was immense, mad to think they didn't run the ball at all against Arizona.

adrian522

Not sure how many have been following the Harbaugh losing the locker room and not getting on with anybody story. Possibly nothing at all in it but it just seems like too many things coming out for it to be nothing.

Anyway, good article over on ESPN about Harbaugh, pretty long but worth the read I think, for 49ers fans at least.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11625088/san-francisco-49ers-head-coach-jim-harbaugh-thrives-chaos-difficulty

mickmc7

adrian522 wrote: »

Not sure how many have been following the Harbaugh losing the locker room and not getting on with anybody story. Possibly nothing at all in it but it just seems like too many things coming out for it to be nothing.

Anyway, good article over on ESPN about Harbaugh, pretty long but worth the read I think, for 49ers fans at least.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11625088/san-francisco-49ers-head-coach-jim-harbaugh-thrives-chaos-difficulty

Read that yesterday, a brilliant read. There's no doubting his quirky ways rub some up the wrong way completely. I'm just hoping they're wise enough to see the bigger picture, or prize at the end of it. His challenges and calls sometimes infuriate but I'd hate to see him leave, he's worked wonders.

adrian522

What did ye think of the game at the weekend?

I thought it was a great game, they are really not playing like a team who are apparently not interested in playing for the coach.

Good to get a win against a good team like the chiefs. We have also beaten Dallas and Philly who are both otherwise unbeaten I think.

Good points from the game:

1. Playcalling - The run game is back and as dominant as ever. When we stay with the run we win games, when we don't we lose games.
2. Penalties - Only one penalty and this area has been completely cleared up,
3. WR depth - Boldin, Johnson, Lloyd all had big games. Crabtree didn't do much as he still seems to be suffering from his injury and Davis was out. In years past without Davis or Crabtree we wouldn't have had an offense.
4. No wasted timeouts du to play clock running out
5. No stupid Harbaugh challenges though he came close on one occasion.
6. Run defense continues to be excellent.
7. Perrish Cox has been playing great, gives us a problem on who to start once Brock comes back. I say Cox takes over from Ward in the slot.

Bad points:

Not much here really, defense stood up.

1. A few big plays in the passing game.
2. The punt and kick return coverage looks like an accident waiting to happen.
3. Pass rush still not great. 4 more games before Smith is back.
4. Being picky, too many FG's, not enough TD's.