San Francisco 49ers Forever

. . . for football anyway. Hoping we still try to get O line help, but this team looks to be in better shape than last year given the talent that left the building and the money that went with them. They have shed a lot of contracts desite last year being a rebuild year. Turns out the parity that is so prevalent and the young guys we drafted recently turned out pretty well, and we were amazingly TWO wins from the big prize. And I don’;’t doubt for a second that had we somehow beat Seaettle, NE would have been a walk.

Every year is different, and this year we seem to have done well getting some depth along the D line, linebacker, CB, and WR. But we are still thin at safety, the O line, and just the usual curiosity around the RB position. For some reason, the Mac Jones trade never materialized. My guess is we wanted too much. And why not? No reason to be desperate to get rid of him. You never know if our QB gets hurt again (fixthefuckingolinepleaseforthemillionthgoddamntime), and beyond that, if someother big name goes down (Stafford/Goff) Jones could pop back up for a desperate team.

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Other than that, hmmmmmm. not much in the soccer world, but 4 games in LA vs the Dodgers. They have been on a bit of a slide and we are what we are. Consistently maddeningly inconsistent. We won a series! Against a pretty solid Pirates team! And hey we brought back Mickey D from Sacto. He’s going tonight.

Big news. Slow news. But at least they aren’t fucking with this piece product for at least 7 years.

And in other news, the Giants are the worst team in the league right now. They traded Bailey for a tugboat, and I hope they trade more folks like Chappie, Devers, and Adames. It’s Aaron Rowand times 3. I simply cannot believe every hitter on this team minus Schmitty is sucking absolutely sweaty balls.

Over and over and over just no sitautional awareness and everyone swinging for the moon.

The Jauan Jennings era is done. The almost-MVP (fuuuuuuck!!!) of Super Bowl 58 way back in 2024 signed with the Vikings for 1 year/$13 mill. Solid guy who was tenacious after the catch and a beast blocking. The seemingly studly WR group of BA, JJ, and Deebo is all gone. Replaced by Mike Evans, Christian Kirk, Ricky Pearsall, and De’Zhaun Stribling. Seeing that Brocky Purdy has thrown to only one of these guys might be a challenge, but hey that’s what camp is for.

Not quite sure what is going on with the WRs on this team, but that number is fairly small and I wonder if we even tried to keep him. Dude always came through in the clutch and was there for a lot of big plays. Up to and including a TD pass in the Super Bowl. What’s the deal?

I tell ya, of all the coaches on the team, I’ve never heard the name Leonard Hankerson ever come up. Yes, he’s the WR coach/passing game coordinator. Never heard of him as a player either. He was a WR for the Redskins, Falcons, Pats, and Bills for 5 years. If he was the problem, you’d think something would have come out. Weird. Don’t know.

And hey! The Giants got their weekly victory!

Quoting the interwwebs today, “If Trent Williams is on the roster on September 1, 2027 and does not hold out or miss any offseason time he will earn an $11.5 million roster bonus in 2028 that will be fully guaranteed if earned.” Plus, his deal gives the 49ers a lot of wiggle room down the line. As of now, the 49ers have the most cap space at $71 million and change.

If they had thought of this about 6 years ago, they would have avoided a shit-ton of hold-outs, hold-ins, and crap seasons by a bunch of players. Oh well. Better late than never. Still think this team needs more O line help. Hopefully some guys fall off teams via salary cap problems. We will see.

As for the Giants, yeah, one good game followed by 5 shit ones. Webbie is apparently dealing with a knee problem, so the Giants crack medical team is following the 49ers mantra of “play ’em till they break.” It would seem like a good idea to give Web a rest, but likely not. Hey, they could win the SD series today, but alas, they got Dookie Houser going, so we likely lose 8-2. I mean, it’s not like a guy they JUST sent down is any better (T Mickey D).

Come the actual fuck on guys.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before but this team is once again going with backups, retreads, and late-round fliers to keep Brock Purdy upright. They have signed:

• Backup C/G Brett Toth
• Backup LT Vederian Lowe

They drafted:

• Guard C Willis in the 4th round
• Tackle E Cruz in the5th round

T Williams, Puni, McKivitz, and (urk) Brendel are starting. They have late round guys in Colby, Nugent, and Zakelj, failed tackle broken-neck UDFA Robert jones, and no-name guys Parker and Alarcon.

We have depth I guess, but Brendel is not the answer at center and we have a bunch of stiffs fighting for the LG spot.

It’s infuriating to me to see statues like Sourdough Sam Darnold and Matthew Stafford afforded 4-5 seconds to pick apart defenses while Brock Purdy runs for his life on 80% of our pass plays. The ONLY reason our sack totals were low is from Purdy’s escapability.

And far as the Giants go, I’m suffering with all you flap orphans. This team is as exciting as a wet blanket. I guess Buster really doesn’t have a budget to work with? I mean how could anyone in their right mind say this team was built to win with that pitching staff?

Funny thing is, the pitching, minus Dookie Houseturd, Bofucki, and “I got my shit together” Walker has been OK. The hitting is catastrophically bad. Esp this last roadie.

At least they called up Eldridge.

I know this is a Niners blog but holy fuck. Instead of being 15-16, the Giants fell to 13-18 by gagging away 2 games in Philly yesterday. Ryan Walker blew the 1st game by giving up 2 in the 9th and one of our no-name relievers gave away the 2nd one. I need to see how they fucked that one up as I was out to dinner, but it sounded bad as we had a shot to go ahead and Windy Hoo was held up from scoring, and we gave up the winner in the 10th.

This Giants team is hard to watch as of now as they either can’t hit or can’t pitch. There is no consistency and we’ve all said all a long they didn’t do enough with the pitching.

This is on Buster for not pushing hard enough on Greggie to get more immediate help. The farm certainly looks like there is no immediate help there either.

Yes, you build from the farm up, but you can do more than Mahler and fucking Doogie to help the rotation. And Bofucki in the pen has run his course.

The NFL world goes back to hibernation as the draft wonks fade back into obscurity and Mel Kiper’s head goes back into cold storage til next March.

Still perplexed over the drafting of Kaelon Black in the 3rd round, but hey, what’s another wasted pick on a reach for an RB that may just end up a special teamer? Then again, 3rd round LB pick last year, Nick Martin is merely a special teams guy as well. Nothing wrong with a strong special teams, but I sure would have drafted a center or guard before that, as we could have gotten this guy or someone like him in the 4th.

All the rest of the guys? I just hope Cruz sticks around. We need more better bodies on the O line.

And hey, those (s)crappy Giants are making their early season push to .500!

Once again, the major acquisitions Devers and Adames are struggling mightily out of the gate. Arraez is simply killing it, and Casey at the Schmitt is crushing the ball all over the place. Harrison Bader is the latest hologram who may just vanish into thin air soon. And the stellar upgrade of the pitching staff (Mahler and Houser) has careened into a ditch.

That being said, Landon Roupp has been outstanding, and Ray and Webb are holding their own so far. The pen is pretty much Vitello throwing darts as far as I can tell. But he IS using the strategy put forth by some over on the Flap that you use your closer in earlier situations should they present themselves that way. Like top 7, 2 on, 1 out. Bring in the closer. You know, out the best guy into the situation that warrants it.

Here’s our score from the draft. Trade-backs galore, and we traded Dee Winters for a 5th round pick. Jaden Dugger. Another Gravedigger. The picks are the picks. At this point we won’t know for a couple years as usual, but the philosophy once again has me scratching my head.

Trading Winters since we got Greenlaw back is a huge risk to me. But we do have Gifford and Wallow, who both played pretty well when everyone else got hurt. And of course forgotten man, Nick Martin.

Getting Stribling is a very big red flag for Pearsall to get his act together health-wise. He is good to great when playing but that’s the rub. he’s missed a lot of playing time. And it has little to do with getting shot. Strib has what Shanny wants. Speed, blocking, and yards after the catch. Is his spot in the dog house already reserved? We’ll see.

The rest? Who knows? Height sounds good, and the pundits say the glowing things about him, but we will see when we see. He has speed and great hands, but he looks like he needs to bulk up a bit.

Shanny did his always dipshitty move of drafting an RB that would have likely been a 6th round/UDFA guy, but hey, get K Black at 3. The misbegotten spot in the Niners draft history.

We did draft a couple O linemen. Late as 12th so accurately predicted. Without trading down, they could have had Emmanuel Pregnon but alas, they don’t draft guards until the 4th round.

I will say though that since the draft wonks are utterly panning the 49ers picks, this will likely be a decent draft. After all they got an A for their efforts back in 2017 when they got Solly Thomas and Reuben Foster in the first round. Ooooops. That DID net us George Kittle tho. Thomas is at least still playing (forn the Titans and Robert Saleh), but he was no 3rd overall picks. Shit, they coulda signed CMC or Mahomie.

UDFAs

• P Jack Bouwmeester, Texas: Punter from Australia who spent three years at Utah before transferring.
• TE Khalil Dinkins, Penn State: 6-4, 251 lb tight end with blocking potential.
• DL Bryson Eason, Tennessee: 6-2, 323 lb defensive lineman.
• WR Wesley Grimes, NC State: Wide receiver who transferred from Wake Forest.
• DL Mikail Kamara, Indiana: Edge rusher who produced 10 sacks in previous seasons.
• WR Will Pauling, Notre Dame: Productive slot receiver.
• S Jalen Stroman, Notre Dame: Safety added to compete in the secondary.
• DT James Thompson Jr., Illinois: 6-6, 308 lb defensive tackle.

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Even more iffy than the draft picks, but some guys, like Drake Nugent and Sebastien Valdez, stick.

Well, we traded down twice out of the 1st round, swapped a 4th for a 3rd and gained a 6th round pick. But there are still a lot of good players available.

My son thinks we are going with Boston. I think we go with Howell. Could still go O line with Chase Bisontis. Safety with Emmanuel McNeil-Warren or Treden Stukes. Reading the Chron this morning they referenced the Niners 1986 draft.

No 1st round pick but they nailed it. Wow. A few small-school guys thrown in the mix.

Round 2, Pick 39: Larry Roberts, DE (Alabama)
Round 3, Pick 56: Tom Rathman, FB (Nebraska)
Round 3, Pick 64: Tim McKyer, DB (Texas-Arlington)
Round 3, Pick 76: John Taylor, WR (Delaware State)
Round 4, Pick 96: Charles Haley, DE (James Madison)
Round 4, Pick 101: Steve Wallace, OT (Auburn)
Round 4, Pick 102: Kevin Fagan, DE (Miami)
Round 5, Pick 131: Pat Miller, LB (Florida)
Round 6, Pick 162: Don Griffin, DB (Middle Tennessee State)

No wonder they called Walsh a genius. This is one of the best drafts in NFL history.

New thread for the draft. I’l go out on a limb and predict the Raiders take ex-Cal QB Frernando Mendoza.