San Francisco 49ers Forever

The Giants are staggering out of the gate with little hitting, poor defense, and terrible pitching, the Warriors can’t tank their way out of the playoffs even without Steph, and the 49ers can’t seem to figure out how to build their O line. At least the Sharks have a bona fine star in Macklin Celebrini, son of Warriors team doctor Wayne Celebrini. But they ain’t playoff bound either.

So that leaves what? The draft? Everyone who cares about the team is praying they do more than use late picks to bolster their O line. One that has seem the ‘addition’ of a couple backup LGs and their dicking around with Trent. What they will do is another story entirely. I do like their last couple drafts. Minus the Pearsall pick. Great kid. Terrible story around getting shot. But he needs to stay on the field. He’s awesome when playing but not when he’s not. Which is a lot.

If they score a DE in the 1st, they’d better nail it. I have all the faith in the world around our revamped defense under Raheem Morris, and the fact a lot of our young guys got serious playing time with all the injuries. But again, it is ALL about the O line. Our losses last year came at the hands of teams with a strong pass rush.

Hoping against hope they can build an O line that gives Purdy time, and of course they find a way to rest CMC. Stop me if I haven’t said this shit before.

News from the brass is that Trent Williams’ signing is imminent and all is well in Ninerland with the electromagnetic devastation raining down on the practice field. It’s a nothingburger. Sure.

OK, then hire a new fucking training/medical staff. OK? Cuz these guys suck.

Other than that, we appear to have fixed the WR issue with a couple grizzled vets in Mike Evans and Christian Kirk to take over for certainly Brandon Aiyuk and possibly Jauan Jennings. Still waiting for them to sign something more than camp fodder for LG, but hey, there’s some time. And the draft.

The only other drama surrounding the team is the ungodly travel schedule. The Rams were so embarrassed by the 49ers taking over their stadium in recent years that they begged the NFL to schedule them an international home game against us. In fucking AUSTRALIA. A nice 32 hours of flight time to start the season.

Then we get to play in Mexico City? Woo hoo. Last time we did that the team caterers got the team Montezuma’s revenge. Do we get 2 more Thursday games? Does the front door of the stadium have a ‘kick me’ sign on it? Fuck these schedulers.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Awards of Excellence awarded offensive line coach Bobb McKittrick with his induction to the hallowed hall. He of course was the O line architect for 21 seasons, and was involved in all 5 Super Bowl victories. His favoring of smaller, faster, and mainly unheralded, linemen set the tone for the the quick short passing game, and the motion/misdirection that was the west coast offense. Nevermind the cut blocking he so favored as well.

Strangely enough, we are still in the midst of this philosophy. McKittrick led to our OC Mike Shanahan, which led to the Broncos going with smaller faster linemen and unheralded running backs to help power the John Elway offense, which led to Kyle Shanahan, the current cheap-skater of our current offensive line. So here we are still trying to build a small fast heap line.

Flap orphans unite!!! Hah! This is the first home opener for the Giants in at least 20 years. Feels like it. Something like that. Season kinda snuck up on me. The newly Tony Vitelli coached team is looking better with Bader and Arrez, and defensively with Bader and, uh, Bader, but I’m still worried about the pen and the starters. And we get the Yankees to kick off the year.

Woo hoo! I think we’ll be better than last year, and reach the playoffs, but it’s a long season and spring springs eternal.

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Meanwhile in the mudflats, the 49ers are once again stonewalling a star that they need and they more than likely will drag out till late August. Not very happy that they fuck around with Trent Williams, but they’d better get this done. And since the will, why go through the bullshit?

And we DID sign left guard Robert Jones. He of the Dolphins and Cowboys. Actually he broke his neck last July so never played for them but he’s better. I guess. We’ll get Larry, Moe, and Curly on his medical report.

. . . for what is ailing the football team. Here we go once again with the trials and tribulations around the 49ers crack(head) medical staff. Yeah, guys play hurt. They want to be out there. They keep quiet about their injuries, but George Kittle is the latest to say he was hurting three weeks before he tore his achilles.

He said he tore ligaments in his left ankle in the week 16 game against Indy and kept playing on it. He said he overcompensated by using his other leg too much. He ended up missing week 17 against the Bears, but here we are with a major star with a major injury. Would it have helped for him to miss the week 18 Philly game? we’ll never know. But still and all, this medical staff has been among the most injured just about every year they’ve been a art of the team.

Maybe it’s time for a change, eh?

Will the love story between Jaylen Daniels and Brandon Aiyuk ever be consummated? After posting a stellar 75 catch 13,42 yard, 7 TD performance in 2023 after his breakout 78 catch 1,015, 8 TD effort in 2022, BA seemed poised for greatness. Instead he opted to go the Deebo route and hold out for the 2024 offseason. He eventually got his $120 million payday and promptly got his knee wiped out in the KC game.

Flash forward to last year and BA decided he REALLY wanted out to reunite with Deebo and Jaylen. So he skipped out on al his contractual requirements and videoed himself doing a drive-by of Levis in (I’m assuming) his Lambo at 85 +. I’m sure teams are lining up to sign a guy with such high mental acuity.

And therein lies the rub. Not that one, DJ. Aiyuk got out of his deal, but the 49ers are not going to do him any favors after getting worked by him. They would like to get anything at this point for BA. Talk is someone out there would be willing to risk a 7th round pick (and that $90 mill remaining on that contract) to take him on.

But seeing as the 49ers have made it perfectly clear that he isn’t setting foot on the soccer fields of Santa Clara ever again, he will remain a 49er until after June 1, when he will be cut6, his contract voided, and he’s free to sign with the Commandos.

Because, hey, who wouldn’t want to go from a 12-5 team to a 5-12 one?

Maybe the Jets will offer a couple tackling sleds and tickets to a show for BA. Do it. No one is gonna pick up that contract at this point.

Yeah, it’s football down-time as we all wait one more month and change for the draft, but the 49ers have actually done a pretty solid job of getting some free agents, signing their own free agents, and even completing a trade with the dreaded Cowboys. Hopefully as devastating a trade as the Charles Haley one was, but I’m not gonna hold my breath.

We’ve shored up the O line, a little. We traded for a real good DT Osa Odighizuwa, signed safety Nate Hobbs from GB, signed Mike Evans from the Bucs, kept Jake Tonges and Eddie Money Piniero, and even reunited with Dre Greenlaw. And Nick Bosa reworked his contract to gain the team $17 mill in cap space. Did he do it go get his brother onto the team? I guess we will see, but neither is very sturdy these days, so, uh, no.

That leaves the draft. As much as I want this team to build the line, they really need to do something about the opposite side of Bosa. But they need to expend some high picks on the O line though so I guess it’ll come down to who’s available. There are a lot of DEs in this draft.And WRs.

*gulp*

Don’t do it, Shanny!

In baseball news, Team USA, behind Logan Webb, beat Canada 5-3 as Webb went 5 strong innings and got the win. They are now in the semis against the powerhouse Dominican Republic team.

In a yearly occurrence, the 49ers were granted compensatory picks for their lost free agents. We had a big purge last year, so we ended up getting three 4th round picks. The three comp picks were for Aaron Banks, Josh Dobbs, Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, Jaylon Moore, and Charvarius Ward. And we lost our 5th round pick to the Iggles for Bryce Huff.

Funnily enough, Dre Greenlaw was released by the Broncos and is available once again. If not for his achilles injury in the Super Bowl, we mighta got that #6. But that is the past. Might be worth a camp look to see if he’s fully recovered as he was a dominant force when healthy.

Other than that, the blog world (at least around these parts) was shaken to its core with Big Flav announcing the end of his SF Giants blog, OneFlapDown. Craig started his blog back in 2009 when the Chronicle’s Splash Hit blog got insanely overrun with crazies and weasels and overkill on the moderation.

I’ve gotten to meet quite a few of the bloggers as we’ve gone to a few baseball games together, and in a coincidence of monumental proportions, I discovered that one of the blog posters had a son attending SF State at the same time as my daughter. The night before I met him in person, I realized that his son was dating my daughter. Crazy stuff.

Hey, we signed Eddie Dinero Piniero as well, but I do like the Mike Evans signing. He’s solid, tough, has size and speed, and is a great 3rd down/deep ball/red zone option given his 6’5″ 230 lb frame. Yeah a little long in the tooth at 32, but he’s got some mileage left.

A little surprised the Buccos simply gave up on him as he must lead their team in just about every WR category, but hey, he’s a pro and he should do very well here.

So glad to see a move like this as this will hopefully get the impetus to fix the O line in the draft. Throw Mac Jones into the mix for some good bodies on the O line.

Beyond the fact that we get to play TWO international games this year.

Whoopeeee!

Although the flight to Mexico City is shorter than our regular east coast swings. But yeah, Australia and Mexico. Be still my heart. With our luck there will be a Thursday game for us after the 18 hour flight home.

Other than that, at least the bloggowebs are paying some lip service to the O line woes and that we are kicking the tires on Steeler LG Issac Seamalo. There are a few other names out there, and guys in the draft I haven’t really gone in depth to look at. And there are apparently a ton of good WRs. But I think we should wait until the 4th round for that and look in free agency for our wideouts. Mike Evans, say.

So yeah, really missing NJ 49er right now.