San Francisco 49ers Forever

Well, football season is in full nothing-but-hype mode as teams position themselves for the draft and the upcoming free agency period. The 49ers got off to a roaring start (*urp*) with the signing of C/G Nick Zakelj, he of the 47 point word score in Scrabble. Not bad in and of itself, unless they really think he is starter material. Funny thing is, though, Ben (owwww!) Bartch and Spenser Burford are free agents as well. Barth is a walking injury waiting to happen, so I don’t see him as a priority. Burford? No, not really as well.

So, we look to be replacing a center and 2 guards. On top of already needing to find Trent Williams’ replacement, and finding a swing tackle.

I really hope they look at the draft AND free agency. We need a lot to fix this line.

Among our lengthy list of free agents, the guys to sign are Eddie Dinero Piniero, Skyy Moore, Clelen Ferrell, and Kevin Givens. The dumps are Bartch, Bourne, Burford, Gross-Matos, Pinnock, Curtis Robsinson, TTaylor, and PTaylor Jr.

I’m iffy on Jennings, Brian Robinson, Morstead, Wallow, and Weeks.

My only issue with these guys is their backups ON the team aren’t beating them out. Jennings brings a ton of balls and swagger to the WR room, and he carries a lot of weight. If he goes, we have one guy who is hurt a lot, and diddly squat. Cowing and Watkins are following the trail blazed by AJ Jenkins and Danny Gray.

Brian Robinson didn’t get a chance to play that much, but his backups were invisible. Given a decent O line, I think he could really be productive, but 99% of that is on Shanahan and his reluctance to give CMC rest. Morstead and Weeks could be fairly easily replaced, but we might as well keep them since they are known commodities. I guess I’d keep Wallow as he played well despite his depth in the depth chart.

Well, the sports landscape hits the Sargasso Sea of things going on. Or is it the Horse Latitudes? Basketball slogs on through its endless amount of regular season games. about 20 too many, baseball is juuuust starting to poke its head out of the frozen tundra, and oh yeah there is the Olympics, if that is your bag.

I do enjoy the skiing and the various ways men and women slide down a frozen river at 90 MPH, but other than that, quiet time. NFL draft time. Various mock sites have us taking Kenyon Sadiq the TE from Orygun. Big fuck no to that. Even going DT like Caleb Banks would be someone I would pass on. Only for the reason that we NEED to protect Purdy at all costs. As the Seattle games showed, Purdy struggled under the relentless pressure of their 4-man cover 2 defense.

We couldn’t run or pass. And the reason the 49ers won the 1st game was because the defense was healthy, and the Sourdough Sam offense was finding its way. Well, they were still pretty inept in the Super Bowl, and a few of their other wins. Which is why it is imperative that we get Purdy and the offense help.

Other than that, sad to hear Greg Brown, original lead guitarist for Cake passed away. Very cool Sacto band with a very distinct sound. The trumpet solo from War Pigs is great.

Here we go. Got my first sighting of the reanimated talking helmet hair head of Mel Kiper Jr. Must be draft hyperventilating time. I mean, really, all these prognosticators go south after the first 6 picks anyway. But there’s plenty of money and plenty of clicks to be had, so carry on, Mel.

Well, that was a let-down. Both QBs looked pretty overwhelmed, but Drake Maye was flat awful under the relentless Seattle pass rush. Say what you will about the Seahawks, but they have built a defense that is hands-down the best in the league. Their 4-man rush was way too much for the Patriots to handle, and when Seattle threw a blitz at them, it resulted in a sack, a fumble, a pick, or all of the above. Since their pass rush is so effective, they can run a nickel defense all the time and take away everything deep by playing their safeties back. They do play a defense similar to ours (4-3, short zone), but everyone on their D line applies pressure nearly every play and their LBs fill the gaps on just about every run.

It looked like this would be an 18-0 snoozer what with Seattle stalling out on all their drives to the 20, but Sourdough Sam got one TD in the 4th quarter, and their defense got another one late. So, in reality, NE’s offense got 1 more TD than Seattle’s. Huzzah.

But the game was littered with missed passes on both sides. Maye hit one long gainer but otherwise was awful. HE was seeing ghosts. NE couldn’t run for shit either, but Seattle (and their MVP Kenneth Walker) set the tone early with a couple big runs and they kicked their way to a 19-0 lead into the 4th and coasted it out. All in all a real snoozer. All the shots around the Bay Area looked great, tho.

Didn’t see the halftime drama as the puppy needed a walk. Did the world end? Did Bad Bunny burn a flag? According to Twitter, the NFL will be forced to shut down due to the negative reaction by trillions of people. In other words, the basement dwellers weren’t happy but the rest of the world went “Whatevs. It’s a halftime show.” No nipples were harmed in this year’s production, so there’s that.

AI sez Bad Bunny got 136 million viewers, and Kid Rock got 5 mill.

Well, the mudflats! Dude I used to work wth called me Charlie by the Bay. Or sittin-on-da-dock-of-the . . . Anyhow, I kinda hate to say this but:

a) of course I’m gonna watch
b) I’m actually pulling for the Seahawks

Fuck the Patriots. I know Belicheat is gone, as is flat-balls Padre Tom but they have enough chips.

Seattle? Pete the cheat is gone. Russell Wilson is nearly toast, and you have to like the Sourdough Sam story. Rag to Riches courtesy of Kyle Shanahan. I tell ya, with our luck, Mac Jones goes to Minnesota and wins THEM a Super Bowl next year.

Didn’t watch the announcement, but I just saw that Roger Craig was elected to the Hall of Fame by the senior committee or whatever they are. Well-deserved, but he only had a 32 year wait. But hey, when yer in, yer in. Craig of course was the first NFL player to rush and receive over 1,000 yards, back in 1985. The glory years.

Saw a ton of game with him and the Niners in their heyday and he always played hard and never let up.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, but I guess that means that Frank the Tank Gore will have to wait.

So much for Jim Schwartz. He’s still cooling his heels in Cleveland. The Niners on the other hand picked Raheem Morris to run the defense. He being the recent coach of the Atlanta Falcons. That didn’t go very well, but Morris did run the Rams Super Bowl winning 2021 defense.

For me, I’m jazzed about the hire. We have been running a base 4-3 defense since time immemorial it seems like. The wide 9 only rush 4 and pray your players make plays on every damn down drove me nuts. Saleh ran it, Wilks ran it, Sorensen ran it, and Ryans ran it. Of the group, Ryans seemed to do the most blitzing, but it was still a pretty basic short zone cover 2 bend don’t break defense. It worked sort of in its various flavors, mainly when we were healthy, but it still bothered me because it didn’t seem to generate the turnovers other teams got.

Morris on the other hand runs just about every scheme imaginable. 3-4, 4-3, 4-2, even (gasp!) 5 man fronts. Things I’ve been barking about for quite a while. He also plays a lot of press man coverage. Which in the case of teams like Seattle, and just about every other team out there, does well against the quick passing game. And with the departure of Robert Saleh goes Gus Bradley as he followed Saleh out the door today.

I for one am thrilled to see us run a much more aggressive defense. And I think the players will dig it as well.

If you miss the 80s, here’s a pretty big reminder.

Or, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Ol’ Jimbo Harbaugh’s arch-nemesis handshake buddy and erstwhile HC and DC for a bunch of teams, Jim Schwartz is available for our DC spot after being bypassed for the Cleveland Browns HC spot.

He was apparently “visibly upset” by the snub, so sure, let him take it out on the rest of the league. The Browns sucked last year, going 5-12, but not because of their 4th ranked defense. So I get why he thought he had a shot at the HC slot.

He uses the familiar 4 -man front and also uses the wide-9 to get edge pressure. But he is a LOT more aggressive with the 5 man fronts and uses a lot more man coverage. Although he doesn’t do a lot of blitzing, which is what I’d like to see. So, the same but different.

Works for me. Bradley seems like a good choice, but he’s been kinda middling for a good long while.

Huh. Just saw a statement from Dre Greenlaw saying how hard it was to adjust to Sean Peyton’s practice schedule and that they worked out so much harder in Denver. I always heard that the knock on Shanahanalynch was they ran their practices too hard. I guess not. Greenlaw said it took a while to adjust to the new defensive schemes and such, but he really didn’t stand out this year. I also heard that the team doesn’t stretch enough, or prepare for games well enough. These things are unverifiable by me or just about anyone not connected with the organization.

Beyond that, at least these clowns are talking about all the injury problems they have and that maybe they should change things up. If only for change’s sake.

Dre Greenlaw described his transition to the Denver Broncos as “tough” due to Sean Payton’s old-school, high-intensity, and demanding practice regimen, which differs significantly from the fresher-focused approach of his former coach, Kyle Shanahan. He noted Denver’s schedule involves more intensive, three-hour practices on Wednesdays and Fridays and a six-days-on, one-day-off routine.

Back in the old days, they practiced in the Rocklin heat in the summer, went through 2-a-days, and did a shit-ton of outdoor intense practicing. Well, they moved out of the heat, the NFLPA shortened the pre-season, cut games, practices, and hitting scrimmages. To us, all this means is we get hurt. Every season. All the time. Some teams are at the bottom of the injury list. We have been in the top 5 most injured 7 of the last 9 seasons.

Man, this sucks. When I was young, he was my first favorite QB. Our neighbors across the street had season tickets to the 49ers (in the east end zone at Kezar). So I got to go to a game in 1969 vs the Colts. Close game, and late in the 2nd half, the Colts put in Johnny Unitas to try and mount a comeback, and they did late the lead in the 4th quarter. But Brodie got the final TD and the Niners won 20-17.

I went to the Bears game that year as well and was hooked for life. Saw a bunch of Brodie’s games at the Stick as the team rode his shoulders to 3 playoff runs, including the comeback from injury to lead the 49ers past the Vikings only to have our hopes dashed by Roger Staubach’s (fuck preston riley) late comeback. Saw his last game in 1973 as well.

Quiet and steady, he didn’t demand the spotlight like Namath and others but he should be in the Hall of Fame. His numbers are markedly better than Namath’s. But whatevs. He retired from football to become one of the top guys on the Senior Golf tour. When they were still allowed to call it Senior.

So raise a toast to Brodie. A guy who took a lot of shots, had shit thrown at him for half his career by the unruly mobs that passed for Niner fans back in the day, and ended up almost climbing the mountain to the top. RIP John.