San Francisco 49ers Forever

News out of the offseason is great for two important defensive players. both Dee Ford, who had his knee cleaned up, and D.J. Jones is fully recovered from his ankle injury. Ford still has tendonitis, but he reports that his knee feels 100% better than the limited time he played last season.

I’m sure the 49ers were looking for much more than the limited action they got from Ford, but his presence on the field did wonders for their sack totals. Having him available for more plays will only help. Jones on the other hand is poised to be the run stuffing force that they lost in DeFo. He was a 6th round pick who was playing extremely well before he was hurt.

Other than that, well, you get it.

Still no baseball, no hockey (so?), no nothing sports-wise unless you count some staged golf event that I didn’t muster the energy to look at, some NASCAR meh, so what’s going on?

Well, the Niners are looking to extend George Kittle’s contract. One that should put him in the range of $14-$15 mill a year. Something like 4 years and $60 mill is in the realm of possibility. Seeing as he is what he is, the best TE in the league who grades out at the top in yards after catch, catches, yards, and blocking, he’s worth the scratch. The good news is also the front office has done a good job with the deals to Garoppolo and AA, and are positioned fairly well to keep the team competitive.

Say what you will about the DeFoBu trade, but it saved the team a ton of money and allows for the extension to Kittle and got us Kinlaw. Yeah, Ford and Alexander will cost down the road, but that will be dealt with next season. So our contract situation isn’t nearly as dire as, say, the Rams.

The Rams are $5.3 mill OVER the cap and have yet to sign Jalen Ramsey to a deal. You know, they guy they traded two 1st round picks for. With $16.5 mill being the current CB standard set by Darius Slay and Byron Jones, you have to think Ramsey would want something in the ballpark of 5/$85 mill. They are paying Gurley and Cooks $42 million to play on other teams, along with the onerous Goff contract with $110 guaranteed.

Seattle and AZ? They are in decent shape I suppose. AZ looks to be the winner of the preseason though what with their acquisition of DeAndre Hopkins. A major coup for them. They are gonna be a tough row to hoe this season. Fucking Bill O’Brien should have been fired on the spot. O’Brien did such a shitty job coaching that they made him GM.

See below for O’Briens losing his cool during the draft. He had apparently worked out a deal with the Lions that they backed out of at the last minute.

Nothing going on, so here’s some highlights from birthday boy Ronnie Lott.

62 years old today.

The NFL did some kind of hype show around the release of the schedule yesterday that was even a little too obscure for me to get jazzed about, but here you have it. Our 2020 schedule. Whether it comes to pass remains to be seen, but hey, it is proceeding as if it will happen. Curios is the 2-game stretch in week 2 and 3 where we play 2 different teams in the same road stadium. The Gints and the Jets.

Weird at best, but NJ gets a chance to see 2 Niner games in a row. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Another notable game is the return of Jimmy G to Massachusetts to face the Brady-less Patriots.

Anyhow, without further ado . . .

Joe Staley, a stalwart on the offensive line for the past 13 seasons, had his retirement presser Tuesday. The argument is there for his HoF creds, and I think he’s gonna make it. Made the all-rookie team, 6 time pro-bowl player, 3 time 2nd team all-pro, and a member of the all-decade 2010s team. A great player on some not-so-great teams. But a stalwart behind Frank Gore for tons of Frank’s yards with the 49ers.

Everyone in the league has nothing but good things to say about him. And Staley himself credits Frank Gore with instilling the drive to become the best.

“Frank was a guy that I watched. I was a huge sports fan growing up, and he was a guy that I watched and not idolized, but he was a superstar. So I came in the NFL, and he had just got done rushing for 1,600 yards, and he was a guy that was the leader of the team and he was a San Francisco 49er. To watch him work and the way that he approached every single day was special for me as a rookie just being like ‘This is what it takes to be a stud in the NFL.’ ”

Very bummed he didn’t get a Super Bowl victory to cap his excellent career, but so many greats didn’t even reach a Super Bowl. Here’s a nice article on him.

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/SanFranciscoChronicle/Default.aspx

2007 seems like a looooong time ago.

Shula? Hey, we all know the accomplishments, and shit, the dude lived to 90 with most of his faculties intact. That’s a pretty damn cool thing. Happy trails, coach.

The 49er roster as of now is full. They signed 11 undrafted free agents to fill out their roster. Their UDFA’s are (thx Winder):

JaMycal Hasty, RB, Baylor
Chris Finke, WR, Notre Dame
DeMarkus Acy, DB, Missouri
Jared Mayden, S, Alabama
Ronnell Perkins, S, Missouri
Chase Harrell, TE, Arkansas
Broc Rutter, QB, North Central
Jonas Griffith, LB, Indiana State
Salvon Ahmed, RB, Washington
Josh Hokit, FB, Fresno State
Darrion Daniels, DE, Nebraska

We should be thanking Daniel Snyder as well, as the 49ers tried to trade for Trent Williams last year, and they wanted a 1st round pick for him. Getting him for a 3 and 5 is relative peanuts, even if for only one year. But I think we’ll be able to work out a deal for a few more seasons.

For all intents and purposes, the 49ers nailed this draft for their particular needs. And I’m not the only one that thinks so.

https://www.ninersnation.com/2020/4/27/21237994/king-no-franchise-manager-of-a-playoff-team-had-a-better-weekend-than-lynch

Granted, Kinlaw could be an injury risk with his knee tendonitis, Aiyuk could flame out a la AJ Jenkins, and Trent could be just a one-year rental, but as of now we are looking pretty good.

Well, for team that was depleted by last year’s moved to shore up the defense, the 49ers did a shitload of wheeling and dealing to spice up this Stay-At-Home 2020 draft. The trade of DeForest Buckner was a pretty big risk, but the reward was the 13 pick in the draft. One in which we chose Javon Kinlaw, a stud of a defensive tackle who should be able to step right into our vaunted defensive line. So he replaces DeFoBu and is younger and cheaper.

Pick 2 in the 1st round, who we traded up for to get at 25, is Brandon Aiyuk, wide receiver from Arizona State. He was, according to word behind the scenes (at least from what I’ve read), not going to last till 31. Miami apparently wanted him, and this brought about the move to 25. When Miami didn’t get Aiyuk, they traded out of the 26th spot with Green Bay, so that answers my questions about why they moved up. What the 49ers got was a true X receiver who is a beast after the catch and looks to step right in as a starter. He can line up at any WR spot and is a solid pass catcher who would seem to fit perfectly with Kyle Shanahan’s offense. He steps right into Emmanuel Sanders’ role, and is, yes, much younger and cheaper.

In the days leading up to the draft it became apparent that Joe Staley was going to retire, so the 49ers packaged up a current 5th round and next year’s 3rd round pick for a guy that is Staley’s peer in tackle Trent Williams. He of course ran afoul of daniel Snyder and the Washington Redskins medical staff as they misdiagnosed a tumor on Williams; head. Prompting his holdout for the 2019 season. So we get a younger version of the same guy. He however won’t be cheap as his contract runs out this year. That is a worry for another day.

The rest?

McKivitz is an undersized lineman that Shanahan likes to work with, Woerner is a plus blocker who only had 34 catches in college. Sounds a little familiar as that was George Kittle’s resume, but I don’t see that much in him other than special teams, and Jauan Jennings, a big but slow WR who is a solid possession type guy, but he has some guys to get through to make the squad.

So, the 49ers trade Matt Breida, DeFo, and Goodwin, get some draft capital and turn it into 3 starters. Not a bad draft weekend’s work. I’m curious tht they didn’t really address cornerback, but I assume more moves will be made to address that down the line.