San Francisco 49ers Forever

Speaking of whispered news, another whispered situation has come out of the bldg that the Niners could possibly cut Carlos Hyde. This on the heels of the ‘NaVorro Bowman is available for trade’ innuendo floated out into the interwebs last week. While I think Hyde is a solid running back, the fact remains that he can’t stay healthy to save his life, and he also is apparently not a good fit for Shanny Jr’s new offense.

Meh.

He seems like a good guy and has shown some great runs, but the fact is I wouldn’t miss him too much if they did. The offense is going to be a work in progress this season, and building it around an oft-injured back may not be the best course. Joe Williams can come in fresh and ready right out of the gate and play within Kyle’s system.

Trading Bowman however is not a good idea in any way shape or form. Of course the team issued an instant denial of any such thought, but per this team’s past history, the whisper campaign is something these guys do with regularity. I’d hate to see Bowman go for some draft picks, or whatever, because I think he’s much more valuable as one of our assets regardless of how much he ends up playing (or even how well). He can impart a ton of knowledge to the young defense, especially Reuben Foster and Solomon Thomas.

Beyond that though, there appears to be a lot of targets on the backs of the guys that were brought here by the last couple regimes. Especially on offense. Bruce Ellington, VMcDropsy, and Garrett Celek will likely vanish shortly, as will a lot of others.

In a VERY telling development, Kirk Cousins turned down the largest guaranteed signing bonus for a QB in NFL history at $53 million (with an injury clause of $72 mill!) to stick to his one year franchise contract, and get the fuck out of Dodge next season. The details of the deal look vaguely similar (one-year guarantee barely over the franchise tagged amount) to the team-friendly one that Colin Kaepernick signed with the Niners a few years ago, and Cousins is saying all the things he should be in that he wants to “stay in Washington, I love it here” blah blah blah. All told, the extension was worth $133 mill over 6 years. And he turned it down flat after ‘numerous attempts’ to work a deal. Cousins’ agent didn’t even put a number on the table for the Skins to work with.

It sure looks to me (and anyone with a brain) that Cousins is angling for a return to his mentor in one Kyle Shanahan. Listen to this video from Redskins president Bruce Allen. Do you think it’s intentional that he calls Kirk ‘Curt’ throughout the entire interview? Duh.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2722186-kirk-cousins-redskins-fail-to-agree-on-contract-despite-repeated-attempts?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

Good news for the 49ers should Kirk make it through the year relatively unscathed.

It was the worst of times. Got nothing but there appears to be some issues with WordPress. Checking right now.

Ahh, everything’s fine.

In the ‘Strange but True’ file I bring you this. The 49ers currently have the longest week 1 winning streak in the league, dating back to Jim Harbaugh’s 2011 debut (6 years) vs Seattle. Denver is 2nd at 5 years.

https://www.ninersnation.com/2017/7/4/15919840/49ers-week-1-winning-streak-2017-vs-panthers

Hey, football is a long way off, but the Giants are doing their part in creating more excitement around the upcoming season as they lose their way to the cellar and put themselves into the 49ers position a couple years ago.

Anyhow, Marc Sessler, a writer for NFL.com gives his take on the 49er season.

http://www.49ers.com/news/article-2/NFL-Writer-Gives-His-Prediction-for-49ers-2017-Season/e07dd730-4014-4224-91b0-a134a8d83b01?sf90298104=1

Needless to say, he’s not too insanely outlandish with his prediction but he is saying 6+ wins for the Red and Gold. There are a lot of folks who simply think we stay in the 10-12 loss range, but I beg to differ. We aren’t loaded with talent, but we do have some pieces that look intriguing, and we hit the draft pretty well. There are artill moves to be made as expensive pieces get cast aside for the recently drafted, so a few more bargains may come our way. Our QB situation should be better this year, and I think the run game improves dramatically.

The defense? Well, we weren’t as bad as we played, and we did get a lot of injuries, but our failings had a lot to do with inept coaching. The D line is in great shape, and we look pretty solid in the defensive backfield. LB is a concern, as is Reuben Foster’s health, but overall I think the defense will stand tall.

I’m still wavering around 7-9 to 8-8.

So far at least this has been a very good offseason (humor me and read this). Gone are Trent Baalke and a coaching staff full of underachieving unprepared goofballs. I mean, Kelly was no great shakes, but Jimmy Bagadonuts was  farting his way through pressers and generally stinking up the joint. Young Sir Jed Hidesalot was of course squirreled away in his ivory cabana pissing off his neighbors as well as millions of fans as the team sucked its way through these last few shitty seasons.

Now? Well, the invisible owner hired two newbies to replace the Kelly/Baalke comedy hour in Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch. Since then, there has been a fairly obvious uptick in the team’s status. Players actually want to come here to play under Shanny’s offensive system, and the front office for the most part nailed the draft. Two very encouraging things on the face of them.

Still and all, it doesn’t amount to squadoosh for the upcoming season. The immediate future of the team is likely not a very rosy one, at least if you listen to the so-called experts. Of course, NFL fortunes are won and lost season by season as teams rise and fall like the tides in the Bay of Fundy. Look it up. How good are we? Playoffs? Playoffs?!? PLAYOFFS?!?!? Not likely, no matter how optimistic one is. Recent history shows us that coaching can play a huge difference in the fortunes of a given team, as witnessed by Jim Harbaugh taking Aluminum Mike Singletary’s 6-10 49ers to 13-3 and a couple fumbles away from a Super Bowl berth.

Unfortunately, the team is not in that state. That 2010 team was built by Scotty McLoughan. The team had a boatload of high draft picks and talent. Harbaugh easily turned the team around with his rah-rah take no prisoners attitude and for a while, things were great. However, when Scotty hit skid row and ‘mutually departed,’ Trent Baalke slowly drained the team of talent while York and spreadsheet boy pissed off Jim Harbaugh to the point of another so-called mutual departure.  Our QB of the future took a team-friendly deal to keep the talent around him here, yet the front office dumped all the talent anyway and blamed coaches, players, and the waterboy for their failures while laughing their way through bad hires and shitty seasons.

The team hit rock bottom as they travelled down the peg board of the NFC West going from 1st in 2012 to 2nd in 2013 to 3rd in 2014 and 4th in 2015 and 2016. 2-14 last year being the bottom rung of the “I only hang Super Bowl Banners” statement made by York as he fired his most successful coach and pissed away the talent.

Today? The hope is that these guys in the front office have learned their lessons about how not to run a football team. Shitting on players and pissing off coaches and spreading lies and misinformation through the media while backstabbing and whispering and leaking information to guys like Trent Dilfer needs to stop. And, for better or worse, hiring a guy like John Lynch and pulling these kinds of stunts is akin to poking a sleeping bear. Lynch may be more professional than Jim “only men allowed here” Harbaugh, but he’s also someone that wouldn’t take the whisper campaign lying down. Harbaugh played his games through the media in his own way. Lynch would more than likely give Jed a blindside hit coming down the hallway at 4949 Centennial Blvd.

So, where are we? I think with a stop-gap QB, a newly toooled offense, a vastly improved defensive line and a hugely improved coaching staff, this team has the ability to go 8-8. Playoffs? No, but enough improvement to be encouraging.

Nothing doing in Ninerland, so we might as well bask in the Warriors 2nd championship in 3 years. As a kid growing up, you hope to see your teams win it all, and as Flav posted on his blog, those of us who have been around here for a while have witnessed quite a few banner-raisings. With the Niners 5, the SF Giants 3, and now the Oak/SF Warriors 3, that’s a grand total of 11 championships from 1975 to 2017. Throw in the Oakland A’s 4 and Oakland Raiders 2 and the number goes up to 17 in 45 years. No mean feat.

What is crazy is I’ve been around for just about all of the playoff success of all these teams. I’ve told my son over and over not to take this success for granted. The Giants may not win another World Series for 50 years. The Warriors look like they have a solid team for the next few years but this poses the question, when do the 49ers return to the pinnacle? Are we on the right track? I’d like to think we are, but as we all know, it isn’t easy. We got oh so close in 2012, and looked to be poised for a few years of greatness, but we also got to see how fast this shit can unravel.

Anyhow, enjoy the bask, raise a drink in honor of the Warriors, and bring on the football season!

Nothing earthshaking, but the 49ers retained the services of ONE of their woebegone wide receivers in Jeremy Kerley. Granted, he was about the only guy that could consistently: a) run proper routes; b) catch the ball; c) do something after the catch. And, really the only reason it is noteworthy at all is because the current regime is treating the last regime much like the current administration is treating the last one.

As in remove all trace of its existence. Kerley didn’t put up huge numbers, but “he’s a pro” in the words of Joe Staley.  “He goes about his day, he’s always on his (assignments), he knows the details of what we’re trying to do and he’s out there making plays” said WR coach Mike LaFleur.

Still and all though I’m sure the purge of flotsam and jetsam has not begun in earnest. TE and the other WRs currently on the roster more than likely will change dramatically. We’ve already swapped out QBs and CBs, and I’m sure LBs will look a lot different in short order, or at least when cut-down days arrive.

Anyhow, saw Roger Waters over the weekend, and it was a pretty amazing show. Especially when they played “One of These Days” from Meddle. One of my favorite Floyd songs.