Among all the deals that need to be made, the players that need to be signed, the impending draft, and the recent heartbreaking losses, we haven’t heard from Young Jed, the not-so-erstwhile owner of your San Francisco 49ers. I mention this because, at least in my mind, there seems to be trouble brewing. Nothing major, not at this point, but I think there are issues behind the scenes with the direction of this offense, and with the power structure in the front office.
No one has come out and said anything, but there are intimations from some of the writers that Harbaugh was not happy with the direction of the play calling as the season wore on. He supposedly took a more active role from Greg Roman as the season wore on, for good or ill. Then you have the ‘creative tensions’ between Harbaugh and Trent Baalke. Harbaugh certainly wasn’t impressed with AJ Jenkins as he rarely saw the field, and other highly regarded players (see: LMJ) have languished on the sidelines to the point of distraction. Then you have Jed York and Baalke both saying that Aldon Smith would ‘play sparingly’ after the DUI arrest, yet Harbaugh used him on all the defensive plays vs Indy. The whole Eric Mangini Experience was a black hole of nothingness, and this offense once again sputtered and stalled at the worst possible time and came up short.
Add to this the fact that Jim Harbaugh is in line for a contract extension. He is now behind Jeff Fisher of StL ($7 mill) and Super Bowl winner Pete the Cheat Carroll ($6 mill). One would think he’d like to ratchet that up a bit to be in line with the elite coaches. Say $7.5 mill a year. You have to wonder if he’d like more control over the draft than how the balance is currently established, with Baalke having the final say. Will he parlay his success to gain more control? Or will he do what his recent history suggests and put on his travelling shoes? The University of Texas made a push for Harbaugh last December, and while it seemed implausible then, who’s to say he may not want to give it a shot back in college?
I think Jed has the utmost respect for Harbaugh, but you really have to wonder how Jim plays this. The Colin Kaepernick extension (and all the rest of the players after him) could very well depend on the Niners signing Harbaugh to an extension. Jed isn’t one to swing his dick around, but if Jed has a mind that he wants more offense rather than the Michigan offense we seem to be channelling, I wonder if he would hire a new more pass oriented OC and see how Harbaugh reacts. Or will Jed simply let the contract issue slide for one more season and play the string out to see what the team does?Harbaugh still has 2 more seasons under contract, and a lot can change from now to the end of the 2015 season.
I seriously doubt this doom-and-gloom shit happens, but really, this is a team in flux with all the players on the edge of free agency, and these undercurrents of a power struggle between Harbaugh, Baalke, and possibly York as Harbaugh seems to want more control over personnel decisions. It certainly puts the fact that guys like AJ Jenkins and LMJ get left out of the rotation as guys around them get hurt and they still don’t see the field of play in a different light.
Forty Niners Forever 
Interesting angle, and well written. I didn’t realize Harbaugh had wrestled some of the play calling away from Roman down the stretch.
Regarding Harbaugh wanting more control over the draft, I haven’t read any rumblings about this but it’s certainly possible. Harbaugh does seem to have a lot of say. He did draft Eric Reid in the first round, and Baalke wasn’t around at Stanford when Harbaugh went after Reid there. Harbaugh also played a major role in the decision to draft LaMicheal James because Harbaugh respected him so much at Oregon when the two played against each other in the PAC 10. My feeling is, but I don’t know for sure, that Harbaugh has a decent amount of say regarding the draft.
Another thing to think about is Harbaugh’s Stanford teams. I think Harbaugh did a lot of the major recruiting from what I’ve read. when he was the coach at Stanford. And look at how his teams were built: Good running backs, full backs, good tight ends but no real dominate threat at receiver. Was this because Harbaugh wasn’t good at drafting or developing receivers at the college level? Was AJ Jenkins a Harbaugh pick? Harbaugh recruited Doug Baldwin and I read this year that Harbaugh wasn’t impressed with Baldwin, quietly reducing Baldwin’s role at Stanford to a point where Baldwin wanted to show Harbaugh he was wrong when Baldwin got to Seattle. And now we have Ricardo Lockette developing in Seattle. Jenkins developing (albeit slowly) with the Chiefs. Baldwin and Lockette in Seattle. Kyle Williams gone. Harbaugh’s the common denominator there.
I could see Harbaugh taking control away from Roman, but in the drafting department, I think Harbaugh has a lot of say. And with a lot of say comes his fair share of blame when things go wrong. I’m certain Harbaugh was connected with Reid and James. Others, like Jenkins, I don’t know about.
Harbaugh didn’t win a National Championship at Stanford, and he hasn’t won a Super Bowl. I say there’s one word and one word only that explains why he fell short in both areas: receiver. And maybe Trent Baalke gets too much of the blame regarding our selection of Jenkins. Until Harbaugh can find and draft a great receiver, maybe two like Rice and Taylor, Harbaugh will never win a championship. That much I’m sure of. And it’s why I want the 49ers to go away from Iupati, Gore and Roman, and spend money on Kaep and Crabtree. But it’ll be interesting to see how things play out this off season, for sure!
Hmmm good response to a thought provoking topic. I too will be curious to see how the Harbaugh/Baalke/York relationships play out. Right now we cant know and maybe the principal players (above) dont know either, yet. We’ll find out eventually by their actions and also non-actions (= who gets drafted and who gets on the field). And who doesnt! But words from the above are secondary to actions = contract extensions, etc.
Agree, we need WRs in our O, drafted or otherwise, to be productive.
That’s the rub, Spit. Is Harbaugh’s failure to develop a deep-threat WR based on his inability to use one correctly? As I’ve said before, Ted Ginn’s success elsewhere brings that to the forefront. Possession type WRs are fine. As are TEs in his offense. But Harbaugh doesn’t see to know how to integrate a deep threat into his offensive philosophy.
I want Roman to go too, but Harbaugh HAS to be the driver of the change. He doesn’t appear to WANT to change his style. Which makes the contract negotiations a big deal. If Jed waits and the team falls short again, what then?
For all the talk of drafting LMJ, he certainly isn’t in Harbaugh’s good graces now. The deal around AJ Jenkins was the story that they had his name in an envelope a week before the draft.
Who’s envelope? If it was Harbaugh’s idea, then why did he ignore the guy for 2 years? I mean really. Kappy was obviously his guy. Harbaugh got him in at the earliest opportunity, and left him in when A Smith healed up. He certainly hasn’t gone to bat for AJ or LMJ like that. The Vance McD deal is the same. He’s gotten some action, but by shittiness or whatever, he didn’t get much playing time. You have to wonder if some of this comes from Harbaugh not agreeing with Baalke.
Excellent point/question
Harbaugh’s not going anywhere. There’d be a second Arab Spring in SF if Jed let Harbaugh go, and we did just open a new stadium. Hard to get excited about a new stadium with Norv Turner as your head coach. Iran would bomb us out of spite for stealing their thunder. Harbaugh will certainly leverage more money, but I doubt he’ll leverage more power. I think he’s got a fair amount of say and a good working relationship with Baalke. I think we’ve given Harbaugh too much credit and dumped too much blame on Baalke lately. Another reason Harbaugh won’t make a power grab is because Pete won’t. Pete will keep Snyder and (inebriated) Sons in Seattle’s front office.
Then the only question in my mind is how, without a coaching change and a dramatic change to the offensive personnel, will we get a passing game? Roman, Iupati, Gore? No thank you. Mangini? No thank you. But those bums don’t seem to be going anywhere. Right now it looks like more of the same next year for our offense, and I know we won’t win the Super Bowl with this cast of characters on offense. And what hurts is that we aren’t an Aldon Smith on defense away from being a good offense. In my opinion we’re three good offensive skill players away and one good offensive coach (with valued input) away. That’s a a lot of change and Harabaugh doesn’t seem like a guy who can change. I think we’re in for another boring season of offensive football. One thing that might change is for people to start calling Jim Harbaugh Jim Levy instead of Jim Schembechler. That might bring us a passing game. Name calling works. My literary eloquence was the soul reason Alex Smith was run out of town. No more Alexcuses! Jim Levy understood. Marv Harbaugh?
Jim Levy Schembechler? JLS? Can you see me workin’?
You forgot John (the Fred Flintstone offense) Robinson . . .
If Harbaugh falls short yet again,m the rumblings will get loud. Mooch got canned for less. Fricking Seifert got the boot for much the same, and he WON 2 Super Bowls. . .
I don’t know if I agree with this….. the rumblings for Harbaugh’s head. I’ve read Berger’s take on this on Skeeber’s blog, and I have to say I’m in total agreement with Berger about mostly everything he’s been writing lately, especially about Super Bowls being the standard, but look around. Who are you going to hire to compete for Super Bowls if we dump Jim? Jim may be Marv Levy. It’s looking that way. But Jim is (warning: Alexcuses) two fade routes away from winning a Super Bowl and playing in another. I’m not sticking up for Jim because his offense sucks and 49er fans do need to start letting Jim hear their frustrations so Jim changes his offensive philosophy. But you don’t quit a job without another job in hand. And you don’t fire Harbaugh without knowing the next guy you hire can take the team to the Super Bowl. But I will say one thing. I wouldn’t be at all bummed out if York fired Jim a few years down the road and hired Vic Fangio as the head coach with Fangio having a passing oriented OC in mind. I think Vic might be great. Either way, I still think it’s premature, even next year, to be calling for Harbaugh’s head.
It’s hard to read Harbaugh’s relationship with Colin Kaepernick. I can’t tell if Kaep likes Harbaugh. I saw Kaep blow right by Harbaugh when Kaep threw the INT to Sherman. Harbaugh was looking to console Kaep and Kaep was having none of it. That might be because Kaep was inconsolable, or it might be because Kaep’s not all in with Jim Harbaugh. However, if Kaep and Harbaugh are cool, that’s not something I easily throw away. Kaep’s in the playoffs each year competing for Super Bowls as a young qb with a head coach who hand selected him. Kaep might have 15 years ahead of him. That’s a huge, huge factor to consider. Kaep is getting invaluable playoff experience that will, down the road, put him over on teams like the Panthers who are first time aw-struck playoff teams. Kaep will beat those guys with Harbaugh’s structure. And I think Kaep and Harbaugh together will evolve. It has to happen. I thought this year Roman held Colin Kaepernick back considerably even with Crabtree out. I said it all along the scheme gets guys open – not receivers being asked to win their matchups. And a college run game coordinator isn’t going to create offensive passing schemes to get guys open. But Harbaugh’s more involved in that than I’ve given him credit for. Harbaugh’s more to blame. Look at what I wrote about Harbaugh not getting receivers involved at Stanford. I honestly hope AJ Jenkins develops now because Harbaugh will have to deal with the egg on his face. He already has Richardo Lockette egg on his face. And Doug Baldwin egg.
Bottomline: Kaep and Harbaugh will start to figure out a passing attack. It will take Jim time, because he’s stubborn. But if Harbaugh dumps Crabtree for Iupati, I’m right there with Berger callin’ for Jim’s head. Dump Gore. Dump Iupati. Bring in more receivers. Bring in more running backs. And for god sakes, figure it out on offense. This has been embarrassing and Harbaugh and Roman are getting exposed.
I recall Harbaugh commenting about having to face LMJ in College as well Chuck.
As I thought at the time, the Drafting of LMJ was more about replacing Ginn on the PR/KR side of our Roster.
Never saw him as a viable threat to replace or enhance Frank, he’s simply too small.
Rather then lay this on Harbaugh or Baalke, I’m more inclined to believe LMJ just isn’t cutting it.
We’ll debate the Offense as it relates to Roman and the lack of passing efficiency certainly.
I’m more inclined to think of it in terms of the talent on the Roster and utilizing what’s already here.
Major factor for me, Kaep learning to master the QB position.
Touch, timing, and feel for the pocket, has as much to do with the passing game as anything.
If Kaep isn’t seeing every route or, buying time in the pocket, to enable these routes to uncover, no amount of scrutiny of Roman makes any sense to me.
One major attribute I admire about Harbaugh is, that he’s going with the hot hand, at any position that matters.
If Baldwin isn’t cutting it, he’ll be gone. As was the case for Kyle and AJ.
I expect the same for LMJ.
Roster spots are earned and shouldn’t be wasted for guys that aren’t contibutors.
We’re a team with solid leadership and vision now.
Sure, they’ve got their issues in places but, it isn’t impossible to fix.
Well, that’s where I’m concerned. Last year was ripe for us to win and we fucked it up badly. This year? Seattle became the front-runner in a big way and they didn’t puke on their shoes as we did.
The bar has to be set higher than the shitty running team we become in the playoffs. Otherwise we will repeat this 2013 season this year. And next. Good enough for the payoffs, but nbot good enough to nake it alll the way. We showed that we aren’t good enough to overcome our crap-ass red zone offense and our constantly leaving points off the board.
I’m confident that they’re eager to improve it too Chuck.
We’ve come a long way in 3 years.
Hoping, as you are, that they’ll get it corrected.
We definitley some deep threats beyond VD.
No doubt Baalke is shopping in that area as well.
Good deep Class of WRs to shop in this year too.
Let’s hope he changes his batting average in a good way this May.
And while we’re at it, losing Iupati in Seattle contributed to a weaker output in the running game too.
We were in it until the end so I don’t feel that we’re too far away.
Hoping Lattimore can provide a spark, along with an improved philosophy toward the passing scheme.
When you factor in the Seattle DLine rotation, you realize that they had the upper hand against our OLine in that matchup.
We’ll be adding Tank and Dial this time around as well.
Always about getting better, at all positons, in order to stay in the picture.
I think we’ll get it done.
We also seemed to improve our deficiencies against the noise factor in the NFCC game too.
It’s still a huge advantage for their DLine to get off quickly but, we improved it, which is an important factor going forward.
Here’s an interesting take on Cutler from his former GM.
Check the link embedded within the article regarding his opinions on all the QBs.
No, this isn’t impossible to fix. I just wonder if Harbaugh sticks with Roman, and if he even sees the problem. There isn’t enough in this passing attack to scare anyone. THe red zone offense is impotent.
You CAN run for 150 and throw for 275. IF you make the necessary changes.
Nice list. Most of that makes sense. The only reason I always wil rate Brady over P Manning is that Manning had a lot more weapons than Brady ever did. Brady consistently did more with less. Take this year for example. His team was decimated by injury, yet got to the AFC Championship game. And I’m sure he would have done better than Peyton in the Super Bowl.
These Winter Olympics suck. It was 65° in Sochi today and people were hitting the beach and going swimming. I’d usually say these Olympics stink on ice, but I don’t think there is any.
They should hold the snow events at 3:00 am to make sure the snow isn’t slushy. The halfpipe event yesterday was a joke. Half the competitors (including Shaun White) washed out in the shit conditions.
I wouldn’t know good/bad snow conditions from my ass, but when there’s been that many complaints from all the competitors. Something ain’t right. The hockey is just getting underway. Maybe that will liven things up a bit.
Welcome back Dennis
Bulllitt needs a boy friend. Or a hobby. What a fucking pussy.
L.J. Cobb to E.G. Marhall (12 Angry Men, referring to gadfly Henry Fonda): He was just baiting me.
Marshall, dryly: He did a good job.
Never fear, Chuck. One day I called B* a “troll”, a word which to the best of my knowledge had never been used before on Skeebs’.
Since then he’s used that word about once a day (for the last three years!). He’s a little kid who thinks he learned a bad word: “Ca ca, ca ca, ca ca, ca ca, ca ca…”.
Cracks me up now every time I see him use it. Makes me want to take away his Oreo.
Ahhhh, gonna be a looong offseason
Got him, LOL. Kid loves to dish crap, but can’t even take the truth! Made my day. Hi, B*!
Double got him; he deleted his comment. Guess he wants his Oreo back, or doesn’t want it in print that he reads this blog.