Well, I stand corrected. I thought our WR coach was the ex-Detroit Lion WR Johnnie Morton. He’s John Morton, a training camp casualty and World Football Leaguer. He got so far as the Raiders practice squad in 1993 and never got on an NFL field. He has been the Niner WR coach for 3 years. He worked with Turner an Gruden with the Raiders, did some good work with Payton in Nawlins, and at USD with Harbaugh, so his creds seem fine.
But really, what the hell is wrong with the WR corps on the 49ers? Never has a group been so underwhelming for so long. The list of WRs that failed to catch on (unless you are Anquan Boldin) is too long to list, but Randy Moss, Braylon Edwards, Mario Manningham, and Ted Ginn are recent washouts. No to mention Kyle Williams. Granted, some of this is by design as the Niners want to run, and rarely use more that 2 WRs at at time, but, Moss’s time here was especially frustrating as he was almost always covered 12 yards off the line, and the Niners rarely exploited the fact that they could have thrown 10-yard comebacks all the way down the field with little resistance.
Throw in the fact that the 3rd WR position has produced miniscule numbers in recent memory. Galling is the facat tat Ted Ginn caught more passes last year as the 3 in Carolina than he did in 3 years here. What did that get him? Well, a one-way tiket to AZ, but the point remains that we didn’t do very much with him as our speed guy. Once he lost his effectiveness as a PR, he was toast here. But obviously, for all his disappointmnt as a 1st round draft choice, and subsequent horrible numbers as a Niner, he’s a viable WR who is better that what we got out of him. Manningham sort of follows suit. He started well, and was beset with nagging injuries, and never got rolling. Swett Brain campe in and had little impact. Bye bye. The rookies? Well, AJ Jenkins may be the bust of this decade draft-wise, but others haven’t fared well wither. Ronald Johnson didn’t make it through camp, Quniton Patton looked promising, then he got hurt. He came back late and made a couple nice catches. Now we have Bruce Ellington. He looks like a guy weith speed to burn. A guy wh0o can open up the top on a defense. Alas, he just hit the PUP/Non-NFL injury report.
Yay. Another guy who looks to red-shirt his rookie season. At what point do you turn to the coaches to find out why the 49ers fid it so hard to integrate WRs into their offense? Is it incomprehensible blocking schemes that they are required to learn? This certainly must play a part because it has a lot to do with why Frank Gore is so hard tounseat as the go-to RB on the Niners. Gore may have scored a 6 on the Wonderlich, but his knowlege of the 49er playbook has reached Einsteinian levels. Is this the reason? Is it our rudimentary offense? Our 1-2 WR formations that appear to be nothing more than 12 yard outs (which occasionally get jumped for pick 6’s) and mid-range come-backs? We certainly don’t show a lot of double moves, slants, or deep routes for our WRs. The deep balls go to VD. Slants? A relic from the past. As are screens, unless its the dreaded bubble screen to the WR.
Which brings us to John Morton. What the hell is he actually doing? Either he’s been given shit to work with (not likely as some guys leave here and still produce) or he can’t elevate these guys to play better than they’ve shown. We’ve all heard about the new-age passing offense that is coming. The multiple-WR sets. In the immortal words of Steven Tyler, “same old story., same oldsong and dance, my friend.” Seeing Carlos Hyde drafted in the 2nd round gives me even more pause to think this is all preseason babble.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Forty Niners Forever 
“The beauty of putting in 4 wide is you open up running lanes inside.”
How?
If that’s all there is to it, Denver won the SB. And Moreno/Ball got more than twenty yards all day.
I think the 49ers’ 2014 quest for a ring is all about how little they use Frank Gore. If he gets more than a 1/4 of the workload, they won’t win the Super Bowl. I’ll make one amendment, though…. the 49ers could use Gore as a bell cow for half the season and then make a switch in their personnel and offensive philosophy mid season, putting Gore on the sidelines down the stretch and through the playoffs and the 49ers could win the Super Bowl with Gore getting more than 1/4 of the carries. But if Gore’s in there down the stretch, getting significant playing time, the 49ers won’t win the Super Bowl. Gore hurt the 49ers in 2013 against the Seahawks. Bill Walsh would have dumped him…. or traded him. Willie Mays hung on too long as well….
Horse BLEEP!
WooF!
Gee, NoFear, do we have better run blockers than Denver? The beauty of it we would be using our line, not Denver’s. Not sure of the mental gymnastics you are taking there, but seriously, what does Denver’s line have to do with our running game?
You make this out to be rocket surgery. Certainly, you understand that if the Niners faced less in the box, and ran out of those types of formations, we could conceivably have more success inside? Do you think that if we lined up 4 wide, teams would pack the box? I’d love to see that, but it won’t happen.
If you go spread in the NFL, you better have fast players, a mobile qb, and a qb with great vision. Last year the 49ers didn’t have fast enough players and Kaep was younger, working on vision – plus GRow had a “Kaep’s young,” kinda mentality – to protect him. The spread was a few and fair between venture. They had Vernon and LMJ for speed, but unfortunately for James, Vernon was more effective out of pro style formations and Hunter got a lot of spread plays (which weren’t many).
This year, Kaep’s working on being a better pocket passer (hopefully because Montana was critical of him last playoff run), and Kaep’s also going to be better at reading defenses and GRow will have an off season to anticipate this growth and create new plays. The key to all this, once again, will be keeping Gore off the field. Going spread in the NFL is riskier than going jumbo. So if you’re gonna risk going spread, go all in with spread players. And Frank Gore isn’t a spread player. Period. Frank Gore is Willie Mays on the Mets. Honestly…. Have we traded Frank Gore to the Mets yet?
You say’in Gore can make basket catches?
Not sure what the problem with Gore is. He’s as good an inside runner as anyone else in the league. He never had speed, so what is your beef? Other than your usual hyperbolic stance on any given issue?
Gore’s going to be phased out this year anyway, barring the others completely failing. It’s up to the other guys to do better than Gore, not on Gore to simply go away.
BLEEP the critics!
My problem with Gore is that he’s a one trick pony and he’s not an all purpose back. That’s my problem. When you’re limited, like Gore is, defenses know your tendencies and stop your strengths, forcing you to beat ’em with your weakness. That’s why you (Unca) thought the Seattle Defense looked so good, “Jim Brown couldn’t have run against ’em.” But the reality is that the Saints ran all over the Seahawks the week before because their backs weren’t “washed up” like Gore is.
Trent Baalke agrees with me. The evidence: Carlos Hyde. My problem with Gore is that it’ll be hard for Jim Harbaugh not to make an emotional decision to start Gore over Hyde, when Hyde’s clearly the better option never playing a down in the NFL. Harbaugh’s an emotional guy – but emotional decisions are seldom good ones.
Did we trade Frank Gore to the Mets yet?
Well, the VD saga is over. He showed up to camp.
http://ble.ac/1oOU5JS
Well bully for him. Now wasn’t all that angst a waste of time?
Of course . . . . not.
Word is, he’ll suffer an ‘injury’ and not be able to participate.
Chuck looks ahead! There’s a hairpin turn ahead! The lights don’t work and it’s pitch black! Oh…. and the brakes are fading fast and the road is steep! Stay tuned …….
Your busted-ass van’s blocking the road, Nippy.
Wow. Got to love Goodie Goodell. He gives Ray Rice a 2-game suspension for beating the shit out of his soon-to-be-dead wife and dragging her around Vegas by the hair. Get caught smoking a semi-legal substance and get a 4 game suspension.
Good to see where his priorities lie.
Aldon should have run someone over instead of hitting a tree. He’d have gotten a lighter sentence.
New thread is up (comment 49)