Can’t say enough bout the new stadium. Beyond the fact its nowhere near the water, or San Francisco for that matter, the place is pretty damn nice. Took a bunch of pics. Didn’t try the wi-fi or any of that shit, and apparently there were problems, as with the lines and shit, but we ate early, and didn’t have any problems getting food or beer. The bathrooms are huge, so there wasn’t any wait there, and getting out was easy. Thing is, it’s hard to know the true situation because by the 3rd quarter, the place was 3/4 empty. No prob getting out either.
It was hotter than any game at the Stick I’ve ever seen. And there’s very little shade in the stands. A little curious, but ain’t no thing. One thing they figured out was the sound. No annoying echoes like the Stick on the visitors side, and the big screens were nice. The place is gorgeous on the inside.
Other than that, this game was another exercise for the defense. They were on the field most of the game once again as the new-look offense (yes, more 2+ WR formations again) looked OK under Kappy and the ones (2 drives, 2 missed FGs) , while Blaine the Train (wreck) bumbled and stumbled into another dogshit performance worthy of banishment to the Arena League. JJ comported himself not-so-well by fumbling his first snap, and by then, we split.
The defense appears to be a bit out of sorts as well. The first string guys played a little, and held Manning to a FG early. The run D was fine, but when playing Manning, that isn’t a big concern. My concern was the total lack of a pass rush. We didn’t get close to Manning, although I will say we didn’t blitz at all. For all that, we still couldn’t cover with a standard 4 man rush. The linebackers are really doing terrible in underneath coverage as once again, they gave up 8-15 yard plays to the various TEs and RBs out there with impunity. The couple times Manning (and Ostweiler for God’s sake) went deep, the LBs were again slow and late and burned for easy scores.
In other words, the offense needs to make up for the defense, which will be without the services of Aldon Smith soon, as well as NaVorro Bowman. I’m not THAT worried about things, but after game 3 of the preseason, I’d hope we would have scored some points on offense, and stopped someone on defense.
Forty Niners Forever 
Jason Cole is reporting that there’s whining in the Niner locker room about how grueling the practices are. How they’ve had such long seasons with all those playoff games thrown in. Unnamed players, of course. There’s also squawking about the fact that the Niners are being tight-fisted with certain contracts. Blah blah blah. Plus, Harbaugh’s contract status still looms large in the background.
Thing is, my immediate thought when Kappy signed his deal was, his largesse will have no bearing on how they deal with VD or Crabs. If it comes to pass that they split for greener paychecks, Kappy might get pissed off at his current deal and the fact it didn’t help keep the team together. And if the Niners used that as a negotiating point, well, he’ll be rightfully angry about it. As I said a little while ago, this house of cards is getting shakey. More and more shit is leaking out from the players that they aren’t buying what Jimbo is selling. Throw in the contract problems looming, and you have the potential for another collapse.
Sure, a lot of this is just the preseason blues, and these guys want to get real games going, but this has been a pretty fractious offseason.
I doubt Kaep gets pissed if this whole thing implodes. I think when he sat down with his father and agent to do this deal he had a long-term approach in mind (and despite 12th not getting it — which isn’t surprising to anyone — the deal was a very smart Kaep move). Any one particular player be signed or re-signed isn’t going to make or break Kaep. The idea is giving back creates more room under the cap, generally, and helps create a more complete team – at the GM’s discretion. The one area of concern I’d have is the head coach. You give Kaep Jim Tomsula as your head coach and that’s when things start to get funky….. quick. That’s when I’d have a season-ending hamstring injury.
Boone’s definitely underpaid. I disagree with NoFear about the whole, “integrity of the contract,” kind of deal. I think there are times when players outperform their contracts and the organization should pay them more. There have been times in the past when the 49ers have torn up contracts and paid players more…. willingly. Trouble is now the team is stacked with players and players need to decide whether they want to compete for rings or leave like Goldson for the money. Things change.
But I completely agree with NoFear that Baalke should not be negotiating with a holdout. That’s a mistake. Organizations make policies to avoid an avalanche of poor behavior by future players. Baalke negotiating with a holdout leaves the door open for other players to think that behavior is okay. This is an amateurish move by our GM…. something 49er fans should get accustom to after Harbaugh leaves. Hell, I was accustom to it for years before Harbaugh got here. Our front office is a joke.
Gee, got it all covered there Spitty? It wasn’t long ago you were singing their praises.
The problem is, all teams do this all the time. Every GM has negotiated behind the scenes. This isn’t anything new or different. Players are treated differently based on value, perception, ability, and attitude. Boone is a very good RG who can play as a tackle. He’s got a lot of value. He’s underpaid. He’s going about this the wroong way, but the Niners aren’t simply going to stand by and let him hold out his way off the team. Regardless of what they say, they ARE going to try and keep him here. If his price tag is too high, well, he’s gone. They’ll trade him. If they can work something out, great. To think this isn’t the case is way too simplistic.
Jerry Jones played hardball with Emmett Smith and caved in after they staggered out of the gate. Drew Brees, Darelle Revis, on and on. Teams and GMs say one thing and do another all the time.
Typical Unca response. Blah, blah, blah….
Typical of you to blow with the wind. I mean really. You agree with NoFear but in the same paragraph you don’t. Brilliant.
I think that about covers it.
You havin’ a rough day, pookie?
Same old shit here, different day. of course some things change and somethings should not. Walsh did not push his teams in preseason, he understood the pounding his players were going to take in the regular season. So why JH is pushing them only he can answer.
Peachy, skippy. You run out of stock fish pics?
If you agree with the ‘not negotiating with terrorists, errrr, players’ aspect, then that means you agree with the ‘integrity of the contract’ idea. You can’t be on both sides of the fence. Yet you are. Again, brilliant.
You call the Niners front office amateur for not being forthcoming about their negotiating tactics? Ludicrous. I call it doing business in the NFL. Every team does it. Truth is no one really knows what is happening. No one really knows what the offer was. Conflicting reports abound. Boone hasn’t said word one.
Point being, they are trying to sign him. Like every other team in this position. Drew Brees, Marshawn Lynch, Darelle Revis, Dashon Goldson, TO, etc, etc, etc.
Unca should watch this about 150 times to get it through his thick skull. But even then it wouldn’t penetrate into brain matter unless the information went through his anus.
http://www.csnbayarea.com/video_content_type/kaepernick-who-49ers-choose-sign-them
In light of recent leaked reports what the 49ers should do now is break off talks with Alex Boone entirely and actually remove the contract reportedly offered to him from the table. Harbaugh just said, “We believe we can win with Joe Looney.” He said the exact same thing with Alex Smith before Harbaugh had ever coached a game in SF… and Harbaugh took the team to the NFC Championship with Smith. He can win with Looney, and Marcus Martin is a smart guy. Martin also played guard and I believe the only thing keeping Martin from beating out Looney is that Martin doesn’t know the playbook yet. But it’s easier for linemen than it is skill position players to learn the plays.
Pull the offer from Boone, coach up Looney and Martin and hell, we’ve even still got Adam Snyder in case both Looney and Martin don’t pan out. In my opinion, even though Snyder’s a wingman, the competition along the line is between Snyder and Jonathan Martin, and Snyder wins going away. I don’t think Martin was ever a serious contender to make the roster. I think Harbaugh was rehabilitating Jonathan Martin’s career, and I believe Martin will get picked up week 1 of the NFL season by another team.
The Browns organization is the new NFL cluster fuck. It’s the worst organization, by far, in the NFL. Jerry Jones pales in comparison. First they fire Chud and Norv (and I think they even had Horton Heat) – after one year and the team looked good for a first year team. Now they dump established coordinators for Petitte and this Tebow, Manziel circus. Hoyer is clearly the start and maybe for a few years, telling Manziel to get professional. But you think Petitte (sp?) can handle all that? No chance. And now Josh Gordon isn’t trying because A.) He’s about to be suspended and B.) His coaching staff sucks. My stars. Reminds me of the team Jed York and Trent Baalke resided over pre Harbaugh.
Yeah, this was news 14 years ago when Policy and Clark were run out of town on a rail. Where’ve you been?
The Browns should change their name to the Greens and blow themselves up. New theme will be ecology. With their faces firmly planted in the turf on most plays they will be living the green approach.
Gee, Spitty, are you mezermized by the lures you supposedly use? What the fuck is the inference of signing the team-friendly deal that Kappy did in the first place? To save money? Really? That’s it?
No, the inference is they would use the money to sign Crabs and VD and whoever they deem important. Which now includes Alex Boone.
This can’t be that big a leap for you, can it? And you expect Kaepernick to come out and say, ‘Gee, I hope they use my discount to sign Crabs! Gosh, Trent! What’s for Christmas?’
No, he’s not going to presume anything where the front office is concerned. But he sure as hell won’t be very happy if he loses the very targets he was trying to keep here by signing the deal he did.
How stupid are you? Did you just fall off the turnip truck?
“Garsh! GMs lie?!?”
BLEEP it!
Mike Pettine (that’s Pet-n) is a good coach, albeit from the defensive side, so many will dismiss him out of hand. He’s getting a shot, we’ll see how he handles the job. I’d be surprised if their defense wasn’t near the top this year.
As far as the coach pushing his guys, who knows what shit the press will try to stir? They live to find a malcontent who doesn’t mind talking “off the record.” Name a source and I’ll buy in. And if true, could be that due to the CBA cutting practice opportunities, and Harbaugh doesn’t want to wait until mid-season to get his guys up to game speed. Every loss could be the one that keeps you out of post-season.
Wow. And Jonathan (self-pancake) Martin is getting glowing remarks from Harbaugh. Sounds like he’ll make the team, according to Matt the Maiocco.
Gee, let’s play ‘can you discern the subtext?’
Sorry, Spitty. This may be too advanced for you. It involves possible stretching of the truth.
Say it ain’t so..
Do you think Martin knows he just got the kiss of death there?
You mean like “Alex is our starter”?
It’ll be funny when Martin’s cut and Harbaugh’s selling / marketing machine will be obvious to everyone but Unca. Maiocco is the 49ers’ mouth piece, let’s not forget.
Remember, “Alex Smith is elite?” Remember “Clutch, CLUTCH?” These things were said publically in an attempt to rejuvenate a player’s career. And Martin’s a favorite of Harbaugh’s from Stanford who needs a pick-me-up after Incognito trashed his reputation. Think Harbaugh isn’t aware Martin needs help? Sure… there’s still a shot Martin beats-out Snyder but I see this a Harbaugh ruse. One of many.
NoFear, these things taken one at a time are not much, but the whole collection of misbegotten trades, holdouts, arrests, (impending) suspensions, grumbling, and such leads me to think either these guys are just as sick as the offseason as we all are, or there’s some shit going down behind closed doors that ain’t pretty at all.
This front office was a mess before the magic elixir of winning popped up. If the elixir wears off soon, I wonder how quickly this shit unravels. I think it gets ugly fast.
I hope we don’t find out, but like I said, this house of cards is getting closer to the hurricane, not furthur.
I don’t know, could be I guess. I tend to think it’s more likely we’ve got a few Kawakami types eager to find a chink in the armor they can exploit for a big story and get offered Yahoo or Google jobs. Or be like Florio and have their blog bought up by NBC.
Well, the point being, there’s enough of this background noise to have to have a certain amount of truth to it. Small as it may well be. Winning cures all ills, so we will see.
Another option to keep in mind for the Boone back-up committee is former Seattle castoff OG Ryan Seymour.
He’s quitely been getting the job done from what little I’ve seen thus far.
Let’s also remember that the bulk of the preseason reps have been going to the backups.
Bitching about being overworked could simply help Mgt thin the herd.
They’ve loaded a ton of reps on the LBs and DL to see who’s gonna make the grade for the rotation.
The prospect of losing Aldon and being without NaVorro leaves some pretty big shoes to fill.
Tim Ryan did make the observation on the broadcast Sunday, that the guys looked tired, making too many mental mistakes etc.
The typical dress rehearsal game is this week, when starters are normally inserted for a bigger chunk of reps.
We’ll see who they’re going to favor early on I’d guess.
It’ll also be interesting to see how Baalke/Harbaugh play the cut down game.
They could expose some higher priced guys, in an attempt to protect more of the Draftees.
If there’s a strategy to employ with Boone, you may see them wait for all the cut-downs and team shuffling to settle, just to limit his percieved options for a Trade.
That could also benefit Paraag in his negotiation efforts.
Cut off his options, squeeze The Mevis Agency at the bargaining table.
Curious to see whether CJ will get passed by.
Also, how about JMartin?
Does he get retained or can he replace Snyder?
Have to assume Snyder has a larger Contract hit to the Cap but, how close are they really, in terms of ability?
JMartin hasn’t looked like a world-beater by any stretch.
I’d take Harbaughs’ gushing with a grain of salt too.
Might have to pass up the Trade idea of LMJ to Philly.
Chip just grabbed another former Duck from Carolina, RB Kenjon Barner.
Word is the Niners and Crabs are moving closer to a contract extension. One that is incentive based. That’s the word, anyway.
I figured him to be a holdout candidate as well.
Spitty, I didn’t know you were moonlighting as a TV commercial personality.
Thanks Cap’t. Obvious.
Watched the game again last night on the NFL Network. Here are some thoughts.
The right side of our offensive line didn’t get tested much. Never really saw any breakdowns in protection or blocking assignments. Hard to say from just watching the game without the ability to rewind, but the line looked good….. without Boone.
In the battle between Wilhoite, Borland and Moody, I think Nick Moody is the most athletic, but might be the least cerebral. Moody’s the best blitzer of the three. Borland’s the best run defender. Wilhoite has the most knowledge of the system. I think Wilhoite will start but Moody and Borland are better athletes. Don’t know if Moody will ever be smart enough to start at the position and not make mental errors, but he’s my favorite athletically. I could see Fangio bringing Moody in on 3rd down to blitz, but eventually teams realizing that’s his role.
Regarding the backend of our defense…. our secondary is way, way too light. There are no hitters in the backfield and nobody intimidating or dominant. They all appear to be smart guys who can cover and play run defense, but intimidate you from going over the middle, or knock the ball loose? I don’t think so. This is a problem. The 49ers have gone from the two hardest hitting safeties in the game in Goldson and Whitner to two of the softest in Reid and Bathea. The 49ers will have problems with players, especially bigger players, running over them.
Listened to Jed York talk about the stadium and Jim Harbaugh coaching up Blaine Gabbert like he did Alex Smith. I hate Jed York. What a tool. He recognizes that Jim can develop quaterbacks better than any other coach in the league, but won’t pay him. I have to laugh. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. Jed York is about to get slaughtered. Especially with that mortgage and Jim Tomsula on the horizon. Levi stadium will be a ghost town in four years.
Now the NFL wants musicians to pay to perform during halftime. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
Got to say that is the most ridiculous thing to come out of the NFL in a while.
I have one thing to say to that:
Up With People!
What are you basing this ‘Jed won’t pay Jim’ sentiment? Yeah, he wanted the extension before he signed his original deal, but rave on.
Whatever is going to happen is going to happen this offseason, but you are villifying Jed for something that isn’t an issue yet? Good for you. Whatever gets you through the lonely days in the sticks.
Waffle Barn is down the street.
Your game of picking fights to get blog hits is sooooo tiresome. But… at least you aren’t a liar.