49-22-1. This is what Jim Harbaugh did his 4 years as the Niner head coach. What is his legacy? Well to me, it’s falling short. The standard is was and should be winning the Super Bowl. With Jjmbo here we went from outhouse to penthouse in one strike-shortened preseaon in 2011. In the process he turned Alex Smith from a perennial close-but-not quite guy to a 13-3 QB on a roll. But for 2 fumbles, this team is in the Super Bowl.
Next year, Harbaugh gets the team in position to win the Super Bowl. Until the game starts and they dig themselves an impossible hole to dig out of. But for a delay of game, the Niners win. Last year? Well, close but not quite again. This year started a disaster 2 months before the season started and it never got much better despite better weapons and supposed more continuity.
So, on his last day as the 49er coach, Jimbo wins game 49. Quite a legacy, and Jimbo should be given credit for instilling a winning attitude for a moribund franchise, However, he did inherit a team with a pretty strong roster, One loaded with high draft picks, and talent. For as quickly as things changed, and they were tantalizingly close to reaching their goals those 3 times, they fell short. The part I didn’t like was how Harbaugh leaned on his defense a lot of the time. Give him an early lead and he’ll sit on it. Fall behind, and he’ll grudgingly get aggressive. For all the talent they had, I think they left a lot of points on the field, and many times they were not prepared come game time.
What happens now? I have a pretty good idea that they are going to keep this shit in-house. Which means Mike Tomsula. Which means that other coaches may start defecting. Greg Roman is surely gone. The offensive coaches should be shit-canned. Well, keep Rathman (and Gore for that matter). John Morton? Seeing the ineffectiveness of the WRs for the most part, gone. The line coaches can go as we will more than likely look to change the blocking style.
I wonder if promoting Tomsula over Fangio will mean Fangio leaves. I hope he stays as he did a remarkable job with a defense riddled by injury. Harbaugh never did him many favors, and he is likely in the running as HC. Whatever they do, I hope they find someone to take this offense to a new level. For all the troubles this year, injuries played a big part of the problems, and this team still has a ton of talent. They are not in rebuilding mode,and should be considered a playoff contender when the next traiing camp breaks.
Forty Niners Forever 
Typo there Chuck – Jim Tomsula.
I think he’ll be a strong candidate as well, simply for continuity sake.
It will open the sore of a piece meal replacement process however, which never came together between the Nolan and Singletary phase.
We’ll find out soon enough.
Once the obligations to the Rooney process are satisfied.
If Pep Hamilton is a worthy candidate, the Rooney phase should be swift.
If Fangio wants it, they should give it to him. Tomsula seems like a Sparano. You’ll need a top flight OC to come in here, and I don’t know who you get if Tomsula is the head guy. Bring Norv back? Whoever the OC is, get somebody who can relay a play in and Kap can get the snap off with 5 seconds still left on the play clock…
“Bring Norv back.” That is interesting, he would be a big benefit to Kappy. And he probably is a much better OC than HC. At this point I would like to see Fangio get a shot, he definitely has the ability to work with obstacles continually being tossed his way, and the players must respect him since they play their hearts out for him. At least it seems that most of them do. Gonna be interesting to see how many players want to jump ship.
– Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher said on CBS’ The NFL Today: “We’re looking at a situation where Jim Harbaugh and Trent Baalke cannot co-exist in the same building. I think Jed York looked at the situation, and said he’s going to stay with Trent Baalke moving forward. And it’s unfortunate.
“But when you look at Jim Harbaugh’s past… He is not going to be a guy that wants to stay in one place. That may be his make-up. He’ll have great influence. But wherever he goes next, you’re going to be looking for a one contract coach, because he’ll be moving on from there as well. He’s got a history of it.”
Jim did what was asked of him 12th, Coach the team.
How it festered into a Mgt meltdown is open for debate.
Given what we’ve witnessed on the sidelines for the past 4yrs it doesn’t surprise me that his personality could have ruffled feathers.
Going to the SB didn’t immediately qualify him for a raise IMO, if that’s what occurred.
Win the Lombardi, name your price, is pretty much what Jed inferred about having no leverage at the bargaining table I’d guess?
It seems to me that Jim just doesn’t like answering to anyone perhaps?
Had the Offense continued to improve I’d be willing to bet all would have been worked out in the end.
Raises aren’t handed out for getting close.
Jim remained loyal to his Staff and likely wanted more control from Baalke.
Unfortunately, if I don’t like my boss, he’s likely to win the power struggle more often than not simply because he’s the boss.
Norv has obviously coached up Teddy Bridgewater at the Vikes, the kid has made strides especially the past month. I think he’s still under contract, but Norv could coach up Kap, for sure. You look at the teams in the playoffs. They all have a solid to excellent QB. No news there, just confirmation. AFC = Brady, Manning, Rburger, Luck, Dalton, Flacco. NFC = Wilson, Rogers, Romo, Cam, (Cardinals have? they had a decent QB in Palmer), and Stafford. Niners had the 31st passing offense in the NFL. That just doesn’t feed the bulldog and must be changed…
Disagree with you a bit, Chuck. They need to rebuild on the offense. Need two RBs, a TE that can catch, a burner WR with hands and another WR route runner that’s big, a new guard and new tackle for back up or starting purposes. Also need a punt returner. Crabby and VD gone…
Snarkk 2 OTs that could be there for us in RD1 are –
Cedric Ogbuehi – Texas A&M – 6’5″/300
Ereck Flowers – Miami – 6’6″/325
I’m with you in terms of seeking an OT.
Berger and I were debating the topic last night.
I could easily move Anthony to LG if we lose Iupati.
Our roster is pretty deep with Interior guys right now.
OTs, not so much.
Much will depend on the scheme the new regime will want to run of course.
Our Draft slot will fall at 15.
Depending on the talent that lands there, I’d be OK with OT/WR/DT.
Take the BPA.
Is it that hard for this team to draft a stud WR?
Shit anyone of us can see the talent in these proto-typical game-changer WR ‘s like …Odell Beckham,Mike Evans..Kelvin Benjamin..Jordan Matthews.. Martavis Bryant and so on, all 6’4 ,6’5 burners who all or “PHYSICAL” and just have their way with smaller corners.
Not the Niners however who give us shrimps like AJ Jenkins( long gone bust and a #1 bust at that) to 15 yards recievers (Boldin&Crabs) useless Patton&Lloyd and Stevie Johnson 1 decent game and done!!
Shit if I’m Kap, I would be more pissed off with the lack of weapons this team supplies on offense for him to work with , more then his line that protects him!
With Kap’s strong arm, he could really unleash hell with 2 stud burners at WR ,opening up a passing game, not seen since Rice&Taylor
Hopefully the new regime will address that AlleyKat.
Patton and Ellington are quicker slot guys.
I’d be in the market for a taller target as well.
A guy to watch is Devin Funchess from MI.
He’s been sort of TE/WR Tweener.
Big target though, 6’5″ 235.
Might be a little bit of reach at slot 15 for us but, you have to love to the mismatch benefit in terms of size.
I loved Odell coming out this year too.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a sniff from our slot this year.
That will change this year of course.
He’s not a big guy either, 6′ is about it, he’s just got amazing hands and athleticism.
Ellington could be something special for us, if we find a niche for him.
There’s some interesting options in the WR group this coming Spring.
Hopefully we’ll break our streak of bad luck in that area.
Adios muchachos.
Adios
……and adios to the offensive coaches. If anything needs changing it’s the offense side. Damn the Niners need lots of changes there no question.
The play calling was good yesterday and we could all see what a difference it makes on how well the players perform. We had a rhythm and most of that comes from players buying in and playing instinctively. I was watching without sound but could easily see the difference. The big difference was a change in how the plays were delivered from the sideline to the huddle. It looked to me that Kap was calling one play in the huddle and calling audibles when needed. I hope Jed does not hire a coach that calls two plays in the huddle. That has been a disaster for years. Everything gets delayed and confused with that system.
Russell Wilson has 849 rushing yards this season and the Squawks are the #1 seed from the NFC. Nobody is trying to make him stand in the pocket, because that is not his game. Smart OC in Bevell.
12th- Kap can be a good pocket passer when the play calling and system make sense. He can also be much more than that. He has had the misfortune of being in a bad offensive system. We saw how he looked yesterday when the play calling was improved. The whole offensive team looked better. Roman has been a disaster for Kap. It does look like he might have finally started to understand some of his errors the last two games but unfortunately it came a little too late.
Kap has flaws as a pocket passer Berger. He doesn’t feel pressure well, he over reacts making it hard on the O line blocking for him as they don’t know where he is. He has improved his reads and gets to the second and even third now but the WR are not often open enough for him to throw it. Much like Alex Smith, Kap often waits until they are really open before throwing.
Kap is a work in progress no doubt. My thing is why keep force feeding him this pocket stuff? Mix it in sure but let him do his thing too, he is an amazingly talented QB being constrained IMO.
Wilson won a SB being himself and they are #1 NFC seeds again. Their team is built on great D, solid ST, power RG and the unpredictability of Wilson. Sound familiar?
Wilson is no 500 yd passing QB and the way the team is built he couldn’t be even if he wanted to.
Frustrating watching this disjointed O operate this year and exacerbated by Kap standing in the pocket, such as it was, and being much less effective because of it.
Yeah I know, injuries blah, blah, blah, but the O scheme was terrible, and instead of easing the difficult situation it added to it, as did that awful 2 play call system that took eons to enact at the LOS.
I agree with what you say but one thing I need to add is that it is hard to have good instincts in the pocket when you are being batted around like a pin ball. Look at what has happened to some future HOfers when they get a game like that. Brady vs KC and Manning last week. Brady got pulled from the game and Manning threw 4 ints.
I agree with that too Berger, I mentioned the pocket such as it was. I am in the “believer” camp with Kap. Much of his issues this year I attribute to a bad fit to the O scheme they tried to run and injuries on the O line but some of it I put down to him too. Kap needs to put more school work in I think. If he does I think he can be an elite QB.
From Lynch:
Some believe the deterioation of the Harbaugh-49ers management relationship tracts to Harbaugh’s flirtation with Cleveland, when Harbaugh was reportedly open to being traded to the Browns. Some saw it as a ploy by Harbaugh to up his five-year, $25 million contract to a deal in the $7 million per range, which would put him in Seattle coach Pete Caroll’s neighborhood.
Right 12th. Yesterday was more of the same. When Kappy broke contain, a the WRs turn their back on Kappy and try to go deep. No one underneath to throw to. The reason yesterday looked a little better is they stayed with the run game.
The Oline played well in the RG Chuck and for a change, Roman stuck with it, maybe because he wanted Frank to get the milestones but whatever the reason it made a difference, as it did last week on O too.
From PFT, apparently nobody in the NFL wants to pay him $8 mil according to Florio.
Adam Case (Denver’s OC) is the ‘frontrunner’ according to Jason Cole.
That is a tough one. Who can say how much is Gase and how much is Manning?
Snarkk, I’d keep Gore (2 years, $5 mill?). Hyde is coming back, as is Kendall Hunter. I think they are good at RB. Get one speed WR, and all else is fine. Boldin, Johnson, and Crabs are all interchangeable. Lose Crabs? No biggie. Keep Lloyd. Patton and Ellington are interchangeable as slot guys. Keep one (Ellington for his PR/KR duties). I’d try to get VD back, but not too hard. The rest of the TEs? Meh. Got nothing out of any of them. Baalke’s undoing is pass catchers. Is VMcD ever going to come around?
Draft SPEED. We have a lot of line pieces as well. J Mart can go be Harbaugh’s line coach in Michigan. Get a tackle in the 2nd round. Maybe another one later. We do have 9 picks next year do they could go get someone higher up.
Yeah, NJ, ODB was very high on my wish list last year. I didn’t think he’d go as high as he did, but the Giants got a stud. Got to look in to the guy you are touting at WR/TE.
It’s sad because I liked Harbaugh as a coach. I read this morning that Harbaugh initiated and was behind the Cleveland flirtation last year. That is a 180 degree swing from what I had heard. I sure don’t know which story is true. I think from everything we are now hearing that Harbaugh was looking for more money all along and that was the cause of what transpired. Now that it is done does it even matter? But what the heck, no harm in talking about it.
As of before this game I was saying if Harbaugh stayed he would not have a winning record next year. This because I have given up on Roman being fired or figuring out how to run a modern offense.
I’m not sure what happened before the SD game but there has been a drastic change in philosophy of how to call the plays. Maybe RoBaugh finally saw the light. Too bad they didn’t make this change earlier in the year.
I still wouldn’t trust bringing Roman back but I do think he finally made the change that got the players playing with instinct instead of trying to think everything out. Who knows, maybe Harbaugh made him make the change, will we ever know? I doubt it. But I will say with said change Harbaugh would have probably had a good season next year if he stayed as long as he stayed with said change.
The biggest question I have regarding all this front office hilarity is how much does Baalke suck up to Jed?
If this is a de facto rubber stamp relationship, then there will nearly always be issues between upper management and the coaches.
The GM is the grease between the owner and the coaches. Not the owner’s toadie for laying down the rules and hiding behind.
NJ ….Like the size of Devin Fuchness, not sure if he’s 1st round material maybe 2nd, but what the hell he went to Michigan so let’s stick it to Harbaugh😄
Alleykat- I’m the one who turned NJ on to Funchess after watching one of his games. I watched some video and he catches everything in stride without having to dive fore the ball. I thought probably a 2nd rounder until I saw him listed as a TE. As a TE/WR combo I think he is a major weapon. He caught one ball that was thrown behind him and by his ankles in stride while continuing to run. I immediately thought the last time I saw that was by a guy named Rice.
I was very happy to see Frank Gore go over the 1,000 yd mark for the season and even happier to see him go over 11,000 yds for his career yesterday.