What’s funny is I remember saying this last year amidst the trade rumors around our head coach, the talk that the GM and HC hadn’t spoken in months, and the innuendo around the Jim Harbaugh insanity whirlwind hyperbole generation machine. Brought to you by Deion Sanders, Jay Glazer, Jayson Stark, Trent Dilfer, Steve Young, ESPN, Comcast, Fox Sports, and the millions of other media types that weighed in on the state of the franchise as they struggled through an injury-ridden and thoroughly disheartening season.
8-8 at the start of the Harbaugh regime would have been seen as a nice improvement over the previous staff. Fortunately (for the fans) and unfortunately (for St. Jim) Harbaugh took them to 13-3. An amazingly quick turnaround, especially due to the fact that it was a strike-shortened preseason. The offense was what it was, and the defense was what it was. The numbers all remained fairly similar.
Except for one thing. Wins and losses. A team that couldn’t win close games or win with any consistency suddenly became an NFL juggernaut. From laughingstock to Super Bowl favorites in short order. After coming oh so close in 2012, the 2013 season was another let-down on the doorstep of the Super Bowl. While the team was still considered a contender, the shit show gained full momentum. Not even going to rehash all that except to say we’ll never know who did what to whom, but it sure seemed like all sides were hell-bent on parting ways. Throw in a forgettable season, and there you go. It played out how it did. Harbaugh and most of the coaches left, and players retired, re-upped elsewhere, or left via trade.
So where are we now? Well, this is the crux of the biscuit. I’m of a mind that despite the changes and roster turnover, we still have a very good team. Especially defensively. Something that was already a strength. Mangina has plenty of NFL experience and has some HCing (varying levels of success) under his belt. LB coach Jason Tarver has DC experience with the Raiders, D line coach Scott Brown has 35 years in football, and had DCed for Colo St. DB coach Tim Lewis, a great DB back in the day, has DC experience for the NY Giants among other stops in his 21 year coaching career.
So much for the theory that this team didn’t start good coaches.
Offensively we have ex-Dalphin and Raider HC Tony Sparano, tasked with getting VD, VMcD, and Derek Carrier going after a shit season for all the TEs, RB coachTom Rathman, who has been instrumental in the continued development of the run game, and O line coach Chris Foerster, a guy with a track record of nothing but success in his different schemes that he’s used over his coaching career. A new set of WR coaches in Ronald Curry and Adam Henry (LSU’s WR coach for Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry) and the departure of Michael Crabtree give me hope for a resurgence among the WR corps.
The big question mark remains the duo of QB coach Steve Logan and OC Geep Chryst. Logan traces his coaching roots to Jimmy Johnson at Okla St, and he head coached the college powerhouse East Carolina winning a couple bowl games along the way and beating Miami 31-6 in their worst home defeat in years. He’s well-versed in the West Coast Offense, and appears at least to be installing an up-tempo rhythm-based offense. All good news to me. The Geepster? He’s the guy I don’t have any real concept of his game. He was OC in San Diego at a time when the Chargers were dogshit. I mean really. Jim Harbaugh was his starting QB. Erik Kramer was his backup. They did manage to break even at 8-8. The next year, of course was the Ryan Leaf Experience, and one last gasp of Jim Harbaugh as an NFL QB. A 1-15 debacle of epic proportions.
I guess that’s impetus right there for Chryst to get off to a hot start.
Forty Niners Forever 
What’s even funnier is that since I’ve been banned, all they talk about is this shining beacon of blogitude.
You’re famous or is it infamous on the “other” blog? At least you’re not forgotten.
Nipper said it best, and like it is. They’ll be cheering losses, we’ll be cheering wins. They’ll deny but that would be a lie.
Only until we lock up the #1 overall pick. Then I’ll be cheering wins.
I can’t agree with that philosophy but at least you are honest about it.
The goal is to win multiple Super Bowls not be stuck on 6-10 with an 8-8 season considered a success, like it was with the Yorks pre-Harbaugh. Or was Jed lying again?
well, it will be a change for most of youse guys to be cheering for wins. Just last year the same geniuses were pushing the idea that wins don’t mean shit. Now they do? And they are to be cheered? Hoping for relevant now. Hypocrisy runs rampant in the idiocracy.
One day you’ll say something that makes sense. For now we are stuck with whatever it is you write.
RTF, hate to burst your theory, but in the last 30 years there has been ONE team to win a Super Bowl after having the #1 pick. And that would be the 1997 Rams, who drafted Orlando Pace.
They won the Super Bowl 2 years later. However, I think it was Kurt Warner who had a little more to do with the victory than OP.
Hard to reach the playoffs and reach the Super Bowl without first winning games, eh, Sgt. Schultz?
(I know nuuuuuthink!!!)
Did last year teach you nothing? Apparently not.
For shits and giggles, here’s the thread after the Washington win.
The posts are very telling from the folks who were at the game . . .
And it really got bad after that game.
If first round picks guaranteed success, RTF, then the Cleveland Browns would be multiple Super Bowl winners.
NoFear, I always go back to your bold prediction in 2011 that the Niners would fall somewhere between 10-6 and 6-10.
That sort of reckless abandon is refreshing. Wrong, but refreshing.
Yeah, the Mannings with their 3 Rings are chopped liver. Plus your timetable forgot Troy Aikman. Gee, that’s 7 Rings in 30 years Don’t count out either Manning or Luck for future wins, either.
I’ll take my chances with guys like Bo Jackson, too, though Bo doesn’t know Rings. What’s a higher %, 23% that the #1 overall gets or the 3.1% that each team has per year on average?
BTW, it’s not JUST the 1st round that the overall #1 gives you good position. That’s the point.
Then there’s Bruce Smith ( 4 SBs and in HOF), Russell Maryland (3 RIngs), Keyshawn Johnson (1). I’m not counting bench guys like Drew Bledsoe or David Carr.
Actually, that’s 26.8% of the last 30 SBs won by a team starting one or more of their own #1 overalls (not counting Aikman and Maryland’s SBs twice).
Oops, Keyshawn won his Ring with the Bucs. Make that 23.3% again. Guys like Carson Palmer, Stafford, Clowney and Andrew Luck are still in the picture. Even a guy like Mario Williams of the Texans is no slouch.
Your point is flawed. If draft position mattered, the Browns, Jets, TB the like would be doing much better than they are.
Teams like NE and Green Bay don’t get to draft very high yet still make good picks. If you think Dallas won with one pick then you are a cherry picker. They had 3 years of favorable draft positioning and got 8 picks for Herschel Walker. Free agency, injuries, and about 100 other things determine success in the game. If it was easy to win, the Browns would have a championship in the past 52 years. They’ve had great drafting spots forever and have turned that into nothing.
Ooops. 20 years. So my fuzzy math is shitty. Sue me. I’m going with 20 years. so 2 picks that won 3 in the past 20 years. Fine. Who’s our Super Bowl winning QB in the next draft, RTF? Christian Hackenberg? Groucho Marx? BTW, Bruce Smith won 0 Super Bowls. Keyshawn Johnson? Gimme a break. That’s like touting Bill Ring for the Niner Super Bowl wins. You are grasping at straws.
Beyond that, Indy’s an outlier. One shitty year around many good ones and they draft likely another HOF guy? Well, he keeps throwing picks like he does he’s destined to be a little short of greatness. . . .
Really got to wonder about BakkenSpit. For someone to go to all that work . . .
I didn’t say Bruce Smith won a Ring, I said he was in 4 SBs and is now in the HOF.
The Pats have won far more than 3.03% of the time in the past decade and are current contenders. Likewise, the Steelers and Giants for the last forty (!) years and they too are perennial contenders. If you can tell me how our ownership and FO can morph into one of them, I’m all in. Otherwise, I’ll root for the first overall and 23.3% chance of winning a Ring. Go ahead and stick with 8-8 and 3.03%. Good luck with that. I’d like to see a Lombardi in what’s left of my lifetime.
One doesn’t lead directly to the other dude. But carry on.
I will guarantee you right now that the Niners without Willis, Borland, Smith, a secondary, with a rehabbed-we-hope-for-the-best Bowman, without Iaputi, Davis, Gore, Crabtree, and Lee is not going to win the Super Bowl this year or even compete for it.
Aiming for the #1 overall, which gives you a better chance but does not guarantee a stud or studs like the above with the better draft position through 7 rounds, is the way to go. But that’s my last on the subject. I’m just saying, rooting for temporary failure in a league which rewards it makes sense (so long as you know what you’re doing, and not acting like failure is a birthright).
So it was ok to go 8-8 with Harbaugh but not these coaches? If the Super Bowl loss taught me anything (or the fucking lucky-ass NY giants) it’s that a fair to middling team can a ride a hot streak to the trophy.
We certainly have the players, but Pining for perfection isn’t going to happen. All those guys that you mention minus Gore didn’t play much if at all. With bowman back I think the d will be fine. Mangini is no slouch himself so I think the d won’t suffer too much.
The O? That’s the $64,000 question. If the offense can gain consistency we should be in the mix.
I don’t see how people can’t see that. All we need is a little life on offense and I think the team will rally.
Yeah lets be optimists. The “other” blog can be the pessimists.
The first thing to do is call one play in the huddle. It will make a huge difference for the tempo and rhythm.
Funny that Bullit sees last year as a possible 12-4 season. Sure, if the coaching staff didn’t choke away games by going conservative. Look at the giant and wash games. Ultra conservative play calling could have very easily lost those games. By the time Oakland rolled around the team ha zero confidence in the offensive coaching staff.
What Harbaugh did by the end was go back to what worked 2 years ago. Gore gore and more gore those last 3 games. Harbaugh hamstrung Kappy by forcing him to try and be Peyton manning and told him not to run. This was the same failure of Nolan and Alex Smith. Nolan wanted Smith his way. He never played to Alex’s strengths. It was both their undoings.
Carroll USES what RW offers. Harbaugh tried to stifle it. That’s why he’s an idiot. Harbaugh is all about way or the highway. How was the drive to Michigan, Jim?
I don’t think Harbaugh told Kap not to run. I do think they designed plays that were full of “dumb schemes”. I do believe they told Kap to look deep and stay on it when he could have thrown to an open short option. We were running versions Bo Schembechler offense. It doesn’t work in the pros. Like many said, we were running a college offense and like NJ often said. We were playing checkers while the other team was playing chess. We were just outcoached too often.