Well, it’s a new day, a new year, and a new vacancy. Jimmy (bag-of-donuts) T got the heave-ho yesterday. The Jimmy T era started with a solid win over a good team, and ended with a ‘thrilling’ OT win over a division rival. That’s the good news. The bad? Well, they were 3-10 in those other pesky games.
But this isn’t about Jimmy the fall guy. This is about the recent announcement that Trent Baalke, the architect behind the talent drain and likely the biggest source of Jim Harbaugh’s disgruntlement, was just given the green light to lead the search for our head coach.
Ahhh, well. Welcome to my nightmare.
Jed York: Trent Baalke remains 49ers’ G.M., will hire next coach
I mean, yes, lets let the guy whose draft record is fair to awful pick the next head coach.
I don’t even want to get in to the problems we had last year when Jed York apparently put the kibosh on the Adam Gase hiring because of Jed’s insistence that Gase accepts Jimmy Donuts as his DC, and not Vic Fangio.
Granted, ol’ Adam is likely thanking his lucky charms he’s not here, but he didn’t fare very well in Chicago either. Losing to the Niners isn’t a crowning achievement. Neither is going 6-10 for a team that was gunning to improve their offense. One with Matt Forte and Alshon Jeffrey in the stable. 23rd in scoring? Ouch.
Man, I dont know. I hope beyond hope we can pry Sean Payton away from N’Orleans. Worst case scenario? Chip Kelly. Naturally, this will be what happens. If so, there will be riots in Santa Clara.
Even still, a tiny part of my brain wants to see what Chip and Kappy could come up with in a crazy-ass no-huddle pistol offense. Probably we go 3 and out faster than any team in history (20 punts per game), but hey, at least it would be more exciting than this last year of BORING mundane plodding offense that was torture to watch.
Forty Niners Forever 
Chuck, I posted this on the Flap, I just want to get some takes from the football junkies over here.
My take on the Niners taking a QB in the draft:
The Titans don’t figure to draft a QB after grabbing Mariota last year. He looks like he’s going to be a good one.
The Browns are two years into the Manzeil era and I wonder if they’d use a top pick for a QB for the second time in three years. My guess is no.
The Chargers have Philip Rivers, who is 34, so they well be looking for the next guy to take over. I don’t know the entirety of the QB class this year, but I thought I heard a couple of other names in addition to Goff’s. The Bolts may well take him.
The Cowboys are in the same boat with Romo at 35, who’s a talented but injury prone quarterback. They also might grab Goff if he’s still on the board.
The Jags have Blake Bortles who just finished a very nice season (35 TD’s, 4,400 yds passing and he’s young), so I don’t think they’re in the running for another young QB
The Ravens have a 30 year old Joe Flacco who’s coming off a down year. They might want a young QB but I think they have bigger holes to fill on defense. You know their D is bad when a pathetic 49er offense can score 20+ points on them.
Our Niners. They did themselves no favors by winning yesterday, but if word ever got out that they had intentionally tanked a game, the entire York regime would be finished in the NFL or any other league. This is professional sports, not boxing or big time wrestling. You play to win or you don’t play. In other words, the win is moot. Enjoy it, take the good from it and try to build on it.
I think the Niners would have been hard pressed to get Goff anyway at #5 if the Browns, Chargers or
Cowboys decided they need a young QB to be groomed for the future.
Like I said, I don’t know much about this year’s QB crop and Goff is no guarantee, though he looks like a damn good risk. Unless they trade up, I don’t think they get him at #7 or #5. It may be best just to really focus on seriously beefing up the middle of the O-line with some top talent. Anthony Davis is reportedly coming back and he’s still in his mid-20’s. If he does and his teammates welcome him back, not a forgone conclusion, I’d be looking at guards, centers and some goddamn wideouts.
My biggest concern is fucking Baalke. I don’t trust him as far as I can spit to make any good offensive draft picks. That dude must have pictures of young Jed in bed with a donkey, because he’s dug in like an Alabama tick. What does it take to get him out of there?
With Baalke assured of coming back, all we can hope for is that he hires an offensive-savvy coach to guide him into making the right draft picks, because clearly the biggest holes the Niners have are on offense. And no Chip Fucking Kelly.
Yeah just say to NO to Chip.
Say NO to Chip.
And Chuck, that’s OUR nightmare. lol
I’m with you on Baalke, as I’ve stated a lot of times . . . I have zero confidence in him going forward, but go forward we must.
Yeah, I had higher hopes before we won yesterday of being able to land Goff without trading up. Funny thing is, this draft looks a lot like the 2005 draft where we had a spread QB in Alex Smith, and a pro-style QB (from Cal, no less) in Aaron Rodgers coming out as the top 2 guys. We know what happened there as Rodgers fell to 23 as 2005 wasn’t seen as a strong QB draft. Rodgers begs to differ.
Here’s the draft order, top 10. I did a similar write-up on this a couple weeks ago, but the draft order has changed so here’s my take. And yeah, it’s similar to yours.
1 Tennessee Titans 3-13 0.188
2 Cleveland Browns 3-13 0.188
3 San Diego Chargers 4-12 0.250
4 Dallas Cowboys 4-12 0.250
5 Jacksonville Jaguars 5-11 0.313
6 Baltimore Ravens 5-11 0.313
7 San Francisco 49ers 5-11 0.313
8 Miami Dolphins 6-10 0.375
9 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6-10 0.375
10 New York Giants 6-10 0.375
The consensus seems to be that Tenn takes Paxton.
Cleveland? They seem to be souring on Johnny Eightball, at least that’s the scuttlebutt coming out of Cleveland, but who really knows? they play the GM-fuck-a-row leak-info game like the 49ers. They may just be jockeying for trade-down bait (re:us), but I really don’t see them drafting yet another 1st round QB though. They need defensive help.
The thing about San Diego is they just signed Rivers to a huge extension, so I’m not sure if they’re of a mind to take a big leap like that this year. I could see them taking a later-round flier on a guy like Connor Cook fro Mich St. Regardless of his cotton bowl disaster. SD gave up a shitload of points so I think they go defense.
Dallas? Well, I was hoping Cassel or Weeden would show better to dissuade Dallas from needing a QB, and/or winning more games than we did. But that didn’t happen. I can see them taking Goff. Then again, they are hurting on defense as well, and this last season showed that. They famously passed on Johnny Screwball last year, so maybe cooler heads are prevailing in Dallas, and they go for immediate need again and pick a linebacker.
Jax is good with Bortles.
Balt? Again, QB is not their biggest need. They are another team in search of defense.
I didn’t see any fire in Jed’s interview and by not firing Baalke said we can look for the same next year. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Like someone posted earlier that all we can hope for is an HC that knows offense. We have so many fucking holes that Baalke gotta bat at least .800 with the draft and FA. I’m not gonna hold my breath. Also, i don’t think Kap will be back next year.
But leave it to Baalke and we draft a placekicker . . .
I don’t even want to think about it.
Winder, I also the think the Niners will pass on Kap’s $13.7M option. It makes no sense to pay it out after this train wreck of a season, especially given how bad Kap was. Gabbert was at least marginally serviceable. Maybe they try to restructure his contract (I don’t even know if they can), but I’d guess that some other team snaps him up. With our luck it’d be the damn Seahawks.
Yeah say goodbye to Kap. I wish we had a new GM. Baalke doesn’t do it for me.
Yeah, he did screw up pretty badly this year and he has to be held accountable but just like chuck said, there isn’t a qb in this league that would have done well with our OL. Gabbert is not even a DeBerg, during his years our defense was a total sieve.
The on;y thing I’ll say in Kappy’s defense is the line was not even close to serviceable under Kappy. Kappy faced harder competition as well. 2-6 vs 3-5 is what it is. But Gabby could have very easily lost 2 of the games against shittier teams (Bears, Rams).
Gabbert is a placeholder. We won;t pay Kappy that kind of money to sit. Which is why we need to go after a QB.
They need a new GM and a new direction. How are they going to attract a top coach without changes at the top? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
Hey nip- being a cross-blogger isn’t like being a cross-dresser, is it? I sure hope not. I don’t have the money to afford all those clothes.
I was going to kid you about that. Those guys over there take themselves very seriously. I guess I’m on their shit list.
Yeah, that was pretty funny. Skeebies blog could use a little Nipper now and then. The whole lockstep thing is a bit off-putting.
Kappy to have thumb surgery? Getting a 2nd opinion, but why didn’t they see this earlier?
just when you think it’s done then here we go again
I saw that on ESPN, Kap fucked up his thumb as well. I don’t what the hell he’s been waiting for though. Get it fixed and move on.
Probably sucking on it too much.
Tough crowd here today.
York stood up alone and was contrite, admitted his mistakes, showed humility, said he would stand aside this time and let the football guys (Baalke, Gamble) do what they need to do, said they are free to spend the whole salary cap if necessary, apologized earnestly to the fan base and accepted responsibility for this sad sack season, said he will not be a distraction via twitter etc, acknowledged the fans anger and even the planes flying overhead talking shit about him.
What more can you expect him to do? What other owner eats crow in front of the world? Takes a man to do that.
The question is can Baalke and Gamble, given a really free hand, deliver a solid coach and hit it out the park in the draft as Jed says they need to.
Another thing I liked Jed did was fire Tomsula last night. Recognizing his mistake and taking action immediately.
Will any of it work? Who knows. Lots to unfold before we can even guess at it, but other than firing Baalke too, who is under contract until 2018, and which may or may not improve the situation, I think Jed has shown more balls than I thought he had.
From Baalke:
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/49ers/2016/01/04/22896/
He also takes blame for a shitty 2012 draft and not doing enough in free agency last year, O line anybody?
Seems clear he has been told, get it right this time or you’re a goner too.
Just watching sports talk live on COmcast sports net bay area, I didn’t catch everyone’s name but they all agreed the Niners need a Strong Offensive minded head coach or he has to hire a strong minded Offensive coordinator!! Someone who knows the current NFL. I will continue to preach this. In the NFL if you can’t pass you will not win. In today’s NFL a team can run up and down the field all day long, but if your team falls behind by 14 points or greater, you better be able to pass the ball, and that means down the field, not screens or little 5 yard passes!!
No question, have to have a quality passing game to go with a solid running game to cover all eventualities.
5 yard passes should be declared an abomination and illegal forever more or dink and dunk passing.
I read earlier today that Baalke favors Hue Jackson and now they have asked permission to interview. Amy Trask, ex of the Raiders, defended Jackson and said he dealt with stuff not known outside the building when he was there.
Hue’s OK. I’d rather have Payton.
Jed could do a lot more. Like stop hiding when the shit goes bad. Stop leaking shit to the media regarding his coaches. Get football people in the building and not his frat buddies.
For starters.
I prefer Payton too.
He wasn’t hiding today. I think he was doing his best to not be an interfering owner.
I don’t know he is leaking anything but Paraag is gone.
He has Baalke and Gamble. You may not like them but they are experienced football guys.
I think what they need is a Carmen Policy type, not GM day to day, but over seeing the big picture football operations and franchise direction.
Jed is a young executive, give him time. If he backs up what he said today I see reason to be optimistic. I have seen Baalke have a great draft, a shit draft and a mediocre draft. Its hard to add high skill level players to a stocked roster especially when you draft later in the rounds. This year Baalke doesn’t have that excuse, he picks early and the team has needs in most areas. I hope he leans on Gamble, he has a good reputation for talent evaluation.
OL
CB
DE
OLB
RB
WR
QB
TE
About the only place they have quality depth is safety.
I disagree with most of this. NE has stayed competitive for years drafting low. Pittsburgh as well. We had huge holes last year and Baalke ignored them. He should have gone after any number of WRs available. He should have drafted a QB in the last couple drafts. He has done nothing for this offense except for Boldin.
Hyde may work out but as of now he’s damaged goods that has yielded little.
Simple math for me in the NFL –
Protect the QB
Sack the QB
The 2 most important positions yes, QB and pass rusher.
A bit more to though huh NJ?
O line makes it all work, RG and passing. Shitty O line, shitty O, but I thought the final few games they were playing at a decent level finally.