Well, the Jimmy Bag-a-donuts era was short-lived and disastrous. Next up? Chip Kelly and his brand of high-speed no-huddle offense. Yes, we finally get the pedal-to-the-metal offensive-minded coach we haven’t has since the Mariucci days, and yes, Chip draws comparisons to guys like Mad Mike Martz (he of the JT O’Fuckmeagain and Shaun [over the] Hill gang) and even the old Mouse Davis run ‘n’ gun college/pro offense of the 80s. But this is a different league now, and everybody is fast. Not sure how this plays, but Chip did reel off two 1-6 seasons before sabotaging himself amid a bunch of questionable moves to build the Eagles in his distorted image.

Which brings us to this season. As of now, the team is a mystery as the Niners are in a very friendly cap situation, but have shed talent like a lizard sheds its skin. According to Spotrac, the adjusted salary cap is $154 mill. The Niners current salaries are at $105 mill. So as of now we have close to $50 mill in cap space.  And that is without the minor hit but major cap savings of close to $10 mill the Niners would get should they jettison Colin Kaepernick before the 4/1/16 salary kick-in deadline.

Heady stuff. But then again, we have Trent Baalke, the architect of the steady talent drain for the past 4 years, at the helm of the Titani, uh Good Ship Forty Niners. Chip has promised not to stick his nose into the personnel side of things, but what of it? Do we have Baalke drafting in a void? Surely he knows that Chip is moving the team is a much different direction than Harbaugh was. Which is why it was so baffling to me to see Baalke drafting little WRs when his trend was for bigger possession types. Even LMJ and Hunter were off the usual pattern of Baalke. Harbaugh’s power run game certainly didn’t fit with these draft picks. Were they outfoxing each other?  Was Baalke drafting random guys? I don’t get it.

Will it get better with Chip and Balke? We will see. The decision to keep or lose Colin and or Gabbert will have been made when the draft rolls around, so we should have a little better idea of where Trent will draft. As if that ever made a difference.