Yes, here we are once again balanced on the knife-edge of futility as another season begins its inexorable swirl down the drain. Yes, we have done the coaching purge. Yes we have drafted a raft full of new guys who apparently are taxi-squad material. Yes, we have a new coaching staff that was hell-bent on speeding up the team. Yes, we have switched QBs. Yes, we have gone nowhere. In fact, we are in worse shape than last year. And this is an accomplishment in itself. So, what now?
Well, we still have the same owner. And we still have the same GM. And therein lies the rub. Something tells me this might be the problem. That being said, the owner, in his inimitable leaking fashion, has leaked out that:
“A 49ers source strongly indicated that general manager Trent Baalke is safe to remain with the team after this season, despite the team’s poor play so far. The 49ers defense has allowed more than 30 points in four of its past five games, but the belief by 49ers management is that Baalke is the right person to pick players for coach Chip Kelly going forward.”
Granted, these whispers can turn to shouts of derision pretty quickly, as Jimmy T got the same basic thumbs-up from the management last year at this time before he was booted. Another wrinkle to this tragicomedy is that Eddie D’s daughter Lisa pulled no punches in saying that Young Sir Jed Whispers-a-lot needs to go, in no uncertain terms.
This smacks of Baalke’s daughter tweeting that Greg Roman was on the hot seat ac ouple season back, but I think Eddie’s daughter Lisa’s comment carries a hell of a lot more weight behind it than Trent’s daughter.
Thing is, the team is not improving in any way shape or form. We are not a young, hungry team looking for a few key players. We are not a vet-laden team looking for a couple strong rookies to get over the hump. We are a collection of mis-labeled parts in search of a master mechanic. The talent that was there 3 short seasons ago has evaporated. The drafts have given us little in the way of impact players. Although we have the All-ACL team of all-time.
Trent Baalks-a-lot has ignored the offense for 6 years now at the cost of building the 30th ranked defense. Stop me if I’m not optimistic. I know we have some very good players, but after watching mediocre teams like AZ and Buffalo walk all over us, I have misgivings. After watching WR after WR drop off the board as we draft yet another ACL prayer, I get pissed. After drafting a punter no one wanted in the 5th round, I get flummoxed. Baalke is very good at gathering a boat-load of picks, but he wastes them like Bonnie and Clyde waste bullets.
At some point, Jed needs to see what the problem really is. And it is his GM.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Things are really getting serious when Chuck is “flummoxed.” I just hope a doctor is not needed for this condition!
Woof!
Lisa Debartolo’s comments:
http://www.ninersnation.com/2016/10/18/13323210/lisa-debartolo-tweet-jed-york-49ers-ceo-eddie-debartolo
Jed looks more inept by the day. Trent Baalke will do that for a guy. Man these two are bad news.
Carlos is hurt again. Perhaps he will retire too.
Hyde continues to show his fragility. He also has not shown too much production, with exception of garbage time yards when the D will allow all the clock eating running game you want.
Davis is apparently next man up with his amazing 1.8 YPC. Looks like the game plan is Kap running a lot. I’m sure the Bucs will think that.
I figured Jed would stick with Baalke until he absolutely has to do something. If you look at the way Jed allows the football side to operate, he himself is not involved very much. For all his nicknames like tweets-a-lot etc he actually doesn’t, at least publicly. He uses Baalke to run the football operations and I think he is afraid to remove Baalke because Jed has no shield left from the rabid fanbase and is afraid of the full responsibility.
If the team really bombs this year I expect Baalke to go, but 5 wins or more and I highly doubt he kicks Baalke to the curb. One joker in the pack is Kelly is known to like and work well with Gamble and the league guys say Gamble is a top talent evaluator, highly respected, waiting his first crack at being a GM.
IMO Baalke has had a very fair shot at running the Niners and the result is a decline of the roster talent. Not all his fault but a lot is, like continually picking high round injured players and just about nothing on the O side. Time for a change.
An unnamed NFL exec on Chip Kelly:
“He just keeps running the same shit and it isn’t fooling anybody,” one NFL executive said. “Do you think they could bring him back to Oregon?”
At this point there is no way Jed will relinquish his title. What has to happen is someone is gonna have to give him a good spanking and maybe if it’s the right person he will pay attention. The only way I know to get him would be through the pocketbook and that is gonna be hard since I think he’s got a lot of irons in the fire. The fans not paying to see this product will help the cause and hopefully public scrutiny will force him to see his errors. It is really our only hope at this point.
I’d take Trump at this point to run the team. Baalke is a fucking joke. Everything he drafts turns to shit. His ONLY good skill player, Hyde, is hurt all the time. That’s all he’s got in 6 years.
Here’s a list of skill players Baalke has drafted:
10:
Anthony Dixon
Nate Bynam
Kyle Williams
11:
CK
Kendall Hunter
Ronald Johnson
Bruce Miller
12:
AJ Jenkins
La Michael James
13:
V McDonald
Quinton Patton
Marcus Lattimore
BJ Daniels
14:
Carlos Hyde
Bruce Ellington
Trey Millard
15:
Blake Bell
Rory Anderson
16:
Driskell
Kelvin Taylor
20 players. Who’s left? 6 And Baalke doesn’t even get credit for Kaepernick as that was Harbaugh’s guy.
So that leaves 5 skill players left drafted in SEVEN YEARS by Baalke:
I doubt he would put that on his resume. I would take Trump over Baalky everyday and that is saying something.
Throw in Hillary too for a real cat fight.
Interesting
http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Draft-gaffes-leave-glaring-roster-gaps-9984664.php
Yeah, I’ve been on Baalke for this very reason in these past 2 drafts.
Hey, what is your seat #? I’m bringing my son and one of my daughters on Sunday. We are on the 35 yard line (312 row 2 seats 18-19-20) on the sunny side. I’m sure there will be seats around us!
Hi Charlie, my seats are 202, 3, 4, 5, 6 Row 29, way at the top of the stairs. Yeah I will come by. Yes there will be lots of empty seats.
Sound out a loud BLEEP and scare the ushers, Chuck.
Jed has to
a) Cut ties with Daddy
b) Cut ties with Paraag
c) Hire an exec VP of football operations that knows the game
d) Hire a GM that knows the game.
At this point, d) is likely the only one that happens. And it WILL be Tom Gamble.
Not a horrendous choice, but someone (like Eddie) HAS to tell Jed that having a zillion middle managers mucking things up isn’t going to help things along. Clear out the front office and get better people.
Cut ties with Daddy?
Dr. Dork has no business in the building. Let Jeddie do what he will. I think if there’s too much onerous oversight from anyone, it’s Dr. Feelshitty.
You guys are still going to these games? That’s some serious fandom. It’s also contributing to the opposite of your ultimate goal which is to get York to sell the team. The stadium needs to be nearly empty for probably 2 full years before he would even consider it.
My kids want to go. Yeah I’m the one keeping Jed in place.
Could be worse…….Mark Davis as owner…..he’s half nuts.
you know what I mean. And Jed isn’t selling the team unless something massively drastic happens (like season tix holder bailing). He built that fucking stadium, he’s not going anywhere. Why would he just hand his *masterpiece* over to another owner? Answer: He won’t do it. He’ll stay in hiding, probably pull a Cohan at some point, hoping the Niners miraculously pull out of this. But unless 80% of the season ticket holders bail, I don’t see him selling the team.
Bring on the Monster trucks and a ton of dirt. I bet Chuck’s kids would enjoy them. Better than watching a lousy Chip Kelley effort.
I don’t see Jed selling regardless of what the fans do. He doesn’t answer to the fans. He’s an OWNER! Look at fucking Jerry Jones. Or Daniel Snyder. Or the Bidwells and McCaskeys. Or Chris Cohan of the Dubs. Donald Stirling. 20+ years of suckitute from those guys (the Bidwills have about 50 years in a row of being absolute dogshit) more or less and they didn’t sell. Jerry Jones runs his team like a reality show. Stiriling cheap-asses his way to futility for decades. The McCaskeys have been a running joke for 60 years by having one decent QB (McMahon) in their history. The Bidwells? How many empty stadiums did the AZ Cardinals play in front of from 1945 to 2005? they reached about 20% of their capacity for those 60 years of sucking.
These owners don’t give 2 fucks about the fans. They don’t really give a shit if the fans are there or not. They trot out their crap-ass lineups and haphazard teams and let the shit fall where it may. Think Lew Wolff is concerned about the fans? He’s been pissing and shitting on them for 15 years. Is he selling? No.
Putting this on the fans is ludicrous. I’ve been a fan of this team long before Sir Jed Suck-a-lot was even born. Levi’s stadium is already half-empty and people are suing for the seat license fees back. People are renting planes to laugh at the owner. He’s laughing in his cocoon. He’s fucking Nero while Rome burns. Think he gives a shit? Think again.
The plane flybys are a great idea. Anything to embarrass the pathetic Jed. He’s strickly a loser as was shown in the Harbaugh situation. He’ll never live that down. And now every losing season is another nail in his coffin. There is nowhere to hide. The public knows he’s a stupid fool. Perhaps he can reap money out Levis in a manner of a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. Maybe Jed is good at business but as a CEO of an NFL franchise he’s got a lot to learn.
Owners have it easy. They answer to no one. All Jed has to do is hire competent people and get out of the way. He’s still clinging to daddy’s apron strings though.
For those saying stick with Baalke another year (Berger), Baalke has had the most picks of any GM since 2010 and the Niners have possibly the thinest rosters in the NFL. Doing the least with the most is not usually a good sign.
Is there anything else to say?
Yes there is. We have lost more front line players than anybody over the last two years. You don’t lose your top talent and leaders and not get effected. There is more than just talent that has to be replaced, there is a leadership vacuum. But like I said before, if Baalke is fired it won’t bother me. I just think people are panicking and not seeing the whole picture. Patience is not something fans possess. I do know changing coaches and GMs every year is a major loser.
My biggest problem with Baalke is choosing Chip Kelly as coach. I know that now, I didn’t know what to think of that hire 3 months ago. Chip seems to think sending two blockers into a hole without backside help can work in the NFL. His running style should be using the Sardine Can Offense formations. You would think he would wise up soon and hit the running lanes quicker with the formations he is using. More so, this DC looks clueless, let’s see if he starts making the necessary adjustments.
Another support piece in the case against keeping Baalke, essentially saying what lots of guys keep saying, BPA is a guideline not an excuse to overlook need draft after draft. How many CB’s should they take?
http://www.49erswebzone.com/commentary/1623-49ers-rebuilding-but-who-around/
Time for Baalke to leave and as soon as possible. He’s the shits by anyone’s standards. Only Jed would hire such a guy. Send him to Pop Warner. He can con some of the dumber parents.
Right now Baalke couldn’t sell a football at Walmart. Only that thick-headed Jed York will buy anything from him.
Bowman is a leader. As is Joe Staley. Even Eric Reid and Antoine Bethea to a lesser extent. Yeah they lost talent. Yeah, they are a revolving door in the coaching department. Every team goes through this one way or another. Look at Philly. Chip decimated the roster and everyone got fired. Where are they now? 3-2 and looking very good.
Be that as it may, Baalke has had ample time to restock the roster. He hasn’t. We needed a QB 3 drafts ago. We needed WRs 3 drafts ago. We needed ILBs 3 drafts ago. A stinking pass rusher. These obvious needs were never addressed.
Beyond that, his BPA drafts haven’t worked either. He sucks. He took a talented team and has done little to restock the talent. You can look back and see a ton of misses, but that is hindsight. The proof is in the pudding. He has drafted very badly.
The only improvement over 2 years ago is the pass blocking. And Garnett has contributed little to that. Fat lot of good that has done anyway.
The point being, it IS a parity league. That is why there is so much turnover in the playoff teams year to year. It doesn’t take much to go from the doghouse to the outhouse, uh penthouse. Shit, did we all forget 2010 to 2011? 5-11 to 13-3. Granted we are on the 5-11 side of things, but these games this year have shown that we haven’t simply been blown out, despite the final scores.
Yeah, Bergs. I don’t like the run game and I’ve said it for a while now. The read-option run plays are way too slow to develop. All it does is give the defense time to clog running lanes.
We need to stop that entirely. Like Harbaugh and those goddamned 3 guys in the backfield diamond formations.
Read option isn’t the issue with the exception of getting the QB hurt. Slow developing running plays are when the formation doesn’t allow for backside protection. The running plays need to hit the hole faster and use the two extra pulling blockers to block the LBs and safeties straight ahead in the running lane. I know his Counter Trey worked from the spread in college. The pros are just too quick.
To hell with patience. Fire the whole lot of them. At the prices they screw people out of bleep the whole mess. Niners suck and those responsible should walk the plank. Am I being reasonable? Hell NO, I’m a wild eyed fan with a lousy team to follow. Of course I’m not reasonable, who would be?
Good response!
Seriously, Bergs? The QB and the RB come together and read the OLB or DE to decide whether to hand the ball off or not, and then which gap to hit. That’s by design a slow developing run play. As opposed to a quick hitter up the middle. No one bites anymore. At least against us.
Beyond that we aren’t getting 1st level blocking, let alone 2nd level. Which is why the read option isnt working.
I would really need a coaches film to break down why the read option is not working. My guess from TV angles is that the end pinches in so the QB keeps the ball. Teams are now wise to this and are bringing a LB around to cover the QB run. To run this play that LB has to be blocked. Judging from a comment I heard from Joe Staley we are missing that block. After hearing his comment I have actually seen Joe miss that block multiple times.
Personally, if I really liked my QB and didn’t ant him hurt I would run that play only a half dozen times per year like they do in Seattle. I’m not so sure Chip sees Blaine or Kap as our future when I see how often he runs the play.
That is what happened on a read option I remember from watching the first quarter. Staley and Beadles double-teamed the under tackle (three technique) and Staley didn’t slide off his block until it was too late to block the Will spying on Kaepernick who then took Kaepernick down behind the LOS.
In Staley’s defense, it looked like he may have been getting held by the defensive tackle.
It wasn’t a bad play call though. We were on their twenty or so and if Staley makes that block Kaepernick has only the safety to beat for a score.
Defenses are geared to stopping Kaepernick’s read option and scrambling out of the pocket now. Kaepernick’s going to have to start reading defenses and playing from the pocket, but he can’t.
Thanks.
It’s my opinion that if the running scheme was more down hill, IOW hit the hole fast, the LB couldn’t come around because he would need to cover the inside the tackles run. Especially if we used the Pistol because that is a downhill running formation. The problem with the RB reading and reacting is the LBs have more time to do the same thing.
The LB would still come around because when he sees the end is unblocked he knows it’s a read option and reacts accordingly.
The idea of the read option is to make the unblocked end always wrong no matter which way he attacks. That alone should give the offensive blockers an advantage in numbers. But that only works as well as it did for a year or two. Then the defenses see enough film and adjust to stop what’s hurting them.
The RB isn’t reading and then reacting, or at least no more than he usually has to. He knows which hole he’s going to hit if he gets the ball. I’d like to see it run with the pitch man included.
Kaepernick is always in the shotgun. I’ve never liked the position the RB has to take to begin the run out of the shotgun. If from the pistol the RB would start from behind the QB instead of beside him I’d be for that, too.
If the LB still comes around that would give more room for the RB. I think that is what you said already?
The read and react is not for the hole but to wait to set up the blocking. It just takes to long if there is no backside protection. I like Chip’s formations but I don’t lie his play calling and play design.
Wandered over to the playpen and they are basically just copy pasting this stuff.
Too cute.
Funny how that happens when you start saying what’s been said there for the past two years.
Too delusional.
Before leaving town will Trent Baalke be……..
A. Driven away in a Limo of his choice
B. Tied to rail and tar and feathered down the street to the airport
C. Hung upside down in the Niners museum for a couple of hours before leaving
D. Apologizes to the fans for being an inept incompetent.
We’re #1!!!! We’re #1!!!
In ESPN’s annual fan poll of worst sports teams, we’re the very worst!!!!
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17831701/san-francisco-49ers-drop-another-19-places-last-overall-ultimate-standings
Boy howdy, it can’t get much more fucked up than that.
Sure it can Winder. We still got little Jed York.
Every passing day Jed gets a bit more little.
Some interesting OP ED on our O’Neil Run Defense issues –
http://tinyurl.com/jjpk2u8
Boo, hoo, NoFear. Phil copies my shit daily line for line. You were funnier when you were dead.
I just gotta give a shout out to the Cubbies. I am so glad they hammered Kershaw. I am now interested in the World Series and I don’t care who wins.
Yeah, not watching very intently but family ties have me pulling for Chicago . . .
It would be pretty nutty though for Cleve to not win anything for 1,000 years and win the NBA championship and the world series in the same year.
New thread is up.