San Francisco 49ers Forever

• WR           Dres Anderson
• OL            Alex Balducci
• WR           Devon Cajuste
• DL            Demetrius Cherry
• OL            Fahn Cooper
• QB            Jeff Driskel
• TE            Je’Ron Hamm
• RB            DuJuan Harris
• CB            Prince Charles Iworah
• OL            Colin Kelly
• LB            Corey Lemonier
• DL            B.J. McBryde
• OL            Norman Price
• LB            Marcus Rush
• LB            Shayne Skov
• NT            Garrison Smith
• RB            Kelvin Taylor
• WR           Bryce Treggs
• WR           Ryan Whalen
• WR           DeAndrew White

The good, Lemonier. The bad, DeAndrew White, Dres Anderson, Marcus Rush, Shayne Skov. The Ugly? The rest. The surprises to me were Rush and the young WRs. I guess they werem’t getting open, but I thought Skov would stick for special teams, and Rush would fit in as a 3rd down pass rusher.

I think Driskell,  Anderson, and Rush are headed for the taxi squad. G Smith as well. Looks like Ponder makes the grade as a hedge against the rest of the generally mediocre performances of Gabby and Kappy. Let the games begin!

The Niners won a thrilling (zzzzzzzzzzzz) contest of wills and flags in Sandy Eggo as the backups from SF beat the backups of SD 31-21. 2-2 in these meaningless games, but the takeaway from this game is that no one got hurt.

Colin Kaepernick afro’ed himself  into a middling performance that didn’t change any minds about the pecking order. Blaine Gabbert is our starter, Kaepernick is the backup. After that, Jeff Drisekll looked horrible, throwing 2 pick in 3 passes in a bad 3rd quarter stretch. Christina Ponder continues to impress against the backup brigade, throwing passes to WRs and generally looking like he should stick. Over Driskell? Yes.

Other that that, the other hot players coming out of camp are Marcus Rush and Mike Davis. But for two fumbles, Davis would be even more of a shoe-in for the back-up RB spot. That should be his.  Carlos Hyde is once again a question mark, and Shaun Draughn is battling a rib injury himself, so Davis, and possibly Kelvin Taylor, will make the squad.

WR is a big question mark as well, but Kerley made a few nice catches from CK. Beyond Torrey Smith and Kerley, we got a lot of young guys. Dres Anderson had a clutch catch on the goal line on the 1st drive, and after that? Unsure.

For the D line, Ronald Blair had another solid game, and the D line in general has played well despite losing Ian Williams, and Dorsey’s uncertain status. DBs as well. No surprises there.  I was a little surprised to see Kenneth Acker traded, but we have a soliod group of defenders.

Optimistic? Who knows? I’d like to be, but this season has been way too wacky to be realistic. Will Kappy get cut? No. Despite the hooraw, he’s better than Driskell. Ponder? Well, that’s harder to tell, but I think they carry all three at this point. Kelly can’t afford to be caught short-handed with all the weirdness circling the team. Still think this could be an 8-8 team if they can get healthier and not get too many injuries.

So far we’ve lost players, games, and the backing of the police. Think the Chipster is maybe rethinking his job choices? Hey, it’s a paying gig, and really, if he can get something out of this team resembling decent football his stock will rise pretty high. But as it stands now, the team still looks like a clusterfuck nightmare. There’s no apparent front office turmoil, and they haven’t weighed in on the Kappy deal other than to say it’s within his rights as an American to sit for the anthem, but there is still a swirling miasma of unanswered questions about the team, why the front office has been ignoring the QB position in the draft, the WR position in the draft, and basically sat on its thumbs while having scads of cash available to sign free agents. Signing a backup guard is hardly ground breaking stuff.

Whatever the anthem fallout is, Chip is saying Kappy is still part of the team, and still part of the QB race.  Granted, I think Kappy has two blown tires and is leaking oil at an alarming rate, but who the fuck knows? A bad performance against San Diego’s Walmart brigade could spell the end for Kaepernick here or anywhere. A good performance? Well, there are teams like Dallas and Denver who at this point are dealing with major uncertainty at the QB spot. So, a trade is a possibility I suppose. Jerry Jerk-off loves him some craziness so he could very well trade for him. Elway? Well, I think the water has cooled significantly on that one. Even with Denver looking like they may implode themselves.

Beyond that, the game tonight will be a picture of ugly Americans lashing out at someone going out on a limb. The mob mentality will prevail and the potential for a lot of ugliness exists. I have no problem with the military or supporting the job they do, but I also think there are systemic problems with the police in this country.

We interrupt the CK freakout . . . BTW I guess we get to see a whole lot of Kappy on Thursday . . .

Teddy Bridgewater is the latest player to be waylaid by the preseason. Players keep dropping despite the best efforts of the league to limit hitting in practice, and stop two-a-day practices, and cutting down on practice time in general. Bridgewater was carted away in an ambulance for an apparent knee injury. A non-contact injury.  Granted, we have lost a few ourselves, including Carlos Hyde (concussion) Quinton Dial (knee sprain) Bruce Ellington (pulled hammy) Eric Rodgers and Thad Lewis (torn ACL). Teams all over the league are suffering through various and sundry (and not so sundry) injuries.

“Preseason” is the scariest word for any head coach to hear, as players like Tony Romo, DE Vance Walker of New England, and now Teddy Bridgewater many many more are severely injured in these practice games.  At some point you’d think the owners would want to protect the very players the league is built on, but that would cut in to owner profits for games that no one shows up to, and fans are forced to buy tickets for.

There has been talk of getting rid of two preseason games, but at the cost of adding two regular season games. The NFLPA rightly went ballistic over this back in 2011, and the owners couldn’t even really rebut that, since adding 2 more real games to the schedule would guarantee a boatload of injuries. Goodie Goodell always preaches safety, but he NEVER stands in the way of profits (see concussion: whitewash).  I certainly hope that the league (the owners) see fit to do away with 2 preseason games and not messing with the rest of the schedule.

Well, the fun that has transpired since the last game has become stupidly overblown and regurgitated by the media ad infinitum. Blah blah blah. Even the pundits think is is a publicity stunt. Bullshit. All this is about is Kaepernick wants off the 49ers. Whether he gets hired again, now or next season, is beside the point. He wants out and this is yet another means to an end. His play was shitty enough the other day, but before his misguided attempt at whatever the hell his stand is, I was willing to let hm play in the next preseason game to see if he got better. Well, you torched that bridge.

As an aside, Colin, spend some time in the Tenderloin, or the Oakland projects, or at any number of homeless shelters and donate time and money to the people there trying to make a difference in the lives of the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised. Not standing during the National Anthem makes you look out of touch with the people who defend the flag and what it stands for. In other words, your stance is more petulant and childish than anything else.

Nut up or shut up. You are on company time when you make your stand. You should honor that, and the fact they are PAYING you $12 million to play a game. But I think that is the point entirely. Forcing the team to cut your ass.

As games go, Blaine Gabbert solidified his grasp on the starting QB spot as Colin Kaepernick did little in his first game action since the middle of last season. Kaepernick also decided to not stand for the National Anthem to protest black oppression. Something that is garnering attention across the sports, and non-sports world. To me, this isn’t a John Carlos/Tommie Smith style protest. This is more of a look-at-me protest. For a guy who is ostensibly fighting for his NFL life, it’s curious to do something that will piss off a lot of people, including your own teammates. It might mean a little more if he did this in a regular season game as the starting quarterback, not in a preseason game as a guy fighting for a spot on the team.

Since he lives in a free country, he has every right to protest what he feels is discriminatory behavior. I just think this is more of an attention-getting stunt than anything else. If you want to help, donate your salary to inner-city charities. Other than that? Pfffffffffffft. He’s acting like he wants the team to cut him. Kappy needs to worry about fighting for his job, not casting aspersions on the country or whatever this is.

As far as the game goes, we got dinged up in this one. Ellington pulled a hammy, Carlos Hyde suffered a concussion, Quinton Dial hurt his knee. The 1st looked good as good field position led to a nice TD drive, and a swing pass TD. The D didn’t have some of their starters (Armstead, Bowman) and looked pretty good. They weren’t getting the pressure they had gotten earlier, and they gave up like 8-9 4th down plays, but the defensive backfield played another solid game. I’d hope that the starters will be getting more pressure, and the 3rd/4th down conversion rate isn’t so gaudy.

All in all, a fairly shitty night with the injuries. We NEED Hyde to be ready. Ellington is one of our only experienced WRs so we can’t lose him either.

The Packers have winged their way to the city by the Bay. San Jose, that is. No word on who’s starting tonight, but I’d think Colin Kaepernick  would be. If only to give him fresh time with the ones. I guess we’ll find out soon enough but it would be cool to see Kaepernick continue his ownership of of the Cheeseheads. He had his best passing game as a pro way back in  2013 opening day when he threw 27-39 for 412 yards, 3 TDs, and a fairly astounding 10.5 yards per attempt. This of course was Colin’s last best season as he threw for 3200 yards, 21 TDs to 8 picks, and got one play from his 2nd consecutive Super Bowl.

We of course beat them in the 1st round of the playoffs as CK had a more pedestrian outing that night, going 16-30 and 227 yards, and 1 TD, 1 pick. Of course, that was Ice Bowl 2 as the wind chill was 50 below.  Even the year before, Kappy had what was an amazing playoff game passing and running. Throwing for 17-31, 263, 2,1, and an NFL record 181 yards rushing for a total of 444 yards.

Can he find the magik again? Let’s hope so. The season may depend on it.

Hah! Hey, I don’t know where this team is going, but at least it seems to be pointed in the right direction. The latest on the coalescing of the offensive line has AD, the biggest problem with the line last year when he decided to take a mental health year off after the free agency signing period, AND the draft, has seen Trent Brown dominate at RT and offered to move to the inside where a smaller quicker guy (like him now, not the overweight 380 guy on the line in 2014) can play. This pushed Eric Pears out of the starting lineup.

In addition, 1st round pick Joshua Garnett is taking reps at LG in place of Zane Beadles, the free agent signing. With THAT happening, Beadles is getting reps at center. Providing back up to Daniel Kilgore Trout. Our lynch pin on ht e line.

What does this all mean? Well, it means we actually have the makings for a very good line. One with flexibility and depth. Not the nightmare of stupidity we had last year. So, if not anything, we can run. What I really like is that we are using formations that usually put at least 3 WRs on the field. With FB Bruce Miller now a TE, i think we can finally bid adieu to the Sardine Can Offense (SCO). A tern coined by the one and only Berger.  A tip o’the cap to you., good sir.

Bergs has been the biggest proponent of running out of the pistol, which CK did in Reno, and running out of spread formations. Mainly, and this has been my point as well, because by emptying the backfield and putting WRs out wide, you EMPTY the box. You don’t constantly run against 8 or 9 guys in the box. Sure, putting 3 RBs in the diamond formation gives you blockers, but it also makes the defense honor those guys and crowd their guys inside the tackle box as well.

Sure, there isn’t a ton of info to gather from preseason, but we have been opening up big holes early on. The run game has looked very nice (minus the fumbling) for these games. How this affects the passing game remains to be seen, but at least we are building the team in the right order. From the lines out. . .

For a guy who stepped off the plane after painting his house, not a bad start for Ponder. Sure it was against the Walmart Brigade, but it still had to give Gabby some shivers. Throw in the fact that Kaepernick was throwing 50-60 yard passes yesterday suddenly puts the QB battle on the front burner.

While this really doesn’t mean squat, unless QB battles mean anything (and they do) at least Gabby looked better yesterday than the other day. He still has the maddening habit of throwing for 5 yards on 3rd and 7, but this is the dink and dunk offense. Again the run game looked pretty solid, as did the line blocking. D Ware wasn’t playing, so there was that, but the takeaway from this game is much like last week.

The line play on both sides appears to be in much better shape than last year. Or even 2 years ago. The 1st and 2nd O lines did very well as Gabby wasn’t sacked, and I don’t think Driskel was either. Even he looked much more settled than last week. My onl;y concern offesnvely is the lack of passes to the WRs. Something we didn’t see till Ponder came in.

Defensively the first 2 lines played well enough, and this was without Armstead or Buckner, the bookend Ducks. The DBs were solid down the line, and except for a blown coverage on the Brooks blitz to a wide open TE, the LBs on the 1st and 2nd string were active and hitting. The defense didn’t give up many big plays, but that first drive was kind of easy.

So, it reality, despite the fact that these games are meaningless, I don’t think this team is as bad as everyone is making them out to be. I tell you one thing, John Elway didn’t get ANY sleep last night. Siemen threw a pick 6 on a fairly easy read/bait by Eric Reid. Mark Sanchez tried to re-enact his butt fumble a couple times, and Paxton Lynch got into the act by overthrowing for a pick. None of these guys look very good. Sanchez may get cut in a couple weeks.

Hey, maybe we can trade Ponder for Ware . . .

Well, the quarterback fight that hasn’t happened, still isn’t happening. Unless you think the pillow fight between Gabby Gabbertson and Jesus Wonder has legs. The word out of Camp Whispering York is that Colin Kaepernick has been cleared to practice as of now, and will play in the Green Bay game next Thursday.

I’d love to think that this is merely what it is. A small setback for Kaepernick as he readies for the upcoming season. Whether as starter or short-term backup. It seems like it anyway. Chip Kelly is saying as much. However, the undercurrent to all this is the underhanded gyrations of this front office. Namely whether the possibility exists that the 49ers IR him for the year to let him fester on the sidelines, a la RG III last year. The other possibility is that Kappy doesn’t bother trying, and sits anyway while he bides his time to get out of this 7th grade front office.

Frankly I don’t buy either scenario. For all the heat that Kappy catches, he’s not nearly the headache that RG III-and-out was in Washington. Kappy had a lot more success than him, and is bigger/stronger besides. But, be that as it may, Kaepernick’s only real option is to play the hand he’s got. And that’s to fight for the starting job here.

We’ve all gone back and forth over what has transpired, but the truth remains, the team bailed on him by abandoning the players they said they would keep if Kappy signed a team-friendly deal. They then blamed a poor season on him after little Jimmy H pouted his way to his dream job, half the roster bailed (with Trent Baalke holding the door wide open), and Jimmy T Farts-a-lot, and his merry band of monkeys led the team to a last place offense and defense. With and without Kappy.

My hope is that at least for now, there is a sense of hope with Kaepernick and this new coaching staff. Provided that CK can win the starting job. If not by week one, at least a couple weeks into the season.  If Chip has any sense, he will position this team to  rally around the much-maligned quarterback and at least play with some excitement. Harbaugh certainly knew how to suck the life out of any room, absorb all the fun and turn it into a glowering uncomfortable pissing match, while his antecedent merely tried to clear the room by crop-dusting his pressers with air biscuits.