Forty Niners Forever

I didn’t think it would happen this soon, but the 49ers and Broncos are already discussing a trade for their once-and-future-passed-him-by quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. The 49ers want a 2nd. Denver wants a 3rd. If this is the only sticking point, this will happen fairly quickly. I thought they’d wait till after April Fools day, but I think Denver is in, not desperation mode, but ‘let’s get this shit done and move on’ mode. The rumors around Gary Kubiak wanting Kaepernick started the day Kappy was benched by Jimmy (bad dream) Tomsula last year.

Since there are a ton of fans that are waiting to say ‘good riddance’ to the bicep-kissing one, I have to say be careful what you wish for. Kaepernick, for al his problems last year, is a shit-ton better than Blaine Gabbert. But for 2 botched FGs, Gabbert is 1-7 here. Sure, he’s been on shitty teams, but the 49er team he had was better than the one Kappy had to deal with. The line got better, and the run game came around some. The biggest problem with Gabbert is gaining 5 years on 3rd and 7. He constantly checked down in the face of getting first downs downfield. This is what drove Alex out of here. What good is a great completion percentage if you are throwing 4 yard passes?

Beyond that, Kaepernick must be dancing in the streets to have the possibility of going from the 49ers to the Super Bowl champs.  And that has to mean something that they see something in him that we don’t. So, if he goes, what then?

Well, we get to the draft. Trent Baalke has ignored the QB position his entire tenure here. Kappy himself was Harbaugh’s guy, and he ignored the position for the last 3 drafts. Once Alex went he should have taken a shot in the middle rounds at a viable backup. I’m of the mind that we either go with Goff or forego drafting a QB early. he’s the only one I like.

Without Goff, I foresee at least another 4 years of suckitude. barring some crazy maneuvering down the road. Chip os going to have a tough row to hoe if Baalke doesn’t get a boatload of talent on the offensive side of the ball this year. Including quarterback, if this trade comes to pass.

Something tells me this is going to be an interesting opening to the 2016 NFL season. One of the old ‘new young guns’ that were on track to revitalize the position of NFL quarterback was just released. Robert Griffin III, the guy the Redskins paid dearly for in draft picks, was unceremoniously cut from those same Redskins. after of course spending last season on the bench as the 3rd strong guy behind Kurt Cousins and Colt (yikes) McCoy. The other supposed game-changer, Cam Newton, just lost Super Bowl L in a spectacularly awful showing, amid constant pressure, missed plays, and finally a loss of heart by the end as he fumbled and whined his way to the finish, despite his MVP showing last season. And we all know what is going on with our own guy, Colin Kaepernick.

Speaking of the Rams, they turned the plethora of draft picks garnered from the Redskins for the right to draft RG III into basically nothing. They got DT Michael Brockers, a solid if unspectacular defensive tackle on a great D line. They got OLB Alec Ogletree, an above-average LB who covers well. They got CB Janoris (Mr. Toasted) Jenkins, nuff said. RB Isaiah Pead, a one-year wonder that hit the dog house. OL R Watkins, cut before he played a down. WR Steadman Bailey, another in a log line of disappointing WRs (sound familiar?). RB Zac Staley, another RB du Jour who had a great year and fell of the depth chart for the next guy, Tre Mason (and the Todd Gurley). And. last but not least 2nd pick in the 2014 draft, the biggest disappointment, OT Greg Robinson. Being considered one of the worst tackles in the game in 2014, and didn’t improve much last year.

There you have it. The Rams turned all their high picks into a bunch of meh, and still haven’t been in the playoffs as the Cards have zoomed past them, the Seahawks are, well, balanced on their own precipice, and of course our Niners are a clusterfuck in waiting. The reason I bring up the Rams is because they are now in the same raft that the Redskins were in back in 2012. The Rams are in desperate need for a quarterback. Nick Foles, their guy, went 4-7 and played himself to the bench in favor of Case (who am I?) Keenum.

Tennessee, the team holding the #1 pick, is not. They have Marcus Mariota and a horrible line. They are actively looking to trade down with someone in need so they can draft a slew of O linemen.  Who better than the Rams? They gained first-hand knowledge of how trading picks away can help (Washington hit the playoffs immediately), and they see that hoarding picks isn’t necessarily a guarantee of success either, as they have aptly proven. So I can see the Rams making a play for that top pick to draft either Carson Wentz or Jared Goff.

Want to know what’s really fucked up? The team that now looks to become a playoff fixture is the one-and-only Scotty McCloughan-led Washington Redskins. The Cowboys are in a huge pile of disarray as their defense racks up huge losses, and Tony Romo keeps trucking millions into his bank account. The Eagles are in another tumultuous offseason (hi, Chip), and the Giants are coming off an underwhelming year themselves as they search for a new chemistry.

Don’t know what the deal is with non-teetotalling Scot. He apparently drank his way out of the 49ers GM-ship after building up a great team, and he did the same in Seattle, leaving for ‘personal reasons’ there as well. Now, however, he is responsible for the Redskins prompt turnaround last year by nailing last year’s draft with 4 starters, drafting guard Brandon Scherff, outside linebacker Preston Smith, running back Matt Jones and wide receiver Jamison Crowder, and signing his guys Dashon Goldson, Rickey-Jean Francois. He also picked up  NT Terrance Knighton and special teams ace Jeron Johnson. He has now built a team that is suddenly stable and has a promising future. Not a bad day’s work for the guy. Fuck. 

Well, since the speculation is that we are switching QBs after Kappy is paid and traded, what do we do about our QB situation? I’ve made it pretty clear that we should keep Kappy, keep fucking Gabbert, and sign the best guy available with the 7th pick. This team cannot flounder around and treat the quarterback position like it’s the back up TE spot. They need a solid plan to find out if Kappy is salvageable, and draft his successor regardless. Gabbert is nothing more than a backup in either case. All this talk about Gabbert getting it better is unadulterated horse shit. He can study til the cows come home, but he’ll still be Blaine Gabbert, the guy who gets you 5 yards on 3rd and 8.

The QBs that are in play are:

Upshot NDAKST QB Carson Wentz. A guy who went from mid-2nd rounder to likely the 1st QB drafted because of the hype machine. He’s a 2 year starter who played on a run-based offense in the 2nd-tier of college football. Not sure how he rose so fast, but hey, them’s the breaks.

Jared Goff, Cal’s wonderboy who would have won a lot more games had Cal played even a little bit of defense. The dude broke just about all Aaron Rodgers’ collegiate records, and Cal, as we all know, plays a pro-style offense against bigger and badder competition than NDAKST.

Paxton Lynch. The Memphis QB was the consensus first QB pick about 3 months ago. However, with his poor showing in his bowl game and iffy combine, he’s dropping faster than Bill Clinton’s pants at a Miss America contest. He showed a lot of accuracy on the move however, and could fit nicely with Chipper’s speed game.

Connor Cook. Here’s a guy who is being openly courted by Trent Baalke. Maybe as a smokescreen, or just a straight out truth. He’s big, strong, has all the physical tools, but his shortcomings lie between his ears. He would be another work in progress, much like Carson Wentz would be.

The rest would be outliers and risks that would not likely pan out. Hackenberg is a dinker and dunker who doesn’t complete a lot of passes. 3rd round flier? No thanks. Dak Prescott? He seems to have the brain for the game at the NFL level, but he’s a runner who needs to adapt to the NFL passing game and not lock on to guys.

Anyone after this would be pretty much mailing it in. Coker? Hogan? Cardale Jones? Meh. This isn’t a strong QB class, but the top 3 could be impact guys. Cook is too risky in my book. After that is nothing.

Given the shot, they should take Jared Goff. He comes in with the most polished game. The rest are varying shades of potential and drama. Should they not get the chance, one of the other two (Lynch or Wentz) should be there.

. . . fuck of an offseason to bring you the Golden State Warriors.

They have a big game against the Okie City Thunder. A team that just lost a team owner Wednesday as he drove his Escalade into a freeway pillar at excess of 100 MPH.  He was indicted Tuesday by the DOJ for bid -rigging of oil and gas leases. Notable in that the Dubs are playing them tonight, and OKC blew a 17 point 4th quarter lead last night.

The Warriors are on the verge of the greatest season in basketball history, and they are riding a 43 game home winning streak. This is a team that is functioning in all areas. From the draft to the front office to the coaching staff. When you get Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes, and Festus Ezili in one year, and Klay Thompson the year before, and you have a pretty good look.

Pair that up with the  Monte Ellis for Andrew Bogut trade, and you have a team that has been built through the draft, trades, and excellent free agent signings. Livingston, Barbosa, Speights, and Igluodala all were great pickups. The coaching staff is so good, they survived Steve Kerr being out for 43 games. His understudy, 2nd year coach Luke Walton, directed the team to an unprecedented start.  And Kerr has picked up the yoke by going 12-1 in his stead as the coach.

All that being said, the Warriors are still only 4 games up on San Antonio. As good as the Warriors are playing, they would be well-served to keep home-court advantage, and avoid playing Portland at the 7 seed. They are the 2nd hottest team in the league right now.

With that, here’s to hoping Steph Curry and Andre Igluodala play. This isn’t desperation time for the Dubs, but this will be a playoff atmosphere.

Fuck. This is Alex Smith all over again. Here we are once again in the middle of a quarterback controversy. One that is now accentuated by a wholesale coaching upheaval. You know, after last year’s dramatic coaching upheaval and subsequent talent drain. Alex Smith was the aw-shucks nice guy first round draft choice that was folded, spindled, and mutilated by a shitty team and a procession of coaches. Then, along came Jim Harbaugh. The coach who could do no wrong. During the middle of Smith’s successful  run, he drafted Colin Kaepernick, a guy who played like a man among boys at Nevada Reno. Amassing over 10,000 yards in the air, and 4,000 on the ground.

Harbaugh made the move to his guy when Alex went down, and ushered Young Sir Alex out that offseason. With Kaepernick in place, they had a large amount of success together. then they didn’t as the offensive line caved in, and the front office bullshit machine got cranked to HIGH. Once the talent (and coaching staff) left, and the new regime came (and went) the team went into free fall. Which is where we are now. Cause and effect can be debated till the Earth slowly slips away into the depths of space, but the reality is, we are once again on the precipice of the unknown.

Chip has said he wants to see what CK has to offer. Jed has said he thinks CK should stay to see how things go with ol’ Chipper. Trent says CK will absolutely be on the roster after his guaranteed salary kicks in on April Fool’s day. CK? Well, if anything, he’s learned a hard lesson about dealing with this front office. Send out as much bullshit smoke signals and misinformation as you can and wait to see how the wind blows.

Make no mistake, there are teams out there looking hard at acquiring Colin. The usual suspects like Cleveland and Houston are making noise. Colin’s agent’s hairdresser’s mom floated the Jets out there, but they themselves pretty much quashed that by stating categorically that they want Fitzpatrick as their QB. The most intriguing to me is the rumors out of Denver. CK’s name popped up for Denver the moment Colin was benched last season. Payton is retiring, and Osweiler showed his ineffectiveness last year as Manning dealt with his injuries. Kubiak has an offense that he can excel in. An offense that utilizes a big-armed QB that he can now use on the move.

Now that we are here in the offseason, Kaepernick’s name has been linked again to Denver. As bad as things have gone for CK here these past few years, I still think Colin can play top-level football. Thing is it won’t be here. Yay. The Blaine Gabbert era is here. Funny thing is, he dumps off more than Colin’s Predecessor, the aforementioned Young Sir Alex.

Shoot me now.

As the trainwreck of this offseason unwinds, the fate of the team, it’s direction, who their QB is, and many other burning questions, still remain in the dark. And anything likely won’t come to light any time soon. However, the upcoming combine should provide a whole new plethora of innuendo and rumor. Gather enough football people together in the same location, and you guarantee a whirlwind of unsubstantiated truthisms flying around. I’m sure the Kappy trade talk will get bandied about out in strip clubs and bars all over Indianapolis. Wherever the team execs, scouts, and agents hang out.

In the 49ers case, the frenzy revolves around our once and future quarterback. As I said even before Chip was hired that it would be interesting to see what Kaepernick and hip could do together, it just may happen. The Colin camp has already leaked out the fact that he would like to go to the Jets. However, the Jets are likely going with Fitzpatrick, and have to account for Mo Wilkerson’s $$$. So that’s probably a non-starter. There are a ton of team that need QBs, and certainly ones that need a guy who could step right in, but the truth remains, his best shot at being successful is likely to be right here with Chip.

The best bet for a trade would seem to be Houston. They managed to get into the playoffs with a strong defense and a weak-ass division. Any kind of consistency from the QB position would help them immensely. Throw in the fact that they wont be getting a Goff type guy since their draft position is low, they can take a mid-round QB and hand the job to Kaepernick.

An interesting destination that I thought of would be Chicago. The Bears HAVE to be frustrated with the inconsistency that is Jay Cutler. Plus he’s not getting any younger, so at least giving Kappy a shot to displace the mistake at the bottom of the lake is a possibility. Other than that, lots of unknown guys will get their chance to shine, and a lot of studs will blow this combine off. Seeing as we need help just about everywhere, I’m sure the ‘brain(fart)trust’ will keep their eyes peeled.

Well, nothing much happening in the football world. The owners are all tucked into their luxury suites, and the hoi polloi have all jetted away from the Bay Area after gorging on hookers and booze for Super Bowl week. what to do? well, here’s a little tid-bit from randy Cross.

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/san-francisco-49ers-jim-harbaugh-chip-kelly-randy-cross-rebuild-into-next-decade-021416

Regardless if he’s taken too many blows to the head, some of this makes sense, some of it doesn’t. Cross completely disregards the fact that Harbaugh inherited a strong team full of high-round draft choices, and by the time he left, a lot of those guys were finished. Timing is everything in the NFL, and Harbaugh’s time here was fortuitous. He’s of a mind, as I’m not, that Harbugh could have done something with this team this year. As if the exodus wouldn’t have happened, and we would be near the top of the NFL pyramid. When the team HAD talent, he went 8-8.

Harbaugh did his damnedest to alienate everyone here to seal his fate. He wanted out to take his dream job of coaching Michigan. Again, he was fortuitous. the dominoes fell in the right order. I have nothing against Randy. In fact I met him at La Pinata in Burlingame 25 years ago. Nice enough guy, but he’s wrong about how to build a team. 2 good drafts and some FA signings, and ANY team can be relevant. Us? Who knows? But it isn’t the decades that Cross is spouting.

With Santa Clara free from the masses, and SF is letting the homeless back in, we now proceed to the first stage of the 2016 season. Wild-ass speculation. A of now we have the following free agent situation to deal with:

Unrestricted Free Agents

Anquan Boldin, WR
Alex Boone, OG
Reggie Bush, RB
Garrett Celek, TE
Phil Dawson, K
Ian Williams, DT

Restricted Free Agents

Shaun Draughn, RB
Michael Wilhoite, ILB
Tony Jerod-Eddie, DT
Ray-Ray Armstrong, OLB

Exclusive Rights Free Agents

Jordan Devey, OG
Kendall Gaskins, RB

In UFA order, I’d like to keep Boldin, mainly because he’s an instant security blanket for whoever is manning the QB spot. Sorry Dennis, not Manning. Boone has made noiuses that he wants to leave, but we’ll see about that. He had a so-so year, but that’s better than most of the rest of the dogshit line. Try, but not too hard. Bush? No. Celek? Sure. Dawson? Sure. On the cheap. We had problems, but FGs weren’t part of that.  Ian? Yes. I’m a little surprised this hasn’t happened yet.

RFAs? Draughn and J-E are solid guys. Keep ’em. ERFAs? Fuck ’em. Devey and Gaskins were bottom-of the barrel types.

Anyone give a shit? It’s either this or go directly to the draft hype-a-thon.

ONLY 79 DAYS TO THE DRAFT!!!

The venue looked great, the weather was perfect, the turf even held up after the haftime lip-synch-a-thon. The commercials were even fairly decent. Although the puppy-baby-monkey thing was stupid beyond belief. The baby trying to shoot out of her mom to get some Doritos was clever if not odd.

All that being said, I must say this was the worst Super Bowl of them all. I vaguely remember Super Bowl V where the Colts beat Dallas 16-13 on a last second field goal, but this one was bad. Neither offense did anything all day, and the stats bear this out. The winning team had 194 total yards of offense. Lowest ever for a winning team. Both teams combined for 15 punts, and were a combined 4-29 in 3rd down conversions (Denver an astonishing 1-14, or 7%). A whopping 14% conversion rate. 7 fumbles, 2 picks, and 18 penalties for 153 yards.

Sloppy, boring, and dull. Kinda like watching the Niners play this year. These defenses are great, but Carolina had a ton of chances and wasted them. At least they moved the ball occasionally. 315 yards is nothing spectacular, but it did show some offensive consistency. However, they fumbled, missed FGs, dropped passes, and committed a shitload of stupid penalties to stop themselves at every turn. They came in ill-prepared for the defensive onslaught, and appeared to be showing up to win the game, and looked like they took Denver way too lightly.

Kudos to Denver’s book-end pass rushers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. They harassed Cam Newton to the point of utter frustration and pouting. Very reminiscent of how the 49ers made Dan Marino look like a chump. I’ve never liked Denver, and Manning has never been my cup of tea either, but they at least took care of things and didn’t make near the mistakes that Carolina did. Their defense took it to Carolina, and they had no answers. So Carolina’s feel-good season crumbles amid their own hubris.

This one was one for the dogs.

Jed York’s uncle, you may have heard of him, was finally elected to the Hall of Fame, as a ‘contributor.’ Say what you will about him and his flawed character and eventual downfall, he was a fiercely proud and determined owner who stood by his players way above and beyond most of these other guys. 5 Super Bowls, numerous Hall of Famers, and millions of fans around the league and the world, he drove the team to heights never seen before or since. Granted, it was a pre-salary cap, and mostly pre-free agency NFL, but Eddie set the standard for treating his players right, and making sure the team was prepared and ready to play.

The players to a man would run through walls for Eddie D, and to a man they still would. Nice to see it get announced right before the Super Bowl in his team’s stadium. And in lame HOF news, the Hall of Fame voters waited till the Snake died to let him in. How he isn’t in and a guy like Namath waltzes in is ridiculous. Glad to hear it, but it was about 15 years too late. Also, Anquan Boldin wins the NFL Walter Peyton award. Nice job Anquan. Class guy and a role model for players all over the league.

It was cool to see  Eddie D last year at the flag football game to close the Stick last year. He made the game winning catch thrown by Joe in the exact opposite corner where Dwight Clark.