Forty Niners Forever

Apparently we cut our punter and don’t have one now. We actually have 4 available roster spots for, say, a punter and a 3rd string QB among other O linemen.

1:00 PM tomorrow is cut-down day. All NFL rosters must be down to 53 players. My hope is an O lineman or two come available but that rarely happens these days. I’m sure there will be some guys worth looking at, but we will see.

On the medical front, the 49ers crack training staff oversaw the reaggravation of Jauan Jennings calf injury and Jacob Cowing’s hamstring injury, so both of their returns are set back a few weeks. And of course, Demarcus Robinson is suspended for the NFL’s arcane disciplinary standards. We may very well pluck a WR from the cut list. Robbie Chosen looked good tho Saturday. As did Malik Turner.

Rookie CB Jakob Robinson broke his arm late in the game. Backup false-starter Isaiah Prince hurt his knee, and both 3rd string QBs tweaked their ankles. One stays, one goes. Prolly Mordecai to the taxi squad.

Watched the game last night, and wow, it’s just nice to see a defense actually showing different fronts and disguising blitzes. Not the exact same 4-3 front with the LBs 10 yards deep every single play. Any more of that and I was gonna lose my mind. I hope they try to keep Saleh in the building next year. The defense is way too talented to be playing on their heels and simply reacting to plays rather than forcing the action.

But, now we wait. Two weeks before game one of the 2025 season, and I’m cautiously optimistic about the offense and very happy about the defense. The D forces some turnovers, showed a bunch of different fronts, and even with the backups, played a much more aggressive defense. The rookies were a mixed bag. Alfred Collins showed his greenness, but had some good looking plays. Nick Martin showed out very well as the preseason progressed.

Our #1 pick Mykel Williams hasn’t played a down in preseason, but is expected to start. He looked well in practice apparently, and is scheduled to start the season opener in Seattle.

Special teams? Ain’t they special? They generally looked better despite the occasional hiccup on coverages. Still don’t get the newer kickoff rules. But then there’s moody Nick Moody. A guy who truly lives up to his name. Guys these days routinely boot 60+ yard FGs at a 90% clip and the Mood Man struggles with 33 yard XPs. Hope sticking with him doesn’t bite the team in the ass.

Mercifully the last preseason game is here. We still have actual players that aren’t wounded, and it’s likely no starters are even gonna get one series, but this heralds the start of the 2025 season. One that can’t start fast enough as training camp has proven to be the Bataan Death March.

It also heralds the return to the mudflats of two of the bigger pariahs in recent 49er history. Trey Lance and Jim Harbaugh. Lance is drawing huge praise for his abilities in preseason. Laughable of course because he likely doesn’t see the field but for mop-up duty behind Justin Herbert, but hey, anything to garner clicks as the interwebs explode with stories of how remorseful Shanahan is over Lances success. Sure. As if Lance staying here as the backup makes up for the oodles of picks they gave up to get him.

Harbaugh? Well, as usual, he left a trail of destruction behind his recent hirings at Michigan and SF, and is adept at rallying the troops. All his programs that he took over were talented and rudderless. All improved wildly in some cases, and Michigan even won it all amid a boatload of allegation and impropiety.

Tough row for him in the stacked AFC West now. He’ll do his usual rah-rah bullshit and get close but ultimately fail and piss off everyone around him.

Us? We will only go as far as Shanahan’s hubris allows us to. If we don’t get injured first.

More like burnt, tired, and need a vacation from my vacation.

Anyhow, this season looks like it is unravelling before it even starts. Didn’t pay any attention to much when we were gone (I did read the blog when the game ended) but it sure sounded like the injury bug turned into COVID after that win over the Raiders.

Do we have to play this last preseason game? Can we just trot out ALL 3rd stringers? I know guys need work, but we are going through players like kleenex at a porn theater.

Trust me, I used to live down the street from the Palm Theater in San Mateo. I got a great laugh when they decided to become a porn house. Friend of mine managed the place for a summer job. Good times!

But as usual I digress.

Are we gonna try to sneak Kiner thru waivers and re-sign him to the taxi squad? I need to watch the game and see the (injuries) results.

still traveling but here’s a new thread.

I cannot believe the amount of injuries and we are 3 weeks away from real games.

Hey we lost big, but overall this was a solid game on all sides of the equation. Our #2 offense played well vs Denver’s #1 defense,WR Jordan Watkins out-muscled Denver’s DB on a decent throw for a deep connection by Mac Jones, and he had a solid game, and the run game was decent, with Kiner getting 45 yards on 10 carries. At least on the first couple drives with the 2s in. The #2 defense played with a LOT more flow and power as the rookies up front did well to hold their gaps and got pressure on Nix and their 1s.

Thing is, I can look back on last year’s preseason opener and safely say we showed about 100% better effort on offense, defense, and special teams. UDFA DT Sebastian Valdez lit up the tape with pressures, tackles for losses, and 1/2 a sack against Denver’s 1s. CJ West showed well, clogging up the middle, filling his gap, and providing push up the middle.

Special teams also got into the act with a nice Junior Bergen 28 yard punt return. Nick Moody even made his 1 extra point attempt. And there were very few penalties and stupid shit going on.

The rest of the game was a 3rd string slop-fest, but overall I feel SO much better about the team than I did last year at this time. I knew back then that our style of defense and special teams were gonna be a major problem, and they were.

And we have signed and released about 250 players with all the injury problems. Some of them about 4 times each.

Given that they avoided the shit-show of dragging contracts out and they got their dudes signed promptly, there’s still a shit-ton of turmoil around all the injuries and the lingering Jennings bullshit. Now the talk is he isn’t hurt, but is holding out.

The story was he was gonna sign a 2-year extension, but he got hurt. A calf injury. Which is a bit scary as calf injuries can lead to achilles tears. something that we can’t really afford. But either way, Jennings isn’t practicing with the team, and the WR corps is short-handed with the various injuries to everyone else, and the possible suspension of Demarcus Robinson.

Still baffles me we why we don’t simply sign a guy like Amari Cooper and at least be settled with a known guy who plays well.

Other than that, Guerendo’s shoulder is a pisser. He’s gonna be a key member of this offense if Shanahan grow a brain around spelling CMC in games. Especially ones where we are winning big. James Jordan, the rook, should also get reps as these games go on.

And just to piss on the fire a little more, they lost DLs Kevin Givens and Sam Okuayinonu to injury. Givens a pec injury and Okuayinonu to a groin strain.

These starters better stay healthy for at least the first 6 games. At least Rickey Pearsall has been practicing and is winning his 1:1 battles in camp. Beating press man coverage has been an issue with these WRs, so that is good news.

Which has more people on it? You be the judge. In more fun news, Isaac Guerendo is out ‘a few weeks’ with a shoulder injury, Kevin Givens is out ‘a while’ with a pec injury. Colton McKivitz missed practice Saturday, prompting the signing of Isaiah Prince, recently of the Denver Broncos, and fueling speculation that McKivitz is injured. Granted, this was reported by Grant (what, me asshole?) Cohn, so there’s that. Word should come out today, but . . . . . . .

Still haven’t heard anything. But seriously, what the actual fuck is going on? We were the most injured team last year, but that happened DURING the season. Now, we can’t make it from the locker room to the practice field without losing 2 or 3 guys.

I thought the giant leaps and bounds in training and medicine and the like were supposed to help players get and stay healthy. And all these guys stayed in shape during the offseason. But we sure are getting decimated, Maybe the good old days of 6 preseason games and playing one’s self back into game shape may be the way to go.

Or maybe we should hire actual trainers with NFL experience as opposed to NHL guys.

PS Missed the hall of fame game and the triumphant return of Trey Lance. If you read the interwebs, you’d think he won a Super Bowl and not a meaningless game vs Deetroit’s 3rd string defense. Amazingly there are articles about how Shanahan wasn’t the right coach, and the mismanagement yadda yadda yadda, and yeah, while pieces of that could be true, the fact of the matter is, Lance got hurt too much and was pretty much lapped by Brock Purdy.

Shit, even Sam Darnold beat him out. Lance may not have had things line up for him, but when Purdy got his shot, he kicked ass and left no doubt as to what should happen going forward.

I don’t know. At least we got Bartch back. And Pearsall was back at practice. We are down to Demarcus Robinson, Russell Gage, Junior Bergen, Marquez Callaway, and Terique Owens as the WR corps at this point. Hey. It’s early and folks will hopefully come back from their various injuries.

Thing about JJ though, is he’s working through the dreaded calf injury. It could be a sign of a bad achilles. Don’t want to go through that shit again with someone else. At least he didn’t sign a deal yet.

Dee Winters is apparently catching on to what Saleh is selling and is having a solid camp. He’s looking like the front runner for the weak-side LB. Nick Martin is ready and available as the strong-side LB. CJ West as also making noise as to be starting this season with a very strong camp. He’s getting a lot of inside pressure. Something VERY sorely lacking in recent years.

Collins on the other hand is rusty and not providing much. Yet. He of course held out and was hurt anyway.

As it is, so it is. It’s early.

And, according to the wonks, Trey Lance teads the MVP voting for the 2025 season.

Word is JJ is gonna sign a 2 year extension. Then word came out JJ got hurt. Calf injury.

We are down like 6 guys and we are at day 1 of pads on.

Tomorrow.

But, Pearsall did practice today so there’s that. He’s off the pup list.

Is the entire league going through this? I though players were keeping in shape in the offseason.