Forty Niners Forever

AKA Saturday bloody Saturday. Cut down day has just begun, and Tim Terrific has been cut from the Patriots, and Matt Hot Tub Leinart has been axed from the Bills. Oh, yeah, Travis Johnson, LB for the Niners has been cut as well. And I think we can safely assume Seneca Wallace is not going to make the cut.

Stay tuned for more bloodletting. It’ll be interesting to see if we pick up a player or 2 from the discard pile.

Yes, here we are down to the last preseason game, AKA the Walmart Bowl. Kappy and Co. will get barely a whiff of the field come tomorrow night in the land down under California. Throw another surfboard on the barbie, mate. This make or break time for bubble players. Literally break time. Years ago I met Doug DuBose, Carl Monroe, and Keith Henderson (kick returners and fringe guys in the 80s) at a party, and DuBose said, pay attention to every special teams play in the preseason. Fringe guys (like Henderson and DuBose) will try to get injured so the team will have to pay them for the year and cut them, or keep them on IR. So, they will go after the biggest dude on the other side of the field and try to get mangled. Interesting strategy at best. Crazy to say the least. But that is the life of a gunner, or any other of the cannon fodder guys thrown out for special teams play in the final preseason game of the season. The Walmart Brigade.

Yes, there will be fierce battles the remaining couple WR spots. Chad Hall, Austin Collie, Lavelle Hawkins, and Kassim Osgood are fighting for the final couple spots behind, Anquan Bouldin, Marlin Moore, Kyle Williams, General Patton, and the injured Crabs and Manningham. Carswell and Chuck Jacobs, both UDFAs, hope to hit the practice squad, with Jacobs leading the way. Back up RB is up for grabs (although Jewell Hampton is doing pretty well so far). Anthony Dixon has shown enough in his role as ST guy and short yardage runner. Seneca Wallace is probably gone, and Scott Tolzein IS gone, thus cementing the emergence of BJ Daniels as the surprise of this camp, and putting Colt McCoy right behind Cappy Kaepernick as the #2 QB. But guys like Jason Shepler, MarQuis Gray, and Alex Debniac look to be playing their final downs in NFL unis tomorrow.

Some of the new additions have done well for themselves. Anquan Bouldin turned out to be insurance for what led to a boatload of injuries to the WR corps. He replaced Crabs, and looked solid in his time out there, Nnamdi Asomugha cemented his spot as 3rd CB, Jon Baldwin looked good last week in his limited reps at WR, Eric Reid locked down Dashon Goldson’s old FS job with authority, and Vance McDonald has proved to be (for all appearances) a capable replacement for Delanie Walker. He even dropped a couple his first time out for old times’ sake.Corey Lemonyay has made Parys Haralson expendable. Glen Dorsey is a wash at this point. He could go either way. The aforementioned Seneca Wallace is most likely gone. The other draft picks (Tank, Lattimore, and Quintin Dial) are nursing various injuries and likely will miss the season.

So, given the hope that the hurt players come back at full strength, it looks as if the Niners already have some insurance in place for next year. As Justin Smith and Frank Gore wind down their illustrious careers over the next couple years, the Niners have Lattimore, Nunter, and LMJ ready to pick up the slack. The D line has newly added Tank, Dial, and Cam Johnson to plug in. They look to cut some solid players out of the 21 that need to be jettisoned August 31st at 3:00 pm PDT, but we’ll get into that after the game tomorrow. Let’s enjoy the spectacle of big men fighting for the right to play a game. Speaking of the Sandy Eggo game, I will be watching mainly to see how the newly anointed backup Colt McCoy does, how the WR battle shakes out, and yeah, maybe look for some extra loud collisions on the special teams plays.

This is the first of the blood-letting days in Santa Clara. The Niners need to get to 75 players by 1:00 pm today.  With the 5 cuts yesterday (RB D.J. Harper, LB Joe Holland, OG Al Netter, P Colton Schmidt, and QB Scott Tolzien), and the Haralson trade, the Niners are down to 77 players (not including PUP/IR/non-football-injury lists). Per the Niners website, there are 84 guys.  I think we need to get rid of 9 guys.  Of the 10 WRs, Jacobs would seem destined for the practice squad. Hawkins’ antics may have cost him a spot as well, but his TD was nice. But 30 yards of penalties on 2 plays? You ain’t a rook Lavelle. Adios. Cut guard Patrick Omameh, PS tackle Kenny Wiggins. PS safety Michael Thomas, Stupar, and FB Schepler. Okoye? Sorry. Same with Marquardt. There you have it. 75. Easy peazy.  For now. Actually, you can throw in Seneca Wallace as well.

The next cut-down day looks to be pretty brutal though. August 31, 3:00 pm PT, clubs must reduce rosters to a maximum of 53 players on the Active/Inactive List. 22 players on a list that isn’t very loaded with fluff. Guys like Crabs will take a PUP spot until he’s ready to go. Same with Manningham. So they will bump a couple guys down the road. Although there will be injuries to swap out guys, certainly. Fringe guys like Darcel McBath will live another year on the IR.

NOTE: Simultaneously with the cut-down to 53, clubs that have players in the categories of Active/Physically Unable to Perform or Active/Non-Football Injury or Illness must select one of the following options: place player on Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform or Reserve/Non-Football Injury or Illness, whichever is applicable; request waivers; terminate contract; trade contract; or continue to count the player on the Active List.

Well, in the normal scheme of things, game 3 is the game that you see usually a good solid chunk of playing time for the starters.  Last year, Jim Harbaugh didn’t do that. He played Smith and co. Sparingly. So far this preseason, Kappy has been on the field for 8 plays, netting 2 field goals. I get the fact you don’t want to risk injury to your star QB, and you also don’t want to show youme enemy too much, but the Niner schedule starts out with Green Bay and Seattle. Not exactly teams you want to be ramping up your offense against. As of now it’s impossible to know what new wrinkles Harbaugh may unveil. We’ve seen the same struggles on 3rd down with the rest of the 1st team offense. And we creating haven’t seen much of the WRs At hey are trying to figure out.

So, where do we go from here? Onward and upward I suppose. However, its’s a little scary to me that Kappy has so little time on the field with the other starters. Maybe game 4 will see more playing time as well.

Word out of 4949 Centennial Blvd is that Tarell Brown and his (new) agent are working on a new deal that will hopefully (for Tarell) recoup some of the $2 million he left on the table by not attending the team’s voluntary work out program. He says he doesn’t want to be a distraction, but in the same breath says he ‘hasn’t moved on’ from it. I guess that WOULD be hard to move on from, but in the end he should have been paying attention to his contract, or gotten word from his agent about it.

What makes this more interesting is that this is Brown’s contract year. His 3 year-$7 million extension he signed in 2009 is set to expire after this season. Seeing as he’s the best CB currently on the team, it would be in the Niners best interest to get this figured out fairly quickly. Tarell wants this resolved by game 1, and I think they should figure something out as well. Leaving him hanging after the money snafu would pretty much be his one-way ticket out of town.

Brown is saying the right things and insists he doesn’t want this to be a distraction. He says he’s letting his new agent handle things while he goes about his business, but the “I haven’t moved on’ remark is telling. This is a difficult time for the team where the defensive backfield is concerned. One where they had the opportunity to draft for more secondary help. But for a team with an untested Eric Wright taking over for Dashon Goldson, Donte Whitner and Carlos Rodgers slipping, an unknown in Nnamdi Asomugha, and 2nd stringers like Tre Brock, Perrish Cox, and Eric Wright waiting in the wings, you’d think the Niners would want to figure out something as well. And that was before Chris Culliver went down with a season ending knee injury.

Signing Brown should be priority #1 at this point.

Or not. In an exchange of massively disappointing WRs, the 49ers traded AJ Jenkins to the Kansas City Chiefs for Jon Baldwin. Baldwin has been labelled a bust due to his propensity of dropping a lot of passes, and for the inexplicable ‘talent’ of making easy catches harder by not using both hands. AJ? Well, the label on him is pretty well documented. He showed up last year out of shape and did little to get in shape or prepared to see the field. 3 targets and 0 catches his first year. This season he supposedly rededicated himself to the game, and promised to work out and get with the program. Instead, He spent camp catching and falling down. Apparently avoiding contact at all costs. In 2 preseason games, AJ has one catch for 12 yards that he promptly fumbled.

So, who got the better end of the deal? Well, based on the numbers, the Niners in a landslide. Well, molehill slide. At least Baldwin has made plays. And scored some points. And put up yards in actual games. Thing is, he’ll more than likely be on the team as his contract is guaranteed through this season. Yes, this smacks of desperation on the Niners part. They need WRs like Eskimos need cold. But it also goes to show that some team will always take someone else’s garbage. AJ could have very well been cut after the preseason. But I guess the same can be said of Baldwin. Baldwin is fast, though, so the thought that we now have a vertical guy is at least better than the AJ option. 

But yeah, in the end, both were busts. However, I think the upside is better with a guy like Baldwin than Jenkins. Jenkins appears to have a pretty small heart. It’s harder to teach heart than it is to teach hands. 

The Alex hooraw (zzzzzzzzzzzzz) tomorrow notwithstanding, game one of the season looks to be a real interesting matchup. A real barn burner for the last opening day at what is the grand old (crippled, and derelict at 43) dame of football stadiums, Candlestick Park. After the Pack had manhandled the Niners for, oh 18 years, the Niners suddenly have the upper hand. Beating Green Bay in their house to open the 2012 season and trouncing them in the playoffs last year at home. In both games, the Niner defense held the high-flying Green Bay passing game and Aaron Rogers to fairly pedestrian passing numbers (249, and 278 respectively). This was accomplished by pressure. The Niners didn’t blitz, or even sack Rogers much in either game (3 in the 1st game, 1 in the playoffs). But they were able to generate constant pressure with their base defense, which allowed more downfield coverage, and thus picks (1 in each game). It doesn’t sound like a lot, but Navarro Bowman’s pick in the 1st game slowed a GB comeback, and Tarrell Brown’s pick in the playoff game kept the game tied. Each pick was followed immediately by a touchdown on the Niners part. Those were both big momentum swings in the Niners favor.

So, Green Bay has us up in their sights. They have been perennial Super Bowl contenders, and therefore feel its their God-given right to reach and succeed in the playoffs. They don’t lose very much, either, and we have handed them some of their most recent painful losses. Beyond that, the Niners edged the Pack out last year for the #2 seed, and the playoff bye, and used that to their advantage.

You don’t (or ever) hear much trash talking come out of America’s Dairyland,  but the Cheeseheads are a proud lot, and don’t take very kindly to losing. Especially to the 49ers. A team that they used to beat with sickening regularity. I’m sure the Cheeseheads will be out in full force come opening day (and they are pretty damn nice and unassuming for the most part having seen them at the Stick for 2 straight playoff losses back in the day), but they certainly aren’t nowhere near the assholes that the Seahawk fans are. And what has Seattle done?

Beyond that, it beats talking about the preseason. Plus, one of our own, 12th man, is going to the game. Take some pics and I’ll post them here, 12th.

Well, based on he first preseason drives of both QBs, the Niners would have been better off sticking with young Sir Alex. Just kidding. Game one is in the books. And while too much can’t be gleaned from it, some players looked good early. Kappy led a nice opening drive until a penalty (stop me if this sounds familiar) stalled out a drive. Richard Dawson came in to kick a FG. The first string D looked nice even without J Smith. A Smith got pressure on PM to stall Denver’s first drive. After that it was backup time. Turnovers ensued, and the rest was pretty much sloppy, but some players looked good. Ian Williams, ice soap’s replacement, played well, and provided a nice push up front. Something Mike Nolan stressed him not to do. Something which he became great at not doing. Eric Reid played a nice game and laid the wood on a couple guys. However he had a mild back strain in practice today.

The other big pick in the draft, Vance McDonald, played a fairly solid game, with a couple drops. One pass he alligatored, the other was a flat drop. This was his knock coming in, and the hope is he can lose that problem, as well as pick up pointers on how to block. He has great size and power as a pass catcher, and is a nice big target. The fight for #2 WR was apparently going toward Marlon Moore and Kassim Osgood. They both made a few nice catches, while AJ Jenkins, who was in for more plays, managed to make one catch and then promptly fumbled it away. All in all, tough sledding for a guy who can’t seem to do anything right.

The bad? Well, neither back up QB looked very good. That had something to do with the shaky line play by the backup O line, bit still and all, the luxury of having 2 starting caliber QBs like we did last year is but a memory. Tukafu on the line was washed out on a few plays but he had a couple good plays as well, AJ, Dawson missed a FG to close the half, and the turnovers led to the only TD, when DJ Harper fumbled and it was returned for a flop 6. Dorsey was invisible, and each backup QB had a pick. The good news was a light injury report.

Well, here we are, after the ecstasy of the playoffs, the agony of the Super Bowl, the anticipation of the draft, the tedium of the offseason, and the intense hyperbole of the fans, poised on the start of the 2013 season. Beyond the fact that Dennis may expire due to the excitement of seeing Peyton Manning hand the ball off three times before he retires to the sidelines, this game could very well be a precursor to a game in February. I can’t stand Denver, I don’t think Manning will get that far (and beating Denver in another Super Bowl would be spectacular), but they certainly had their shot last year, if not for the epic playoff fail vs Balt.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, there are some issues to iron out in this preseason. Mainly who will step up to become the wide receivers on this team? Bouldin and ? KW is off the PUP list, but is not a bona fide #2 at this point. AJ Jenkins is still buried on the depth chart. The rest are either young, untested, or damaged goods. Manningham is still PUPped. Crabs of course is more than likely out til December.

RB is more than good to go. Gore is rested and ready. LMJ is strong as well. Kendall Hunter is hurt, as is Marcus Lattimore, but Dixon and Hampton are fine if unspectacular backups. TE is set with VD and VM. I’m curious to see how he does in his blocking assignments. The line remains pretty much intact. They even got perennial backup Adam Snyder back from AZ.

Defensively we get to see how the loss of Dashon Goldson affects the defense. Culliver is out. Eric Reid and Nnamdi Asomuaga take their spots. Rogers and Whitner are coming off fairly non-productive seasons, and Tarrell Brown is coming off a contract screwup of epic proportions. He may be the key to the future of the defensive backfield going forward (and my hope is they renegotiate a deal for him this year) as Rogers and Whitner will not return. But that’s a topic for another day.

It’ll be interesting to watch for guys like rookies Corey Lemonier and Vance McDonald. Eric Reid certainly will get a lot of playing time. I’m also interested in seeing Ice’s replacement Ian Williams up front. I’d also like to see if Dorsey can play, and if this D line can gain needed depth. That won’t be known for a while though. Preseason heroes are a dime a dozen.

ST? Well, the Niners brought in Phil (don’t call me Richard) Dawson after the debacle that the Joe Nedney season turned into.

Other than that, the Niners would be very happy to dodge the injury bug that raced through the team in practice.

I was talking to a friend a couple days ago about Frank Gore, and the Hall of Fame came up. As in, is Gore worthy? Frank Gore is quietly amassing some pretty solid numbers as a running back. In these days of 16-game seasons though, the 10,000 yard mark isn’t what it used to be. Back in the days of 12 and 14 game seasons, even getting close to 10,000 got you in. Like the case of Joe the Jet and Jim Taylor of the Packers. Nowadays, there are a lot of rushers near 10,000 and over who are mainly known for hanging around long enough to get to 10,000. Guys like Corey Dillon and Warrick Dunn. Rickey Watters has 10,000 for God’s sake, and so does Thomas Jones.

Who? In a 12-year career with 5 teams, Jones made the Pro Bowl once, and reached 1,000 yards 5 times. Good? Sure. HOF numbers? Well, beyond the fact that I, as a somewhat knowledgeable football fan, have no inkling of his career with the Cards, Bucs, Bears, Jets, or Chiefs, you’d be hard-pressed to include a guy who really didn’t leave much of a mark on the league, other than hanging around long enough to pile up yards. Hugh McElhenny only had 5,281 yards in a 13 year career, but he was, in his prime, one of the greatest runners out there. Like Barry Sanders and Jim Brown, a guy you game-planned for at the cost of all else. Like Gayle Sayers and his injury-shortened 4,956 yards rushing, you KNEW who was getting the ball, and you had to try to stop him. The great runners all share this trait to greater or lesser degrees. Emmitt Smith was on a team with a lot of talent, but he was asked many times to shoulder the load and carry the ball 30+ times a game.

Which leads us to Frank Gore. He’s currently 3rd on the active rushers list with 8,839 yards (34th highest on the all-time list). 10 yards behind AP, and ~1,250 behind Steven Jackson (who also is in a similar situation as Gore). Given his usual production of around 1,100 to 1,200 yards, he’ll be in the 10,000 yard club by the end of the season. One more year (injury-free of course would likely put him near or over 11,000 yards. Right around the O.J. Simpson area of 18th on the all-time list. Although AP and Jackson would likely bump him down to 20th.

Is that enough for the Hall of Fame? Well, Niner fan that I am, and being a bit biased, I’d say yes. Mainly because his career WASN’T non-descript, like Thomas Jones’. For most of Gore’s career, his coaches would say Gore is our offense. Stop him and you stop the team. More often than not, Gore did his part of the job. The team wasn’t winning, but not because of Gore’s efforts. He’s a 4-time pro bowler, and even when he had his greatest year statistically (2006 with 312 carries for 1,695 yards), the team pretty much sucked on offense. 2nd year starter Alex Smith had a non-descript year of 16 TDs, 16 ints, and 2,800 yards, and the offense in general (Norv’s Digital offense) was fairly bland and lifeless except for Frank. They still couldn’t control the clock (TOP was still awful even with all those yards from Gore) although they were the 6th leading rushing team in the NFL. From 2005 to 2010, every team knew Gore would get the ball around 25 times, through the air or rushing. And he always did the job.

He came into the league as a 3rd round flier from Miami due to the multiple knee surgeries he had already endured through his college career. He never was a breakaway runner, but he has great vision, power, and the ability to make the first couple guys miss and get into the secondary for big gains. He, by far, has the biggest heart on the team, and is still distraught over the Super Bowl, and his last touch of the game, where he said he should have dipped inside to try and get more yards.

I don’t think he even needs to get over 10,000 to merit consideration, but that would likely be the key factor. And I’m certainly very happy Gore has had the opportunity to reach, and succeed, in the playoffs. His first 6 years were marked by him being the target of every defense they Niners faced, and he weathered the pounding with little complaint and fairly good health. In his 7 years as a starter, he’s missed 10 games due to injury. So, sure, Frank belongs in the Hall of Fame. Inducted in 2019 . . . Or 2018 if Gore retires as a Super Bowl champ.