Forty Niners Forever

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Eric Mangini is a defensive guy? He played nose tackle At Wesleyan college. Isn’t that a girl’s school? Anyhow, he was a DB coach and DC for the Pats, and a HC for the Jets and Browns. Why in the wide wide world of sports would we hire him as an offensive assistant? Is it to have a defensive guy be a consultant for our offense? That seems bass akwards at best. Why not just call him a defensive assistant? Is there something more to this? Is the Niners brain trust maybe a little worried about the current DC, Vic Fangio? It has me wondering when you take a look at Fangio’s numbers. The longer he sticks around, the lousier his defenses usually do. Does he rely on his vets too long? Is he averse to rotating his players in and out? Certainly the Niners struggled later in the year when Justin Smith went down. Plus the defense played awful in the 1st halfs of all the playoff games.

The point being, is this a way to get Mangini under contract early so as to have an alternate DC option? I’m not usually one to buy in to conspiracy theories, but this seems like a curious signing. And it isn’t too big a leap to think they ditch Fangio and install Mangenius down the road if the defense has some more of these lapses. As we saw with Kappy, and coaches here and there, ol’ Jimbo ain’t scared to pull the trigger and make the switch at any time during the season

Nothing much going on. And the hope is nothing else goes on. The WR corps remains fairly decimated, but the good news is Kyle Williams, Mario Manningham, and Kendall Hunter are at least on the practice field, while the rest of the walking wounded are taking things slow. The list is lengthy, but not a concern at this point. Justin Smith, Aldon Smith, Mario Manningham, the aforementioned KW and K Hunter are all taking things easy, but are getting in some practice time.

The rookies are saying the right things. Both Eric Reid and Quinton Patton are doing all they can to make an immediate impact and are (apparently) soaking in all their vet brethren can impart to them. Whether they are named starters remains to be seen, but either one could very well crack the roster. Much maligned (around here, Dennis) free safety Craig Dahl is doing well so far, but we’ll have to wait and see how that competition develops over the real training camp.

Other than that, here’s a cool little drone flyby over the new stadium.

Enjoy.

Damn. Crabs must really hate training camp. For the 4th time in his 5 year career, Michael Crabtree will miss training camp. This one is serious though. He tore his Achilles. For a guy who has had myriad foot issues, this can’t be a good development. The team is all ‘no big deal, he’ll be back in late November for the playoffs’ but I guess we’ll wait and see on that front. Will Mario Manningham and Kyle Williams still rehabbing their own injuries, the WR corps, which the Niners have been trying to upgrade since, oh, TO left in 2003, has been a mess of failed FA’s and draft choices.

2004 was the infamous Rashaun Woods draft. 1st round flameout who had 7 catches in his 7 game career. The other WRs were the mercurial Brandon Lloyd, Cedrick Wilson, and Arnaz Battle. That draft did net Soap, Smiley, Shawntae Spencer, and Andy Lee, so Terry Donohue’s swan song was his best draft. Eric Johnson, TE, turned out to be the best pass catcher back then. 2005 saw more of the same. They drafted Rasheed Marshall and Maxwell Marcus. The WRs were Lloyd and a tired Johnnie Morton and Otis Amey? Who? With the coming of Alex Smith came the need to bolster the WR corps. The Niners drafted 3. WR (!) Delanie Walker, Brandon Williams, and Michael Robinson. Noteworthy in that Walker became a lousy-handed TE, and Robinson became a ST pt FB. Antonio (Speed Racer) Bryant was the first big FA flop. Although his 40/733/3 TDs would be fairly decent nowadays. Battle was still hanging on, and Bryan Gilmore & Taylor Jacobs were the backups.

More of the same in 2007. They drafted local kid Jason Hill, gone was AB, replaced by Darrell Jackson. They picked up Ashley Leelee, but his injury-filled stint was noteworthy for nothing. 2008 saw the Niners draft Josh Morgan and the signing of Isaac (Moses) Bruce turned out to be one of the Niners better WR moves in a while. 2009? Well, besides the Niners getting Crabs, they had Isaac for one last year, and the solid Morgan. Still and all, all 5 WRs totaled up to about 1200 yards in the popgun offense. 2010 saw late round poick KW actually make the team. THe crew was once again Crabs and Morgan with Hill and a cast of nobodies as the backups.

2011? The only guy that DIDN’T make the team from that excellent draft was Ronald Johnson, WR from USC. Braylon Edwards had an excellent preseason followed by an injury-plagued season of little to nothing. Swett Brain, Joe Hastings, and Ted Ginn offered little to no back-up help. 2012 was a year filled with promise. Michael Crabtree was able to participate in training camp. Randy Moss came back from a year’s hiatus to be a mentor to the young WRs, including the speedy 1st round pick, AJ Jenkins. Mario Manningham was signed from the NYGiants to bolster the promising bunch that saw a resurgent KW on the roster.

Well, we all know how that turned out. Mossy declared himself the best WR of all time, and proceeded to tank the Super Bowl, Manningham and KW went down with season-ending injuries, Ginn did his usual not-much, and again, by the end of the season, the WR corps was a mess of wounded bodies and underwhelming performances. Only Crabs had the breakout season everyone so desperately wanted to see. Sadly, that came to a screeching halt last Wednesday.

So, going forward? Their 3 top guys are in various forms of hurt. KW and Mario may make the field by mid September. Crabs would be lucky to see the field this season, and the doghouse sitter, AJ Jenkins has pretty much been given the keys to a lot of playing time. Or the recycle bin of he doesn’t show a lot more than the nothing he brought last year. THe good news is the Niners Acquired Anquan Bouldin, a guy who can replace Crabs numbers fairly easily, Ricardo Lockette, erstwhile Seattle PSer looks like a find. The draft brought the intriguing Quinton General Patton, a guy making noise like someone who wants to take the NFL world by storm, and hey, Joe Hastings is still on the team.

Funny, the actual game will be played in Santa Clara, but who’s to quibble the details? Personally I’d have preferred the 49ers get Super Bowl IL. I mean really. The 49th Super Bowl? 49er? The ILlin’ Super Bowl? The marketing possibilities are endless. But the 50th pageant is a pretty big deal, and a quite the reward for young Jed and his tireless bribing, uh, efforts at getting the stadium built in Santa Clara. Eddie tried before him, and was successful til he went down in a cloud of his own hubris and pride. Dr. John washed his hands of the existing deal and pissed away all the good feelings around the team, and then some. This brought about the 2nd Dark Ages of 49er football.

Now, however, the future looks bright. Granted, the yuppies and look-at-me’s will show up in droves at the shiny new park, but that hooraw usually dies down and the real fans return to the action in short order. That being said, the prices will likely become astronomical although there are supposed guarantees to keep some ticket process low. This remains to be seen, but really, as historic and iconic the Stick has become, it is a shit hole. Our shit hole, but a shit hole nonetheless. The field is under sea level, and usually smells like low tide. The facilities are aged and cramped (but worlds better than Kezar), and the façade is crumbling like an ancient Greek ruim. Yes, the epic games, the Catch, Owens Owens Owens, Alex Smith’s enduring lone payoff win, Steve Young’s epic run vs the Vikes, John Taylor’s 2 punt returns for TDs on that epic Monday night game vs Washington, the recent power-failure game vs Pittsburgh, Brodie’s farewell, Rice’s farewell, Joe’s farewell. The memories are too countless to even try to catalog. Most of which I saw. I wasn’t at the Catch game, but I was at hundreds more.

The memories live on, but the Stick? Burn baby burn. Back to the mud for ya…

Well, the Giants limped out of O Canada! with their collective tail between their legs, the Warriors were beaten down like Kinky Friedman in Texas on Tuesday, and the Sharkies produced no offense in their loss to the LAKings.

Where do we go from here? I guess we’ll see soon enough. The Giants get to the top of their semi-resurgent pitching staff with Matty the horse going up against Colorado, the Dubs back at their Oracle home, and the Sharks? Well, if they can figure out Mike Quick nd score, hey maybe they’ll get one in LA.

The deal being, the Dubs are on the brink of elimination. They need this one to extend the series to 7. If they can do that, well, all bets are off. They need to be the aggressors and out-energy the Spurs. The Dubs are younger, faster, and more athletic. They MUST show that. And the backcourt duo of Curry and Thompson MUST hit some shots. Thompson especially has been off his game these last 2. They have been sagging on him more than at the start, but still they need to get him better looks.

The Giants? For all their recent woes north of the border (mercifully it was noly a 2 game series), they are still in 1st place. Vogie is the big worry in the starting rotation. The Sharks? Lose and they become another Shark team that reached the playoffs and failed to make the grade. 9 years running.

Niners news? Weeeeeeeeeell, the Niners signed Jason Schleper, FB to round out the 90-man roster. Woo hoo. Other than that, the past and current BIn some kind of news, the dog-house occupier A.J. Jenkins apparently did fullfill his duties in working out this iffseason. I say iffseason because his status as a 49er will be real iffy if he comes in slow and stupid again. He worked with Kappy and fellow Niner WR Ricardo Lockette on strength and speed training in Atl for 6 weeks following the Super Bowl. Neither of which AJ had apparently.

The point being, the #3 WR spot is wide open after Crabs and French Bread (Bouldin) take the top 2 spots. Manningham and KW are both coming off devastating injuries and don’t look to be realy for training camp, let alone the regular season. Lockette may end up back on the PS and snagged, but there are a lot of candidates out there. AJ better be up to speed physically and mentally. The Niners carried 6 WRs last year, and they have 11 now. Hall, Hastings, Chuck Jacobs, and Moore look to be cut, with only Hastings being PS eligible. Lockette could squeak in depending on how the injured guys recover. Of the injured guys, KW would be the candidate to get the onto the dreaded PUP list. That would leave Crabs, Bread, AJ, Gen Patton, Lockette, and Manningham.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Well, so much for the tirfecta of sports nirvana. THe GIants started the loodbath by playing lousy defense and Barry Zito giving up 30 singles in the 1st inning to put the Giants in a hole they couldn’t crawl out of. Baseball is like that though. Lots of games to recover from the shitty one you just played. Even if it is in the great white north.

The Warriors on the other hand are in a much different world of hurt. They dropped a game to SA that saw Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (the greatest backcourt duo in NBA history?) shoot a combined 6-22 and 13 points. This will never get it done. One can go south, but not both of them. Even still, they were in it til the end. Barnes and Jack, stars from the game 4 win in Oaktown, did their best to keep the Dibs sin the game despite the usual array of 2nd half turnovers. They are now one game from elimination, altough they are coming home for game 6. You’d have to think they don’t shoot as bad as they did last night. If so, well, it was a good run for GSW.

The Sharkies? Well, they played well, but couldn’t score a goal to save their lives. You don’t score, you don’t win. Beating the Kings will be very tough for SJS. Yet another fairly underwhelming playoff run looks to be in store for them.

Aaaand the A’s lost in 10 . . . and Cal star running back Chuck Muncie passed away. R.I.P. Chuck. You were a fun player to watch. All in all, a crappy day.

Unfortunately none of it is football related. The Dubs win an OT thriller to tie up their best-of-seven series with the SASpurs at two games. A game that I had the unmitigated luck to see from the comfort of a luxury suite. The Giants got a solid 7 innings of shut-out ball from Timmy as the Giants took 3 of 4 from the Atlanta Bravos. No mean feat there as the Giants reclaimed sole possession of first place. And the Sharks advanced to the next round of the playoffs in their Sysyphian quest to finally make it to the Stanley Cup finals.

In 49er news, the rookies got to walk through the facilities, making sure not to touch anything or lift anything to thus void the NFLPA agreement that no one can do anything anywhere without express written consent of deMaurice pompitous-of-love Smith and his gaggle of lawyers. There was an OTA or mini-mellon-cougar-camp or something last weekend. Then we get rookie camp, OTAs, regular mini camps, and then regular camp. I don’t know. Whatever the agreement was last year, it sure made a mess of what used to be called training camp. Now it’s no more two-a-days, designated pad/non-pad sessions, walk-throughs, shorts-and helmets practices, shirts and shoes required, tie and tails optional.

In other words, nothing really. So, as it is, enjoy the defending champion Giants, pray Steph Curry’s ankle holds up a little longer, and hope the Sharks can overcome their propensity to underwhelm in the playoffs.

Woo hoo!!

Bleeeh. 501 Field? Stonewashed Stadium? The Stich? Yikes. Not down with the new name very much, but this is a sign of the times. Candestick Park went from 3-Com to Monster to Monster Cable to WTF-do-we-call-it-now and then back to the Stick. It will soon be park of the toxic wasteland that is Hunter’s Point and the Naval Shipyard.

That being said, what better company to represent the Niners? Well, beyond the fact that they are splitting from the very city where Levi’s was born in 1853, and is still headquartered. Levi’s were of course the prefered apparel of choice among the thousands of miners pouring into San Francisco in the 1850s. Strauss (as well as noted Mormon Samuel Brannan) made his bones selling supplies to the folks trying to strike it rich in California. Miner 49ers. 99% of the miners of course barely eked out a living trying to strike it rich while Strauss and Brannan (and many others) hit their paydirt supplying the fools, uh miners with supplies.

There’s your history lesson for the day. Anyone like the name? Got any cool nicknames? Frankly, I wish they’d call it Bill Walsh Stadium and they can put up all the Levi’s crap the

. . . in so many ways. Yes, back by popular demand, the most blogged-about quarterback west of Tim Tebow, we present for one more time, the continuing drama of Alex Smith. For all of his fans, he takes his kudos east as he tries to wrest another franchise from the depths of mediocrity with the help of a head coach who is known for his acumen in dealing with quarterbacks in Andy Reid. Reid, for his part, is also battling his own demons, professional and otherwise, as his rollercoaster ride in Philly finally came to a merciful close. Throw in a personal life rife with tragedy and you have the makings for all that feel-good crap the national media thrives on. If Alex and Andy can revive a once-dominant and now feeble franchise and fanbase to get KC back into the sunshine, the huzzahs will rain like, un rain upon the denizens of Arrowhead stadium.

For all of Alexa’s detractors, I guess their hope is he flames out in a system that isn’t spoon-fed him by an overly nurturing coach in Jim Harbaugh. He is laughed to the bench of a lousy team as he rots in ambiguity as a backup quarterback for the rest of his misbegotten career.

But wait! There’s reason to root for Alex Smith! As we all know, the Niners were given a conditional draft pick for the Smith trade. A 2nd or 3rd depending on how well the Chiefs and Alex do. Well, the bar was set. 8-8 = good = 2nd round pick for the Niners. 7-9 or below = bad = 3rd round pick. Although if Smith does well and the team sucks, I guess that hasn’t been factored in yet. I suppose it’s strictly by record.

Still and all, a great situation for the Niners to be in as they traded with back with Tennessee for their 3rd round pick next year, are likey to get a 3rd round compensatory pick for Goldson, and this 2 or 3 from KC. A possible 6 picks in the first 3 rounds for a draft that looks very strong. Trent Baalke is doing a wonderful job of keeping the team loaded with picks. It looks like he understands that the FA market, while useful, isn’t as important as stocking the team through the draft. I expect to see a trade of Scott Tolzein for Patrick Peterson.

Per Grump, here’s what the Niners have done so far this young 2013 NFL season:

Free Agents Signed:

3/13 – DT Glenn Dorsey, Kansas City
3/14- LB Dan Skuta, Cincinnati
3/16 – S Craig Dahl, St. Louis Rams
3/19 – K Phil Dawson, Cleveland
3/19 – WR Marlon Moore, Miami
4/2 – CB Nnamdi Asomugha, Philadelphia
4/18 – TE Cameron Morrah, Seattle

Free Agents Lost:

3/12 – NT Isaac Sopoaga, Philadelphia
3/12 – TE Delanie Walker, Tennessee
3/13 – S Dashon Goldson, Tampa Bay
3/14 – DT Ricky-Jean Francois, Indianapolis
3/22 – WR-KR Ted Ginn Jr, Carolina

Trades:

3/11 – 49ers’ 2013 No. 6 (199) draft choice to Baltimore Ravens for WR Anquan Boldin.
3/12 – QB Alex Smith to Kansas City for 2013 No. 2 (34) draft choice and conditional 2014 pick.
4/1 – 49ers’ No. 5 (164) and Bengals’ No. 7 (227) draft choices to Cleveland for QB Colt McCoy and Eagles’ No. 6 (173) choice.
4/25 – 49ers’ 2013 No. 1 (31) and Panthers’ No. 3 (74) draft choices to Dallas for Cowboys’ 2013 No. 1 choice (18, S Eric Reid).
4/26 – Chiefs’ 2013 No. 2 draft choice (34, obtained for Alex Smith) traded to Tennessee for Titans’ No. 2 (40, DE Tank Carradine), No. 7 (216, see below) and 2014 No. 3 choice.
4/26 – 49ers’ 2013 No. 2 (63) and Eagles’ 6 (173) draft choices to Green Bay for Packers’ No. 2 (55, TE Vance McDonald).
4/26 – 49ers’ 2013 No. 3 (93) and Titans’ No. 7 (216) choices to Green Bay for Packers’ No. 3 choice (88, DE Corey Lemonier).

Draft:

1 – 18 – (18) – Eric Reid – LSU – S *Choice from Dallas
2 – 8 – (40) – Cornelius “Tank” Carradine – Florida State – DE *Choice from Tennessee
2 – 23 – (55) – Vance McDonald – Rice – TE *Choice from Green Bay
3 – 26 – (88) – Corey Lemonier – Auburn – DE-OLB *Choice from Green Bay
4 – 31 – (128) – Quinton Patton – Louisiana Tech – WR
4 – 34 – (131) – Marcus Lattimore – South Carolina – RB #Compensatory Selection
5 – 24 – (157) – Quinton Dial – Alabama – DE *Choice from Indianapolis
6 – 12 – (180) – Nick Moody – OLB – Florida *Choice from Miami
7 – 31 – (237) – B. J. Daniels – South Florida – QB
7 – 40 – (246) – Carter Bykowski – Iowa State – OT #Compensatory Selection
7 – 46 – (252) – Marcus Cooper – Rutgers – CB #Compensatory Selection

Undrafted Free Agents Signed:

4/27 – Lawrence Okoye – (Great Britain) – DE
4/27 – Luke Marquardt – Azusa Pacific – OT
4/27 – MarQueis Gray – Minnesota – QB
4/27 – Alex Debniak – Stanford – FB
4/27 – Chuck Jacobs, Utah State – WR
4/27 – Patrick Omameh – Michigan – G
4/27 – Sherman Carter – Tennessee State – C
4/27 – Darryl Morris – Texas State – CB
4/27 – Kevin McDermott – UCLA – LS
4/27 – Mike Purcell – Wyoming – DT
4/27 – D.J. Harper – Boise State – RB

David Akers is MIA on the list but I’ll forgive Grump that oversight. I kid, I kid.

In general, they accomplished what they set out for. Get a safety, a TE, and D line depth in the draft. They picked up a couple of FAs to round out the line and TE as well. They also replaced their kicker. Huzzah!

Hard to start thinking about the cut-down list, but we got us a shitload of players right now and a shitload of time to go over this. So, what the hell?

Figure 3 FAs signed don’t make the grade. 4 draft choices don’t make the grade. And 2 UDFAs stick around. Either by making the grade or repopulating the practice squad. I stil think Parys CB? Culliver’s stupid mouth notwithstanding, he’s safe. Cox could be out. The rest? Who knows? A couple LBs and DLs need to hit the road with these additions.