San Francisco 49ers Forever

Say what you will about this season, but the team, despite a gigantic injury list, managed to keep its focus and drive as their backup QBs stumbled, bumbled, and fumbled their way to a shitload of losses. It would be nice to think that with a fully healthy team, the offense would have clicked along nicely and won at least 4 more games.

Pretty easy to contemplate, but that first loss was with a healthy Jimmy G. His numbers weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great either. But of course COVID gave all the teams no preseason games and little practice time. We pretty much couldn’t contain Murray when we needed to and lost in the end. By the time the team had had warmed up, the entire roster was hurt. Our trip to New Jersey proved fatal as Bosaand many others went down.

No need to rehash the rest. The positives, few as they were, were the emergence of Brandon Aiyuk as a bona fide threat to score whenever he touches the ball. Fred Warner on the defensive side also proved himself to be a major stud. The rest of our stars from last year were battling injuries. Mostert, Jimmy, Kittle, Deebo, and Wilson all spent lengthy amounts of time on the IR. To the detriment of the team.

Defensively, Ford played 3 downs, the entire defensive backfield was hurt at one time or another. Even our backups got wasted by injury. CB Jamar Taylor, who came in from the cold and stifled Cooper Kupp, was lost to a knee injury. As were backup linemen Dion Jordan and Jordan Willis. Even shrivel-dick Nick ended up on the IR with an elbow injury.

On and on. So, turn the page and look to the 2021 season. The 2021 team is going to look a whole lot different. Good or bad. We have 40 (!!!) free agents, so there will be a lot of turnover. Get rid of Mullens and we’d have a lot less turnovers. But I digress. Ford, McKinnon, Coleman, Tartt, Ward, and Sherman are the big-ticket guys who likely go. That will free up some cap space, but no idea how much.

Got to hit the draft.

Coronamadeggon? If hindsight is 2020, I don’t want to look back. This travesty of a season fit snugly into this tragedy of a year. Too much to even think about, let alone document, so we’ll just let this season go.

Yes, this team has a ton of question marks for the future, but we have our closing game with the Beater against the Seahawks. Little hope for us in this one, but then again, I thought the same thing about last week’s game. Robert Saleh’s defense came up huge time and time again as we thwarted, for the time being, their playoff run.

Today? Of course we will be without Trent Williams and Brandon Ayuk, so there’s that. This one will be driven by the defense, but i don’t think we can hold Russell Wilson down for four quarters.

We will likely be somewhere around 10-12 in the draft after the loss. Is that good enough for a QB? The way the draft is shaking out, Trey Lance may be the only one available. Is he worth it? I’d tend to think we will go CB since we ignored it so badly last year, and it bit us in the ass with all the injuries, but we have a lot of time to work that out.

Out with the old, in with the new. 2020 can go take a flying leap, long with the prez. This year started bad and got a shit-ton worse. Starting with the 40er Super Bowl loss (which seems like 10 years ago) to the ruination of the team when they travelled to New Jersey for a couple games, and throwing in the Lakers and Dodgers winning their respective championships, and sports in general, while welcome during these troubling times, ended up sucking hard.

And of course the pandemic. Lost a couple of friends to COVID. One in March and one last week, so this thing is a real bitch. One of my nephews and his wife got it, but both thankfully got through it unscathed. At least there is hope that the vaccine rolls out quick, but I think we are in for more of the same shittiness for a little while yet.

But, hey a new year beckons. I look forward to NJ’s draft prognostications as we all are pretty much on the same page that this team needs a quarterback a cornerback, and O line help in this draft. Who and where remains to be seen, but here we are at week 17, still racked by injuries and still trying our damnedest.

It would be a trip to win this game and end up 4-2 in the division, seeing as this is one of the toughest in the league, and we went 1-3 against the shittiest. Draft be damned, let’s beat those fucking Seahawks. They are actually becoming one of the better teams in the league as their defense, helped immensely by DJ Reed, is coming together at the right time.

Well, not really. Just our division record. Funny thing is, if we beat Seattle next week, we would have a 4-2 record in our division. Sea would be 3-3, and the Rams and Cards both sit at 2-3 so they can’t catch us. As we all know, the west is one of the most competitive divisions in the NFL. No mean feat, but curious nonetheless.

There were a lot of stupid losses this year, up to and including going 1-3 against the woeful NFC East. And, to play the ‘what if’ card, you have to wonder what could have been should Shanahan switched out Mullens for Beater after yet another multiple interception game against Buffalo.

As our soon-to-be-Deetroit head coach showed, the defense is playing insanely well, even with half the roster on IR. The latest example was the throttling of the #3 offense in the NFL, the AZ Cards. Robert Saleh was down our #1 pick in Kinlaw, both starting safeties Ward and Tartt, CB Richard Sherman, and DE Dion Jordan. I mean along with the other injuries.

Ahkello Witherspoon played a strong game after giving up a 40 yard strike to Murray. He sometimes pouts his way to the bench after a bad play, but didn’t this time around, and made a game-saving INT in the 4th quarter and covered well all game. Jason Verrett, a guy I hope we keep, blanketed DeAndre Hopkins, and ‘held’ him to 8 catches for 48 yards. A far cry from the 14-151 performance in week 1.

Despite all the injuries up front, the defensive line held AZ to 45 yards rushing. Sure, Murray got 75 yards himself, but those were scrambles. And the 49ers actually did pretty well keeping him contained, but for the one 30 yard run on 4th and 1.

Fred Warner also had another outstanding game as he knocked down a 4th down pass to go with his 8 tackles. K’Waun Williams had a very disruptive game, blitzing early and often, making tackles in the backfield, and getting a sack.

So, as much as it would have been nice to get a better draft spot, no matter where we end up, we wouldn’t be in the running for Lawrence, Fields, Wilson, or Lance. As I’ve been saying for a while, the guy I want, Zach Wilson, is moving up as high as #2 on some depth charts. So both Trey Lance AND Zach Wilson could be gone.

I’ll give the coaching staff a pretty big set of kudos for keeping this team focussed and steady as this season as imploded around them. Especially Saleh and the defense.

Well, down to our 3rd string QB, we get to see our team creep toward what will hopefully be a top 10 pick in the draft. Deetroit is doing all they can to hit bottom by getting waxed by TB. Stafford went out early, so Lions fans get a preview of life without him as their offense still hasn’t hit 100 yards in the 4th quarter.

47-7, and the score is closer than it should be.

Kittle is back so maybe there will be a little fun out there. Fuck, I don;t care. I just don’t want to see us making so many stupid turnovers. Win, lose, whatever. Just don’t play like you are a fucking also-ran. We’re the goddamn defending NFC champs for fuck’s sake.

Hope y’all had a Merry Christmas. Funny watching Gaine Blabbert winging TDs all over the place for the Bucs.

The Del Boca Vista Bowl is on tonight, pitting the BYU Cougars against the University of Central Florida Knights. Who cares, you say? Well, Zach Wilson, a possible QB to go after in the upcoming 2021 draft is playing. Wilson is 6’3, 210 lb, has a strong arm, is mobile, and can make all the throws required of a pro-style QB. He is compared to one Patrick Mahomes as he does well improvising, and making plays on the fly.

We of course are in the hunt for a QB, and even though Wilson has not declared whether he will go back for his senior year, and therefore is off as lot of draft boards, I’m positive he will go in the top 15. We are #12, but that might not even be high enough to get him. He is creeping up draft boards, and we should pull the trigger. Unless of course Trey Lance somehow falls to us. I don’t see that happening given the need for QBs for the bottom-feeders, but again, who knows? Even then, Trey Lance worries me as being Carson Benchedz-ish. I wonder if they’d take Wilson over Lance regardless.

No one gets these drafts right, so hey let’s tart throwing darts.

Boca Raton Bowl
4:00 PM
ESPN

And for extra added fun, the Warriors are going up against their once and former star Kevin Durant.

Warriors vs Brooklyn Nets
4:00 PM
TNT

Wow. That was fun. Spot the woeful Cowboys 14 points and play catch-up the rest of the way. Nick Mullens continued his quest to lead the world in turnovers with an early fumble deep in his own territory for 7, preceded of course by a Rick (would you like cream in your coffee?) James fumble on Dallas’ first punt. Mullens keeps on keeping on giving points to both teams. He had some very nice drives and he had some horrible throws.

The defense once again was defending drives of 20 yards and under. We actually pressured Ginger a few times, but whatever. 4 turnovers a game seems to be the norm now. Raheem Mostert got hurt again, but even still, the offense had some nice plays. Till they didn’t.

We are all but assured 5-11 given the upcoming opponents, so there’s that. Stupid thing is, the offense and defense have played well enough to 7-7. Minus all those goddamn turnovers. But, the draft position is in play. Hooray us.

Yeah, usually this game would mean something, even in a down year. But this year as about as down as you can get. Sure, it’s the Cowboys, Sure it’s in Dallas. but they lost Dak, we lost everyone, the stands will be mostly empty, and both teams are on life-support, but hey, it’s football and it’s on.

All I look forward to is seeing Jerry Jones’ face after he loses a game to our depleted lineup.

Bring it on.

Can’t quite believe Mullens is still considered our best chance at victory these days. Then again, maybe it IS a tank job by the coaching staff to ensure the highest draft spot possible. After that stirring Ram victory, a couple victories against the woeful NFC East seemed possible, even likely. But Shrivel-Dick Nick has been on a mission to fumble and intercept his way to being a Walmart check-out guy.

10 picks and 5 fumbles against 10 TDs is not a very good average. Shanny has gone over ball security over and over with him, including halftime last week. So, naturally, Mullens fumbles the ball away for a TD the other way. The defense did no favors for the offense in the Buffalo game, certainly played well enough these past couple losses to win games, but when your QB is giving the ball away all the time, the margin of error becomes a negative number.

So next up we have the Dallas Cowboys. Normally I’d be jazzed for some kind of ass-whipping as these guys are fairly bet-up themselves and no one likes beating the Boys more than I do. However, the braintrust thinks Mullens will majically not fuck THIS one up. His last clean start without a fumble or pick was his first start this year. Against the Giants. Philly? 2 picks and a fumble. GB? 1 pick 1 fumble. NO? 2 picks. LAR? 1 pick. Buff? 2 picks. Wash? Pick 6, and fumble-6.

And The Beater sits. The guy we used a 3rd round pick on. The guy who somehow can’t pass undrafted fuck up Mullens on the depth chart. I don’t get it.

The 49ers offense outscored the Washington offense 15-6, but the 49ers offense gave Washington 17 points courtesy of two defensive TDs and a Wilson fumble. Rookie #2 pick Chase Young lived up to his name chasing Nick Mullens all over the place, batting down passes, causing fumbles and scoring a touchdown.

For al the suck that is Nick Mullens, he’s an undrafted backup QB. More troublesome is our 2018 #1 pick Mike McGlinchey getting absolutely schooled again and again in pass protection. He has not had a good season, and the entire line is battling injury and all, but it isn’t doing much. Trent Williams is not living up to the hype, and the interior line is a mess. We’ve had four centers, and our nominal starter has been hurt most of his time here.

So, that’s a concern going into the offseason since we have played ourselves out of the postseason. Also of course is the quarterback spot. Jimmy G would be best served just waiting till next year. Along with George Kittle. No need to put them in harm’s way until the games matter. Which will be next September.

And the cornerback position as well. Sherman, Moseley, Verrett, Williams, Taylor, Witherspoon, Johnson, and every other corner’s contract is up. Sherman, and Witherspoon are guaranteed gone, Verrett will likely have played so well, we won’t be able to afford him, Johnson sucks, Moseley they should keep, Williams as well.

But this is a spot we should have addressed last draft as the CB class was deep. THe draft is going to be very important as we have a lot of players coming off the books (Ford, Sherman, Witherspoon, McKinnon, Coleman, to name the higher-priced guys) but we will have little cap room. The draft is very important.

Play out the string. Ret the starters. No Jimmy, no Kittle, hope Zach Wilson is there. I can’t see us trading up, but we may forego the 2022 draft to get a QB this season.