Forty Niners Forever

Well, not really. There’s a book out there called The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. Written by a high school friend of mine, Bob Dugoni. But I digress. And I should read it. Sounds good.

Darnold? My only take on him is, if it comes to the point where Darnold passes Lance on the depth chart, then Lance is basically a throw-away. He has been in the system more than long enough to grasp its intricacies and know how to run the team. Sure, it was disconcerting when Purdy came in and ran it to perfection, but was that Jimmy G’s offense? Surely Shanahan isn’t going to run the same offense for both guys is he? Should he?

What exactly was Shanahan trying to do with Lance for those 5.25 quarters? Break him? Sure, the Chicago game was pretty much a washout, but the Seattle game saw Lance running read-option plays. Plays that Shanahan said he wouldn’t use. He said the season before that he would not use Lance like Lamar Jackson, but he went out and did it anyway. And it got Lance hurt. THREE read-option runs up the gut in the first fucking quarter is pretty stupid no matter how you slice it.

Of course Jimmy G comes in and saves the day! Posting a nice victory over the hated Seahawks that fateful day. Then again, GQ shit the bed against our once and future nemesis, Russell Wilson and the worst goddamn team in the NFL, the Denver Phillies. But fuck that. I digress again.

My conundrum here is the quarterback situation. Lance SHOULD be running the same system as Purdy and Jimmy G, and presumably Sam Fucking Darnold. He of the high draft spot and failed expectations. His numbers are shit, and as he’s gone through the Jets (abysmal) and the Panthers (fair-to-middling), but really, he hasn’t really gotten any better. In his words he was looking for a stable organization to learn from the coaches and players, yadda yadda yadda, and I get that both the Jets (especially the 2018-2019 versions) and the Panthers were absolute shitshows, but he hasn’t shown squat so far. But can Kyle the quarterback whisperer do something with Darnold? I don’t even want to find out.

This team has gone through more quarterbacks than shit goes through a goose. They even changed the rules around suiting up QBs. Now allowing 3 per game without the penalty of whatever the idiotic reasoning is for allowing only 48 guys to suit up on game day as part of the 53 man roster. You’d think with all the attrition in ANY given game, they’d allow all 53 to be active. Fucking dumb.

But we haven’t really done anything to beef up the line. In fact it got worse with Brunskill leaving. I sure hope McGlinchey is bested by McKivitz’s game, because we haven’t added any depth, We are hoping against hope that our past low-level picks step up.

*gulp*

Since there’s nothing to talk about until the rookies report in a week, there are a couple truly bizarre stories floating around on the interweb tubes. Sam Darnold is staying with George Kittle while he figures out his accommodations, and is living in Kittle’s pool house. A pool house that is apparently haunted.

Darnold went on to say ‘it’s creepy’ and said he felt like there was a ‘presence’ in the room with him late at night.

According to Darnold, Kittle’s property is “haunted,” he said recently adding that he’s never been a part of something like that before.

“It was crazy, though. I’ve never had anything like that happen before. And I’m talking about both the New England game and at George’s house. But it was crazy man. Like, I woke up, and you know how sometimes you have a dream and then you wake up and you feel like you can’t move for like maybe four or five seconds, whatever it is?”

Darnold said he felt some type of presence in the room that distracted him as he went to sleep and caused untold issues during the late hours of the night.

“And you know, I felt that, and I woke up, it was like 3 a.m., went to go take a pee and, you know, came back, fell right asleep,” he reportedly said. “And then, that next night, the same thing happened, and I couldn’t, like, I had to keep focusing on this thing…there was something else in the room.”

To top that, Deebo Samuel abruptly ended a phone interview with Zach Gelb, who also had Aaron Donald hang up on him last year. It seemed fairly innocuous as Gelb was pretty much on board with the fact that the 49ers would have won had Purdy not gotten hurt. Deebo didn’t seem to like this and when Gelb kept talking about the Eagles game, he bailed. Better than a contract dispute, but hey. there’s nothing else going on.

Truly the doldrums where it comes to football news. I guess the big excitement is Brock Purdy got engaged. Woo hoo. Hope the kid has a bright future as the latest stud 49er quarterback, but this team seems to have very persistent problems keeping their quarterback upright. That the 49ers were SO successful with their 3rd string, 262nd, and last pick in the draft, is pretty fucking amazing. Trey Lance of course had one game in a hurricane, and one quarter where he was used like Ken Willard, Jimmy G was fine until he wasn’t, and Brock took the league by storm till he got hurt.

Which brings me to the issue of beefing up the O line. For all intents and purposes, they did little but get weaker at right tackle as the 49ers didn’t want to pay Mike McGlinchey for his fair to middling pass blocking, and instead left that to Colton McKivitz. And they let Daniel Brunskill go in free agency.

McKivitz is promising as a pass blocker, and his only start was against the fairly fierce LA Rams. He graded out at a solid 69.4 grade in his 71 plays last season, and 84.6 in the LA start. But, after Trent Williams and KcKivitz, we have bupkis. Backups Jaylon Moore and Matt Pryor have not shown anything resembling consistent pay.

After that we have UDFA D-II standout guy Joey Fisher, who couldn’t make it through rookie mini-camp and seemed bothered by the 75 degree heat, so he doesn’t look to stick. Nick Zakelj looks to be moved to center to find a spot on the roster, Leroy Watson is a waiver-wire pickup from last year, Ilm Manning is a smaller small-school (Hawaii) standout UDFA who seems to fit the long-standing idea of drafting smaller quicker guys on the line. He however, is also pencilled in for a move to center.

Feliciano, Gutierrez, and Luciano are all varying flavors of who knows. My hope is we can grab some kind of overpriced vet during the cut-downs, but maybe the front office has a better sense of what these guys can do. I mean, I hope so, but the depth is a big worry seeing how old Williams is, and how green/untested Mckivitz is.

The national media, having deemed Trey Lance as the 3rd string wasted pick benchwarmer turd cast-off, and the quarterback position being the weak link on the team, has started the dialogue that we are no longer Super Bowl contenders and that we will fall short of the goal this season.

Since the national media has no idea what is really going on, and doesn’t seem to understand that this offense is fairly quarterback-friendly, hey, go ahead and bury us. Purdy made his bones running the opposing team offense last season, stepped in and caught on very quickly in real games. He’s on track to being ready for week 1.

What this means to the national scribes of course is that Purdy is living in a cave 2 miles underground and has no contact with the outside world, let alone the team, and that he is hopelessly behind in his understanding of the 49ers offense. So, since Lance is dwelling somewhere near Colin Kaepernick bust territory, Sudden Sam Darnold is the guy that has to save the season. And he will fail.

This is of course based on nothing. But, the gist of it is, whenever the scribes deem us worthy, we fall short. Now that they have jumped off the bandwagon, shit will go right.

Of note:

. . . for reals. He is winging his way to Jacksonville (gulp) with his QB coach Will Hewlett and his ortho guy. He is on schedule for week 1 of the regular season.

I guess this is great news. But, as I’ve said a few times before, I’d love to see Lance take at least the first 2 games. This way we can see:

a) What Lance has to offer
b) How the offensive line is doing
c) Give Purdy more time to heal up and get ready for the long haul that is the regular season (and playoffs)

Truth be told, I can’t remember the last time a quarterback lasted a whole season for the 49ers. I guess it was 2019, but it feels like 20 years ago. The name of the game of course is attrition. Stay relatively healthy and the 49ers should be fine.

Given the QB situation, we still should be the favorites for the 1st round bye. Last year, even with the shit start, upheaval at quarterback, and all the injuries, the 49ers were one game from being the #1 seed. Any kind of stability and we should be the front-runners.

Anyhow, here’s an article on Purdy and his throwing regimen.

https://www.nfl.com/news/49ers-qb-brock-purdy-heading-to-jacksonville-to-throw-as-he-continues-elbow-reha

Well, the pendulum has swung back to how shitty Trey Lance is. This of course was the premise 2 months ago. What happened between now and then? Nothing. No real practices, no camps, no preseason games. But the ‘wow, Lance worked out with Mahomes and looked great’ as spun back 180 and the turd has turned.

Just the usual clickbait bullshit. Adam Schefter says that Lance will be the 3rd string coach. Based on, well, nothing. He’s shocked there’s no trade value for a guy who hasn’t played much due to injuries. And why would the Niners trade him when they went through 3 QBs in ONE GAME last year? Yeah, it was the NFCCG, but we had lost Trey Lance AND Jimmy G before that game even happened. Of course the New York Post has to run with the most salacious of them all and proclaim:

https://nypost.com/2023/06/22/trey-lance-not-even-a-backup-with-49ers/

So here we are again, spinning in the toilet.

These are the doldrums of the football season. OTAs and mini camps didn’t generate much. Other than the hyperbole around who our QB is, or how we will be trading for Chase Young. Right. We don’t have enough defensive linemen so we will trade for another one? Doubtful. Brock Purdy is apparently cruising along in his rehab and is a little ahead of schedule, so there’s that. The quarterback controversy may not happen after all. But I am glad we have a couple options, seeing as our QB situation is always a bit fluid.

And yeah, the 49ers bought an English soccer team. I guess we really need that kicker pipeline?

Sure, whatevs. I guess they really want to try out the Ted Lasso thing for reals. The team is Leeds United, a team that was recently relegated out of the Premier League to whatever the 2nd tier is. This sounds just like the premise for Ted Lasso. Would we get a comp pick if we send out special teams coach to England?

The only thing I really know about Leeds is of course the Who’s spectacular live album done there.

Well, for what it’s worth (and thank God, BTW), the powers that be have named Trey Lance as quarterbacko numero uno. At least he’s getting the starting QB reps. In OTAs. In May. Zzzzzzzz.

So, yeah, whatever. Funny how the world is suddenly in tune with Lance being the savior of the team now rather than the guy the team wanted to kick out the door a month ago.

But, hey, it’s still May, and we are slowly grinding toward the start of the season when camp opens in July. Much like Trey Lance’s reincarnation though, the Giants have provided a spark to the summer as they brought up some young guns of their own and are starting to actually play interesting baseball. They’ve blown past the Padres and have their sights set on the D-Backs.

Fun fun!

How this latest QB deal shakes out, I have no idea. But I mean really, what if Lance comes in guns a-blazin’ and puts up early Kaepernick numbers? What if he blows away the world in his first few games? Will he even get a shot?

We don’t even know, seeing as all reports are that Purdy will start throwing next week, and that his scheduled recovery is on schedule. Strange days indeed. There is a long time before all this is hammered out, but it still makes me excited about this upcoming season. This team is poised at the pinnacle of success, and have only themselves to stop them.

Party on!!

Yippie. I guess. Last time they did this it was on Market St. 6 blocks from where I worked. When I was working in an office. Crazy security. You could count up to 10 guys stationed on top of the buildings going down market to the Ferry building. nd it was only 40 miles away from the stadium.

Odd.

But whatevs. For all the stink Santa Clara raised about the stadium, they’ll gladly take all that NFL money to the bank. Wonder how the package deals work out, though. Do they stay in SF up until game day? It may be since all the pregame BS in up there. Shit, I just hope we are one of the teams playing.

Anyhow, the story line of “everyone in the building hates Trey Lance” seems to have morphed into “Trey Lance has made huge strides practicing with Patrick Mahomes.” Yeah, and I have land on the moon for sale. We used to hear how great Alex Smith was at throwing deep passes every fucking offseason yet neither Nolan, Singletary, or Harbaugh ever tried.

Thing is, all signs are pointing to Purdy being on schedule with his rehab. I guess. I really want the powers that be to slow-roll Purdy’s recovery. Mainly to give Lance a real shot at running the team. Passing, I mean. None of this RPO shit that will get him killed. Said it before and I’ll say it again. Pete Carroll played it right with Russell Wilson. He made him a pocket passer that could escape trouble and use his speed to elude pass rushers and get big chunks of yards. Because his WRs were on mid to deep routes ALL THE TIME. This opened up the flats and the edges of the defense and gave the 49ers fits for 10 years.

This is how Shanahan HAS to play it. End of story. Sure, he can have a check-down in CMC, or even Kittle at times, but the offense NEEDS to be built around a strong passing game. Not the RPO crowd-the-line bullshit. Open this up and let Lance do his thing.

Jim Brown, one of football’s, and humanity’s, greatest passed away at the age of 87. Beyond the punishing power and speed of his football abilities, he was one of the original social justice warriors who never backed down from a fight. He was one of the first mega football stars as he drove the popularity of the sport on TV in the early 60s with his relentless running style. In his short 9 year career he shattered rushing and TD records across the league.

At the height of his career he retired to pursue acting. He did a great turn in the Dirty Dozen, 100 Rifles opposite Raquel Welch, and a bunch of blaxploitation films, including the parody I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka! Great stuff. His inner-city causes spanned decades, and raised millions upon millions.

Rushing for 1,863 s a great season by today’s standards. Brown did it in 14 games.
Brown also rushed for 1,538 in 12 games in 1963.