Forty Niners Forever

Jacob’s Ladder? Highway to Hell? We will see, but this sched looks fairly beefy. The good news is the first 4 games aren’t of the hellacious type, so if our QB situation isn’t ironed out, we have a good month to settle in.

The givens should be Pitt, Cle, Rams x2, Jax, TB, and AZ x2. The rest are playoff teams and Seattle, always a thorn. Then again, one season’s turd is next seasons darling.

Fun fact, we play on both Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. And we have SIX trips to the east. And for some reason we have TWO fucking Thursday games. Fuck you very much, Roger.

FWIW, and yeah, this shit is total shit because you really can’t tell how a draft goes for a good 3-4 seasons have gone by, but that doesn’t stop the talking wonks from shitting all over a given team’s draft. I mean who can forget the glowing accounts of the first draft done by the new regime in 2017? It was pretty much unanimous As across the board.

We all know how that turned out. Solly Thomas was a solid 3rd round pick, not a #3 overall. Reuben Foster did his best Aldon Smith impersonation, Joe Williams never got on the field, etc. Kittle was the steal of that draft.

This draft? Pretty much Cs to Fs from the prognosticators. Why? Who knows? Brown at Safety was a pick for need. Antonio Gipson is 33 and was solid, but getting a younger stud guy there fits our need. Moody? Sure, using a 3rd round pick on him might be seen at a little high, but 2 things.

1. It was a comp pick, so you can call it a 4th round pick
2. He’s a starter. Unless something goes horribly wrong, he’s the starting kicker. Getting a starter in the 4th round is usually thought of as a good thing.

Latu? A reach? Maybe, but he’s a guy in the mold of Kittle who didn’t have huge numbers, but did enough things (blocking, route running, being a nuisance) well enough to take a shot on. Beal seems to be a bona fide playmaker who has something that jumps off the tape, and that’s his first step to the QB. The rest are what they are. Until they get into camp and train, all this is pure guess work.

And, given the track record of the success this front office has with day 2 and 3 guys, I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. For now.

And a shout out to Ronnie Lott, celebrating his 64th birthday. The man was a joy to watch and I saw countless games at the Stick where he was throwing himself around with reckless abandon.

For funzies, let’s take a look at last year’s draft.

Round 2 (No. 61 overall) – Drake Jackson, LB/DE, USC
Round 3 (93) – Ty Davis-Price, RB, LSU
Round 3 (105, special compensatory) – Danny Gray, WR, SMU
Round 4 (134) – Spencer Burford, OT, Texas-San Antonio
Round 5 (172) – Samuel Womack, CB, Toledo
Round 6 (187, from Broncos) – Nick Zakelj, OT, Fordham
Round 6 (220, compensatory) – Kalia Davis, DT, UCF
Round 6 (221, compensatory) – Tariq Castro-Fields, CB, Penn State
Round 7 (262, compensatory) – Brock Purdy, QB, Iowa State

Jackson? Meh. Showed flashes at times. But D linemen not named Nick Bosa usually take a year or 2 to get comfortable in the NFL so he’s not toast. Yet.
Davis-Price? Another useless 3rd round waste RB pick that will do little to nothing.
Gray? A doghouse denizen. No idea what he brings.
Burford? Turned into a bona fide starter.
Womack played fine for where he was drafted. Special teams standout.
Davis and Zakelj are still on the team.
Brock Purdy? Gee, not sure about him.

But stop me if you heard this before. Top picks bad. Bottom picks good. And the very bottom turned out pretty good, eh?

Here are the OOFDAs

Tay Martin, WR, Oklahoma State – 6’3″/186
Segun Olubi, LB, San Diego State – 6’2″/220
Jason Poe, OL, Mercer
Leon O’Neal, S, Texas A&M – 6’1″/210
Taysir Mack, WR, Pittsburgh – 6’2:/190
Dohnovan West, C, Arizona State – 6’4″/300
Kevin Atkins, DT, Fresno State
Qwuantrezz knight, CB, UCLA
Sam Schlueter, OL, Minnesota
Jeremiah Gemmel, LB, UNC
Taylor Hawkins, DB, San Diego State
Jordan Mason, RB, Georgia Tech

Poe, Hawkins, and Knight are still on the team, Olubi is on the Commanders, O’Neal is in Canada, Mack is out of football, West, Gemmel, and Atkins are in the XFL, Scheluter is on the Jets.

Mason of course was the prize of this OOFDA group. He’s a stud runner who a lot of us were high on. And he flew past TDP on the depth chart.

Hmmm. Liked the guys we got on Friday.
Saturday? Meh. Thought we’d draft O line help and maybe more CBs, but hey, we didn’t draft an RB!

Round 3: 87th-Overall – S Ji’Ayir Brown, Penn State
Round 3: 99th-Overall – K Jake Moody, Michigan
Round 3: 101st-Overall – TE Cameron Latu, Alabama
Round 5: 155th-Overall – CB Darrell Luter Jr., South Alabama
Round 5: 173rd-Overall – DL Robert Beal Jr., Georgia
Round 6: 216th-Overall – LB Dee Winters, TCU
Round 7: 247th-Overall – TE Brayden Willis, Oklahoma
Round 7: 253rd-Overall – WR Ronnie Bell, Michigan
Round 7: 255th-Overall – LB Jalen Graham, Purdue

The UDFAs are:

OL Joey Fisher, Shepherd
OL Ilm Manning, Hawaii
C Corey Luciano, Washington
FB Jack Colletto, Oregon State
RB Ronald Awatt, UTEP
DB D’Shawn Jamison, Texas
DB Avery Young, Rutgers
DL Spencer Waege, North Dakota State
RB Khalan Laborn, Marshall
LB Mariano Sori-Marin, Minnesota
WR Jadakis Bonds, Hampton

We waited till UDFA time for the RB and O line help. Three O linemen, a couple DBs, 3 RBs, and the rest. Here on Gilligan’s Island.

The good news is Mel Kiper gets to detach his head and go back underground for another 51 weeks. He gave the Niners the worst draft report card. Which of course means we nailed it. Since our braintrust seems to thrive on the lower rounds, let’s hope they keep it up. No one knows how these go. 2017 was rated a top draft, and just by looking at it in the moment, sure. Funny thing is, George Kittle was the star of that draft. In the 5 hole. DT DJ Jones was drafted in the 6th round. The rest are either out of football or 3rd stringers. Witherspoon is decent enough at times, Solly Thomas bounced around to the Jets, Reuben Foster is in the USFL, BeatHard is a backup for the Jags, and Joe Williams never made an NFL roster.

Ouch. So, fuck Mel Kiper’s head. Still time to pick up some FA O line help.

For draft day 2 I give the 49ers a solid B. The Niners traded up to 87 to get Ji’Ayir Brown. A highly rated guy who is a ball-hawking safety who can play deep or close to the line. He had 10 picks and 122 tackles his senior year at Penn State. Ferocious hitter who can cover. Like the pick.

A kicker? Hey, better than a throw-away RB. We need someone to replace Robbie Gould, and Moody is the most consistent guy in college, so there’s that. Robbie was also talking to Moody, according to Matt Maiocco:

Jake Moody says he’s been talking a lot with Robbie Gould, and Robbie just texted to him to congratulation him and tell him how great it is with the 49ers.

Here’s what Shanahan said about drafting a kicker. Really:

I still can’t believe we didn’t take a running back.” 

He then said this in a more serious vein. I can live with it:

“You think you’re looking at there’s probably five to six teams who you feel need a kicker. So the whole debate is where to go get that guy, because it’s someone you need to get. And when you look at the history, the majority of kickers go in the fourth round. We didn’t have a fourth round pick. The guy was not going to be there in the fifth round.”

We needed a kicker. We got one. TE Cameron Latu? Good blocker, good route runner, decent enough. Maybe another Kittle in the rough. I expect today to be a lot of beef for the O line. Maybe a flier at CB.

Round 5, Pick 155
Round 5, Pick 173 (via MIA)
Round 6, Pick 216 (Compensatory)
Round 7, Pick 247
Round 7, Pick 253 (Compensatory)
Round 7, Pick 255 (Compensatory)

Amazingly, there are 4 other teams without 1st round picks in the draft. The Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams, Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, and us. And of those teams, the Broncos, Rams, and Cleveland absolutely suck.

So, those franchises look to be in a bit of hurt for a while. The Broncos tied their fortunes to a quarterback who has seen better days pretty far back in the mirror, the Rams sold their souls to the Devil for a Super Bowl victory, but have now cratered to the bottom of the NFC West, and the Factory of Sadness shall remain the Factory of Sadness.

Russell Wilson cost a fortune but did nothing to fix the ongoing issue of John Elway and Co to find a QB worth a damn. I mean, even Manning was pretty much a shell of himself at that point and simply was tasked with not losing games. It finally ended up in Elway being shown the door. The Rams? Well, they threw tons of money at free agents, and got one decent season out of Matthew Stafford, and if for a dropped pick in the NFC championship game (fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck), would have been a misguided attempt at relevance.

All the up-front money caused the Rams to jettison a lot of talent, and they’ve sunk like a stone to the bottom of the West as Stafford’s propensity to throw picks has come back to haunt the Rams. Cleveland went eve deeper into the seven circles of Hell to drag out the virulent spectre of DeShaun Watson. The guy who was punished for his deeds by getting a 5 year / $230 million contract. He completely lived up to the deal by going 3-3, 58% completion %age, 7 TDs, 5 picks, and a lowly 6.5 yards/attempt in his shortened season.

Miami and the 49ers at least look like they are gonna go somewhere this year. But that isn’t even set in stone. More like sand. Miami is struggling with keeping their QB healthy after some scary shit on the field, and we were even worse at keeping QBs healthy.

Which means of course that we should focus on getting O line help in a big way. The O line eventually settled down pretty nicely. Interior O line at least. The killer Bs in Brendel, Banks, and Burford settled in and became a solid interior line, and the run game did well. The weak link, at least in pass pro, was RT Mike McGlinchey. He of course went to browner pastures (and a greener bank account) in Denver. Our new RT as of now is 3rd year guy Jaylon Moore, our 5th round pick in 2021.

So, we need to draft a RT, a center for depth, and a CB or 3. Get a backup TE, a safety in the Hufanga vein, and QB and WR for depth.

As we know all too well, this braintrust seems to find gold in the 3rd to 7th rounds, and leaves the turds in the first 2 rounds. So I guess we are in the catbird seat.

Well, it finally happened. 18 years after the 49ers passed on the guy, he’s part of another team-altering deal where Aaron leaves the frozen tundra for the swanky suburbs of New Jersey and Tony Soprano. Aaron and the Jets. Oh, it’ll be weird and wonderful. Oh Aaron He is really keen.

The trade includes a swap of first-round picks in this draft. The Packers will pick 13th and the Jets will move to 15.

The Jets are also sending Green Bay a second-round pick (42 overall) and a sixth-round pick (207 overall) in this year’s draft; as well as a 2024 conditional pick that will be a first-round pick if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the plays for the Jets in 2023, or a second-round pick if he does not.

The Jets also receive a fifth-round pick (No. 170 overall) in this year’s draft.

The trade won’t be official until the terms of Rodgers’ contract are hammered out.

Rodgers is scheduled to make nearly $60 million in 2023 but will likely renegotiate that deal before coming to the Jets. Gonna be a fun year for these Jets. They’ve officially given up on Zack Wilson and I’m sure are looking to improve their defense.

Robert Saleh has his work cut out for him. Not a huge fan of Rodgers but hey, the AFC East looks like a fun division. Belichick is floundering like a mofo so the changing of the guard there is imminent. The Bills are the Bills. They win the division but can’t get through the playoffs. Miami looks to be, uh, I don’;’t know. Mike McDaniel looked like Vince Lambari Jr, leading the Phins to an 8-3 record, but then went 1-5 to stagger into the playoffs and lose a hearbreaker to the Bills. Their Jekyll and Hyde season, and their nearly crippled QB Tua look to improve on their weird year.

There’s a nice article in the Chronicle regarding Fresneck State QB Jake Haener. I mentioned this guy a few months ago as a great under-the-radar guy to pick up as our back-up of the future. Problem is, he’s starting to get noticed. He’s starting to get noticed because he bears a resemblance to our one and only Big Cock Brock Purdy. Not sure of Haener’s, uh, dimensions, but he’s 6 foot nothing and weighs 207 lb.

Undersized and unheralded until recently, Haener led the crappy Fresno State program (4-8 before him) to a 23-10 record, and a win over the UCLA Bruins 40-37 with two 4th quarter TD passes, and he also led them to the Mountain West Conference championship and a win over Washington State in the (WTAF?) Jimmy Kimmel Bowl (>?).

Sure, he’s a Danville kid who went to Monte Vista and grew up next to a country club, a la Zack Wilson. He threw those two 4th down TDs with a hip pointer and a torn oblique or some shit. He’s ‘country club tough’ according to his high school coach.

Hey. Who knows? All I do know is we need a viable backup after we trade Lance and dump Darnold after this season. Might as well take a shot on a guy who can be viable as a late 3rd pick. We have 3 of them.

Well, per SI, the 49ers are getting a lot of calls regarding Trey Lance.

“The 49ers have been fielding calls from other teams regarding interest in trading for quarterback Trey Lance, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. San Francisco is likely going with second-year quarterback Brock Purdy as the team’s future starter.”

Don’t know how many ways I can say ‘who’s gonna trade for an unknown commodity?’

Here’s the article:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/04/19/49ers-fielding-trade-calls-trey-lance-report

Really don’t think the Niners do anything other than wait on how this season plays out. Unless we get two 1st round picks for him. And no GM in their right mind would make that deal now based on the limited playing time for Lance.

Not sure why this endless blather bugs me but, hey them’s the clicks. Well, I do. It;s the same shit over and over.

Good news? Brock Purdy is out of the elbow brace he was wearing on his surgically repaired elbow.

In listening to the reports about his elbow surgery though, John Lynch said Purdy should be fully ready to go by training camp.

Kyle Shanahan said it’s possible Purdy won’t be ready till week 4.

Purdy himself dropped this bomb, saying he’s “not really sure” if he will be ready to play in 2023.

Someone’s story is way off here, but I’m sure this is yet another attempt by Click-Bait Cohn to stir the shit, but Purdy DID say it. Does it really mean anything? Probably not.

Best case scenario is training camp. A longer recovery would be somewhere between week 2 and week 6. Missing the whole season? Doubtful. But who knows? These kinds of surgeries have been successful for pitchers for decades, and some have even gone through the process twice.

That being said, only Mike Clevinger has been even remotely effective as a pitcher after the 2nd TJ surgery. But most of the other guys were on the far side of 30 anyway. But the impetus here being, Purdy had better be fully functional by the time he gets back on the field. Whether training camp, or week 14, or 2024.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Purdy is young and strong and should be able to fully recover from this. The timeframe IS the main issue, but as I said, he likely will be on the field by week 4 at the latest, I’d think.