Forty Niners Forever

Alex Mack announced his retirement today, a month AFTER the draft, and 2 months AFTER free agency. And 2 hours AFTER he restructured his contract to save the team $4 mill in cap space.

I’m sure they expected this to happen. There IS the possibility of throwing money at JC Tretter, or they may simply go with internal candidates; rookie Dohnovan Poe, journeyman Daniel Brunskill, or the guy who COVIDed out last year, Jake Brendel are all available and ready. Brendel received rave reviews before deciding to skip the season last year.

So, maybe this isn’t as big a deal as I thought. Or maybe it is. Just another little wrinkle in what is a seemingly needlessly fucking weird offseason. Still got Jimmy. National media is still fretting over why. Deebo still remains unsigned. Although no news is good news at this point. Don’t see an issue there.

And, Frank Gore signed a one-day contract and will officially retire as a 49er.

Much appreciation and kudos to Frank, who provided hundreds and hundreds of highlights among many seasons of fair to shitty football. Like Paul Hofer before him, he did get in some quality play with a good team, so there’s that. But the next stop for Frank is the Hall of Fame.

What is it about the national media and San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks? Every few days there’s a new report (substantiated by the proverbial ‘someone in the building’) that the 49ers are ‘disappointed’ in Trey Lance’s development and are dabbling with starting Jimmy G.

Colin Cowherd is the latest in a long line of talking heads that wonder why Jimmy G is still on the team (duh!!! Does shoulder surgery ring any bells?), he wonders why there isn’t any tape on Lance (it’s fucking May, and he played TWO games last year. Look at THOSE tapes), and that people are ‘selling’ Trey too hard.

Huh? Last week, the problem was NO ONE was talking about Lance. Now there is too much talk. Funny shit. He also said the Chiefs didn’t ‘sell’ Mahomes. Jesus. There’s a thing call the internet where you can look things up. There are about 250 articles on the development of Mahomes as he sat behind Alex Smith.

You know. The FUCKING PLAN ALL ALONG by the coaching staff. So, Cowherd thinks it would have been a better idea to not go the the NFCCG and force Lance to play his rookie year? Got it. Or throw a rookie QB into a playoff game? Brilliant.

Lazy fuck posting stupid shit a la Emmanuel Acho and Marcellus Wiley who both said “some guy in the building said blah blah blah. . . ” Must be fun to simply make shit up to get noticed in the interwebs. Or to drive people to your lame-ass TV show. What a fucking gig.

Whatevs. No one knows how this pans out. it may take a couple years. Josh Allen sure didn’t light the world up his first season.

Sure, I can’t stand Grant Cohn. Shit, I couldn’t stand his father Lowell Cohn. Both are shit-disturbing weasels who are only looking for reactions from the drivel the routinely and incessantly post.

In the video, Cohn said that, “if [Kinlaw] would have touched me, if he would have pushed me, I could have retired today.” Cohn said he was thinking, “‘Oh damn, I’m about to retire. I’m about to be out of the game. I’m about to be a multi-millionaire.’”

We should be so lucky.

Cohn repeatedly antagonized Kinlaw and escalated the situation to promote his fucking content. You know, the click-bait end game that is ‘journalism’ these days. Cohn said:

“Javon, what are you so upset about? Is it the fact that I said you have an 80-year-old knee…is it the fact that I said you’re unprofessional and immature? It escapes me, which of the hundred negative things I’ve said about Javon Kinlaw the last couple of years moved him to approach me in such a way.”

Teammates are all behind Kinlaw, including Arik Armstead, and George Kittle so far.

Not much action on the old Warriors thread so here’s another one.

The Warriors, who have reached the playoffs 8 out of the last 10 seasons, reached the finals 5 of the last 8 season, and won the Finals 3 of the last 8 seasons are set to reach the Finals again.

No mean feat for a team that was dog meat for a good 14 seasons. Just glad the old owners got out.

Anyhow, I’m sure this game will be heavily tilted by the refs to go Dallas’ way as one more game = a lot more money for the NBA and the cities involved. But I don’t think even the refs can alter the situation.

Warriors sweep.

The Eastern Conference Finals on the other hand are pretty much a slug-fest between Miami and Boston. As John Madden famously said:

“I don’t know if I’m watching 2 great defenses or 2 terrible offenses.”

This certainly holds true for both teams. Boston has some nice players like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Maxwell Smart, and they are solid defensively, but meh. Same with Miami. Butler and Herro are a pretty lethal backcourt, but the rest are role players. There are no big big men left, so this should all work out to the Warriors favor.

My thought originally was if we could get through the West, we’d be a shoe-in for the whole enchilada.

Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals is on the agenda for tonight. I was telling my son, as hot as Dallas was in game 7 vs PHX, they were equally as cold vs the Dubs. Coming off that very emotional win, Dallas came out flat as a pancake. I’m sure Dallas will put up a better fight, but I don’t see Dallas winning this series. The Warriors played a pretty sloppy game and still won handily. Klay didn’t score in the 1st half, Steph was off, but once again, Looney came out and played extremely well getting early points and a lot of offensive rebounds.

Another funny thing, and something almost ALWAYS overlooked by the pundits and talking heads, is that Steph led the game with 12 rebounds. Only guy in double figures. He routinely gets tons of boards and that and his defense goes unnoticed.

Donćič? Well, he’s only one guy. Dallas is not bigger than us, and when they go small, they still don’t try to run fast breaks. They are a plodding half-court offense. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just that the Warriors can defend that very well. Wiggins has been a valid force in these playoffs, and this has been a revelation. He is putting in the dirty work that used to be Klay’s job, and he is banging underneath to get rebounds and defending the rim.

This frees Klay to do more moving off the ball on offense and not have to focus so hard on defense. And it is a sight for sore eyes to see Otto Porter back. His defense is a big part of the Warriors being able to pull away late in games. he has a few big shots in him, and can defend with the best of them.

Yeah, yet another rumor that the Panthers are still interested in Jimmy G. Sure, it could happen. Will it? God only knows. Still think the sage drags on till late June. Deebo will either be signed or not, but he will sign. The front offce usually takes their time on these types of deals, so I don’t see anything off-putting yet.

Other than that, we have the Warriors playing the surprising Dallas Mavericks, who ran the Suns out of their own building last night in a humiliating slaughter.

Good times. I think we can take Dallas much easier than Phoenix, so there’s that. I also think Boston takes the Heat, so Celtic/Warriors in the NBA finals.

Without further ado, the 2022 49ers schedule is out.

49ers 2022 Preseason

1 SF vs. Green Bay
2 SF @ Minnesota
3 SF @ Houston Texans: Thurs 8/25 – 5:00 pm

49ers 2022 Regular Season

All games Sunday, Pacific time unless noted

Home games in bold

1 SF @ Bears: 9/11 – 10 am
2 SF vs. Seattle: 9/18 – 1:05 pm
3 SF @ Denver: 9/25 – 5:20 pm
4 SF vs. Rams: Mon, 10/3 at 5:15 pm
5 SF @ Carol: 10/9 at 1:05 pm
6 SF @ Atlanta: 10/16 at 10:00 am
7 SF vs. Chiefs: 10/23 at 1:25 pm
8 SF  @ Rams:  10/30 at 1:25 pm
9  BYE
10 SF vs. Chargers: 11/13 at 5:20 pm
11 SF @ AZ: Mon, 11/21 at 5:15 p.m. ET (Mexico)
12 SF vs. Saints: 11/Nov. 27 at 1:25 pm
13 SF vs. Miami: 12/4 at 1:05 pm
14 SF vs. Bucs: 12/11 at 1:25 pm
15 SF @ Seattle: Thurs, 12/15 at 5:20 pm
16 SF vs. Wash: Sat, 12/24 at 1:05 pm
17 SF @ Vegas: 1/1 at 1:05 pm
18 SF vs. AZ: TBD (1/7 or 1/8)

Hey, since there’s nothing to talk about in football land, unless endless mindless speculation about the good, bad, or ugly surrounding Trey Lance and and his abject failure to be a bona fide star in the NFL while never been the starter is fodder up until the season starts and beyond. So, blah blah, woof woof in the immortal words of Jimi Hendrix.

So, sing on, brother; play on, drummer.

The Warriors? This series with the Memphis Grizzlies sure is a full load of weirdness and anger. I’m a bit surprised there hasn’t been a fight. Yet. From Draymond’s takedown of Clarke (bullshit flagrant 2), to Draymond catching an elbow to the eye that required stitches. This after Gary Payton II was beheaded by Brooks on a layup that resulted in a broken arm and Brooks’ flagrant 2 and suspension (too light) for game 3, to the Ninja Death Grip that Jordan Poole put on Ja Morant’s knee in game 3.

Pay no attention to the knee-to-knee contact by Morant on a play where he collided with Klay Thompson attempting to block Klay’s shot, and you can clearly see Morant limping after it. I mean, its a bone bruise, not a vise-grip puncture. Be that as it may, this is a tough series for the Warriors, and I think Taylor Jenkins was a fool for not going with Steven Adams to start the series. Regardless of how he may clog up the floor with Ja out there, Memphis is getting killed on the boards even with our small line iup out there, and they did damage in game 4 with Adams and JJJ out there.

Would love to see the Warriors try a new lineup and start Otto Porter. Jonathan Kuminga isn’t quite ready for prime time and the Warriors desperately need to get off to a quick start tonight. If only to make the rest of the game less frantic. I hope Iggy makes his way back to the line up soon. This team needs some defense. Especially when we get to the next round and we are playing Phoenix.

Since we are in the dark days of football, and Ninerland is consumed with all things Deebo, here’s the latest from Deebo and his brother via Twitter.

(See my first response below)

What does it mean? Little to nothing, but it’s better than him ripping the team. Something he hasn’t done even through all this. This is kinda the trajectory I thought this would follow, but the saga isn’t over yet. Nor is the Jimmy G conundrum.

So, enjoy the ride, and let’s hope the Warriors home cooking is as biased at the Grizzlies was in their house. I thought the NFL was bad where it comes to officials stepping all over a game.

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

The steals apparently are Poe and West, the offensive linemen. No idea.

It’s hard enough to make it in the NFL as a draftee, but exponentially harder as an undrafted free agent.

Here are last year’s guys:

LB Elijah Sullivan, Kansas State
WR Austin Watkins, UAB
LB Justin Hilliard, Ohio State
TE Josh Pederson, Louisiana-Monroe

Hilliard is on the IR with the Giants I think. The rest? Crickets.