Forty Niners Forever

The 2021 football season comes rushing at us in 5 days. The hype, the backlash, the prevaricating, the questions about our starting QB and all that jazz can be put to rest. The game will actually finally be played on the field! WITH fans! Not that we will see the boys in person any time soon. Our first home game is September 26th, against the Packers.

With that being said, Trey lance still isn’t throwing footballs. He’s dealing with the bone chip in his index finger. He’s out of the splint, but no throwing. This may slow our roll a bit, but the hope is the Niners can treat these first two games as extended pre-season game in preparation for the real deal come the 26th. Neither the Eagles or Lions are very good, so the chance to ease into the meatier part of our schedule when we face GB, Seattle, and AZ will be a welcome one.

Dee Ford is apparently ready to ease back into action after he, by his own account, rushed himself back into action nearly a year ago, costing him the entire season. Not sure who OKed this course of getting football-ready, but it sounds pretty stupid. He has seen the light (I guess) and everyone is saying the right things about his progress, and he will be used on an as-needed basis. Nothing near full time. A la Fred Dean one would hope. The rest of the line looks strong and healthy, so his passing down playing should be effective.

Of course things hardly go as planned, so we just have to wait and see how this plays out. Almost there!!

1. Defensive end Alex Barrett. Age: 27
2. Wide receiver Travis Benjamin. Age: 31
3. Wide receiver River Cracraft. Age: 26
4. Defensive lineman Darrion Daniels. Age: 23
5. Fullback Josh Hokit. Age: 23
6. Offensive tackle Corbin Kaufusi. Age: 28
7. Guard Senio Kelemete. Age: 31
8. Tight end Jordan Matthews. Age: 29
9. Safety Jared Mayden. Age: 23
10. Guard Colton McKivitz. Age: 25
11. Quarterback Nate Sudfeld. Age: 27
12. Linebacker Elijah Sullivan. Age: 24
13. Tight end Tanner Hudson. Age: 26
14. Cornerback Dee Virgin. Age: 27

BONUS: Offensive tackle Alfredo Gutierrez. Age: 25

We have two more slots to fill. Most intriguing guy to me is safety Jared Mayden. He’s young and talented, and may be called up soon. I’m a little surprised he made it through waivers. Sullivan is another young guy wecan likely turn into something.

Guys like Benjamin and Carcraft will likely be game-day call-ups as needed. Barrett is a pretty solid guy, we just have so much line depth he can’t squeeze into the lineup.

Gutierrez is part of some kind of diversity program for foreign players, sohe doesn’t count against any kind of body count.

Color me baffled. The 49ers cut Ha Ha Clinton-Dix among the guys to be shuffled off to Fed Ex to meet the 53 man roster. Here’s the list:

• WR Travis Benjamin (J. Anderson)
• C Jake Brendel (NFLN)
• S Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (Orlando Sentinel)
• FB Josh Hokit (The Athletic)
• OL Senio Kelemete (NFLN)
• CB Alexander Myres (The Athletic)
• TE MyCole Pruitt (NFLN)
• WR Nsimba Webster (The Athletic)

Hokit and Kelememte are likely headed for the taxi squad but Dix played a solid safety all preseason. Benjamin is OK, but Jennings has dropped a lot of passes, Hurd is pretty much a non-entity, but Sherfeld came on strong, and Sanu did as well. I get that, but not sure what the Niners are thinking with the safety position.

I guess they feel really good about Talano Hufanga. Yes, he’s a star in the making, but Dix would be a solid backup, and tavon Wilson is not on my radar as being much more than adequate. Jaquiski Tartt is ‘making strides’ to play opening day, and yes he’s a very good safety. When he’s on the field.

Other than that, we traded LB Jonas Griffith and a 2022 seventh-round draft pick to the Broncos for their 2022 sixth-round draft pick and a 2023 seventh-round draft pick.

So much for never playing the Raiders in the preseason. Hopefully it isn’t a stupid-fest in the stands. We are supposed to see a lot of starters, but I don’t believe it.

Anyhow, the real season gets one more week closer. . .

The Niners made some moves to get to the 80-man limit yesterday, including releasing:

DL Shilique Calhoun
CB B.W. Webb

The following guys have been waived:

WR River Cracraft
OL Corbin Kaufusi

And the Mychal Kendricks Experience has been a short-lived one as he has been put on the IR. Maybe his Band of Gypsies will make a come-back in October.

This upcoming game with the Las Vegasangeles Raiders will supposedly have a lot more starters than in recent games, but who and for how long has not been shared by the powers-that-be. The murmurings say that they may play the entire 1st half, but that will be something to see on game-day Sunday.

Something I just happened to notice is that without the 4th preseason game, there is a 2 week break between the last pre-season game and the opening of the regular season.

Odd, but I guess it will help the players that they get a break before the real action starts.

Well, the preseason is off to a rocky start. QB-wise anyway. Both Jimmy G and Trey Lance had cases of the yips as they both overthrew pass-catchers and both suffered interceptions. Trey did redeem himself by directing a TD drive with less than 2 minutes before the half, and the opening drive of the 3rd quarter. But at one point, he was 1-5 with 9 yards and three 3-and-outs.

For Jimmy G, this is not good. He should be used to the speed of the game and how to dump off effectively. Instead, he has bad footwork, and hurries his off-target throws. Lance? Well, he’s still learning, or unlearning, bad habits. Like not setting his feet and not hurrying passes. Trey settled down nicely as he and Trent Sherfeld seem to be making a habit of Sherfeld getting amazingly open on deep sideline routes for big plays.

And this is why I’m not too concerned about Lance. He needs a LOT of reps to feel comfortable in the NFL game. The speed is vastly different, and he doesn’t have a ton of college experience anyway. Yes, he was tentative on a broken play that he should have chosen to run faster, but he also showed his running ability on the 2-pt conversion that was called back. he threw some misguided missiles on short passes, but his Sanu and Benjamin on perfectly timed rockets into small windows for TDs.

The offense is really ultra-vanilla as our big weapons Kittle and Mostert aren’t playing, and Trent Williams is sidelined. We don’t want to show anything too outlandish, and with Jimmy back there, we won’t anyway. He needs to tighten up his game dramatically.

Another concerning thing, to me anyway is the drops. Aiyuk has a few, Samuel a couple, and there were more scattered drops yesterday. Even the 2 picks could be considered drops as both times the WRs had both hands on the ball. Again though, I’m more concerned about Garoppolo regarding this as he has to be better than that. As there is little chance Lance starts the season as the starter, Jimmy G can’t be making stupid decisions and throwing those WTF picks he seems to do once or twice a game.

Defensively I liked the pressure we got. Even though none of our starting D line played. Minus AA. He played great for a short time, and the backups took over. Sacks, run stuffing, a safety, and a lot of pressure looked good. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix looked solid till he lost a guy in the end zone. Hufanga looked solid as well playing safety.

Still and all, there were lots of penalties, including bullshit ones, and lots of mistakes, but this is what the new NFL looks like with limited practice time, limited scrimmaging, and now one less preseason game.

Blah blah blah.

Not much to report other than Trent Williams is (gulp) day-to-day with a knee injury (he got clipped) he sustained on Monday. It isn’t awful, but he’s likely not doing anything for the next 2 weeks. Emmanuel Moseley is dealing with a sore hammy. Something to keep him out of practice and possibly week 1. Gulp. Nevermind Dee Ford, Greenlaw, Warner, and Ebukam.

They just need to hit the ground pounding everything in site. The defense has me worried as we won’t see them play together until the Deetroit game. Yes, it’s Detroit, but hey, blind squirrel/nut and all that.

We are practicing with the Chargers right now, so this is a little better than scrimmages with themselves before their game on Sunday, but we have to get healthy at some point. Nick Boisa appears to be ready after spending the whole preseason doing individual drills, but we will see how it goes.

Preseason games usually aren’t a big deal, but this is the debut of Trey Lance and the future of the 49ers. We even have a representative, 12thMan, at the game. Can’t wait for our on-the-scene coverage. I’m sure the place will be packed, as this is the opening game of Lance’s career.

I guess it is fitting that I’m in Montana right now. And this is the start of another 49er dynasty. Let’s GOOO!!!!!!

Here we are 4 days away from the opening preseason game with the Chiefs. 12th man will ably represent the gang here, so I can’t wait to see how this goes. Given the COVID nature of things, the shorter practices, less hitting, less time in camp, and now one less preseason game, it is hard to gauge how well we (or any team) will come out of the gate. But the possibilities seem endless.

Camp has been fairly quiet, which is good, but most of our starting D line hasn’t been on the field yet. That includes Armstead, Bosa, Ford, and Ebukam. We’ll see how that goes. They may be rusty. I just hope they are ready. Guys like Trey Sermon are making a big impression, Verrett is apparently playing as smooth as glass, and guys seem to be in the right place at the right time.

As far as the Franchise goes, word out of camp is that the 49ers have already vastly improved Trey Lance’s passing accuracy within the six short weeks he’s been part of the organized team activities. Troy Aikman said a while back that you can’t teach accuracy, but by looking at Josh Allen’s stats they tell a different tale. In his rookie season, he threw for 53%. 2019, 59%, and last year 69%. Sure, routes being run, length of passes, yadda yadda yadda, but that’s a pretty steep climb. One of Lance’s issues coming out of college has been his accuracy, but the Niners seem to have a handle on that.

Mainly because accuracy is all about Bill Walsh’s mantra. Footwork. He would tell the other coaches, don’t watch anything but Joe’s feet. Watch his feet. Walsh taught Montana that the cadence and placement of his feet dictated everything about a given play. He would repeat the drops over and over for a given play so that his feet would always be in the right place once he reached the end of his drop. Joe, being smart enough to get what Walsh was saying, figured it out pretty quickly. Also, repeating that footwork as a platform th throw off of build consistency and a repeatable pattern of success.If a 3 step-drop play went to 5 steps, then the progressions would be off and the play would be where it was designed to go. If the passer double-clutched or hesitated, the play was usually lost. These plays were designed with precise timing in mind.

Flash forward to now, and the 49ers coaches noticed immediately issues with Lance’s footwork. in the short time they have worked with him, his accuracy has shot up. 22-24 in yesterday’s practice. Sure, it’s practice, but again, like Walsh taught, you find the problem, you fix the problem, then repeat it over and over until it becomes automatic. He has become more and more of a possible starter this season in the eyes of the coaching staff because of his grasp of the tuning of his throwing motion and footwork.

Can’t wait to see this!