San Francisco 49ers Forever

It is hurt? Is it not hurt? Either way, the the calf, uh cat will be out of the bag tomorrow once the game starts, if not earlier. Not sure if this is gamesmanship on the part of the 49ers, or simply nothing, as CMC said himself yesterday, or a bigger problem like last year.

Hearing ‘calf’ send alarm bells in my head given the achilles issues, but hey, that’s me. Anyhow, this should be a good test for our offense. Regardless of CMC, Seattle has a soft interior line, so we look to run. Then again, Seattle has a solid run game themselves so they look to do the same.

Their defense isn’t spectacular in any stretch, but they are decent. We don’t know what we are on D. To win this game it may just come down to who makes the mistakes on offense. With or without CMC our offense should be able to move the ball. Red zone? Well, that’s where we missed CMC the most.

Seattle? They have Slinging Sourdough Sam Ginger Darnold. But they don’t have DK Metcalfe. We need to get on top early and pressure Darnold. He’s not gonna run like Wilson, or even Geno, so just force him to fuck up.

Niners 28-20. No fucking FGs.

And I fucking love it. Football is still my favorite sport to watch, no matter how hard they fuck with it. Kickoffs are still a mystery to me. And I bemoan the loss of the onside kick. That being said, just watched my first NFL Network season kickoff show, and the 49ers have fallen off the radar. Which to me is excellent news.

All the talk of course is about an old and washed Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh. He has got all the wonks wet in their chairs. Guess what? They will still suck. Rodgers is no answer to Pittsburgh’s offensive problems. Sure, Tomlin just might reach 9-8 to preserve that blessed winning season streak, but the fact remains they haven’t won a playoff game in 9 seasons. For whatever reason, their offense stinks on ice, and once they fall behind, they are doomed. Kenny Pickett? Russell Wilson? Justin Fields? Mason Rudolph? Nopes across the board. They are looking like the Bears of the last, oh 110 years in their desperate search for a quarterback.

The other orgasm-fest is the trade of Micah Parsons from Dallas to Green Bay. The talking heads all jizz over how this now puts Green Bay over the top and they are SERIOUS Super Bowl contenders now. Please. They wont even win their division. If ever a trade hurt both teams involved, it’s this one. Green Bay WAY overpaid for a guy who is 3/5 hype, and 2/5 talent. Generational guy? Ehhhhhhh. Parsons is a good solid pass rusher. Run defender? Nope. Can he drop and cover? Nope. 0 picks in 4 seasons. Consistent? Nope. The bigger the game, the smaller the output. Green Bay’s defense has been notoriously soft, and adding an end that provides no run support doesn’t help the cause. Jordan Love will spend most games on the sideline hoping he sees the ball eventually.

Dallas on the other hand has to do something with the two 1st round picks. But for now they are toast on a biscuit. Prescott is getting ungodly money to be a fairly pedestrian guy, and Jerry is Jerry, so nothing good comes from them this year. Except the relentless hype coming out of the media and Jerry Jerk-off.

It’ll be fun as fuck to see Philly beat the living shit out of Dallas. No love for the Eagles and the Sirianni Experience of dumb luck, but the made me happy beating the fucking Chiefs, and it’ll make me laugh to see Dallas go down in flames amid the perpetual hype machine that is Jerry Jones. _________________________________

Anyhow, here we are on the cusp of the season. What do you guys think? We have most of our team back from injuries. hild-outs, and offseason signings. JJ is in the house. The only big piece missing is Brandon Aiyuk. Ricky Pearsall looks to shine, and CMC is healthy, so there’s no excuse for this offense to be flat.

Purdy stands to look a hell of a lot better not having to chase the scoreboard all game. I mean we had better improve from 28th in points allowed. Right

I have us at what I originally thought a couple weeks ago.

12-5.

Our time is now. I think the Rams fall of the table, and I also think Deetroit does as well.

Another Old Fave. . .

T minus 5 days and counting before the season starts. Everyone is slowing crawling out of the training room, and the team is as healthy as it has been since I don’t know. 2021?

And wonder of wonders, Jauan Jennings calf magically healed itself as the 49ers were mulling over signing Kendrick Bourne to take his spot. At a much cheaper price of course. Leaving JJ with the option of missing the season, or quitting entirely. Neither of which he wanted to do. Whatever leverage he thought he had with all the injries in the WR room were pretty much vaporized by the spinning door of WRs that came and went at a dizzying pace.

Looks to me that they are set to move on from JJ. Unless he really does become the Super Bowl MVP he should have been (sob) a couple years ago. But we will see how things go with Ricky Pearsall, Demarcus Robinson (in 3 weeks), and BA, (eventually), rookie Jordan Watkins, and the Skyy Moore/MVS/Chosen practice squad guys.

As a 10 year old kid who was a huge Niners fan, this thrilled the shit out of me when I got this issue. Wish I still had it.

Here we are 54 years later, and I’m cautiously optimistic about this team. I’m positive was are gonna be worlds better on defense.

I’m fairly sure we are better on special teams, Moody Nick notwithstanding.

But I’m not sure what is going on with the offense. Between the injury bug wiping out the WRs and RBs, we’ve gone through a carousel ride of signings, IRs, waives, cuts, re-signs, suspensions, hold-outs, and injuries. And then there’s the O line . . .

The crack medical staff managed to re-injure both Jennings and Cowing, so they are off the books for a while. Aiyuk is looking at missing 4-10 games from last year’s knee injury. Robinson got suspended by the NFL Police Dep’t. and will miss 3 games. Both Watkins and Gage missed practice yesterday with knee injuries. So the depth there is thin even with Equanimeous St. Brown on the practice squad.

Hoping against all hope that Isaac Guerendo can stay healthy, although he’s been hurt 6 different ways from Sunday January 5th this year. As of now he is ready for opening day. Kiner was here, great, hurt, and now gone as he was waived off the IR list. Jordan James is back after missing most of camp with a finger injury. Patrick Taylor is out for the year after a shoulder separation. Wilson was signed and released.

The good news is that Dominick Puni is likely back for the opener in Seattle. Other than that, we are banking on both grizzled vet Trent Williams and the oft-injured Ben Bartch to anchor the left side of the line to stay healthy. Jake (where’s State Farm?) Brendel continues to be the matador at center.

This of course is my biggest concern. The best laid plans and all that can be undone in a hurry by injuries to our O line. I hope the neglect doesn’t bite us in the ass.

Apparently we cut our punter and don’t have one now. We actually have 4 available roster spots for, say, a punter and a 3rd string QB among other O linemen.

1:00 PM tomorrow is cut-down day. All NFL rosters must be down to 53 players. My hope is an O lineman or two come available but that rarely happens these days. I’m sure there will be some guys worth looking at, but we will see.

On the medical front, the 49ers crack training staff oversaw the reaggravation of Jauan Jennings calf injury and Jacob Cowing’s hamstring injury, so both of their returns are set back a few weeks. And of course, Demarcus Robinson is suspended for the NFL’s arcane disciplinary standards. We may very well pluck a WR from the cut list. Robbie Chosen looked good tho Saturday. As did Malik Turner.

Rookie CB Jakob Robinson broke his arm late in the game. Backup false-starter Isaiah Prince hurt his knee, and both 3rd string QBs tweaked their ankles. One stays, one goes. Prolly Mordecai to the taxi squad.

Watched the game last night, and wow, it’s just nice to see a defense actually showing different fronts and disguising blitzes. Not the exact same 4-3 front with the LBs 10 yards deep every single play. Any more of that and I was gonna lose my mind. I hope they try to keep Saleh in the building next year. The defense is way too talented to be playing on their heels and simply reacting to plays rather than forcing the action.

But, now we wait. Two weeks before game one of the 2025 season, and I’m cautiously optimistic about the offense and very happy about the defense. The D forces some turnovers, showed a bunch of different fronts, and even with the backups, played a much more aggressive defense. The rookies were a mixed bag. Alfred Collins showed his greenness, but had some good looking plays. Nick Martin showed out very well as the preseason progressed.

Our #1 pick Mykel Williams hasn’t played a down in preseason, but is expected to start. He looked well in practice apparently, and is scheduled to start the season opener in Seattle.

Special teams? Ain’t they special? They generally looked better despite the occasional hiccup on coverages. Still don’t get the newer kickoff rules. But then there’s moody Nick Moody. A guy who truly lives up to his name. Guys these days routinely boot 60+ yard FGs at a 90% clip and the Mood Man struggles with 33 yard XPs. Hope sticking with him doesn’t bite the team in the ass.

Mercifully the last preseason game is here. We still have actual players that aren’t wounded, and it’s likely no starters are even gonna get one series, but this heralds the start of the 2025 season. One that can’t start fast enough as training camp has proven to be the Bataan Death March.

It also heralds the return to the mudflats of two of the bigger pariahs in recent 49er history. Trey Lance and Jim Harbaugh. Lance is drawing huge praise for his abilities in preseason. Laughable of course because he likely doesn’t see the field but for mop-up duty behind Justin Herbert, but hey, anything to garner clicks as the interwebs explode with stories of how remorseful Shanahan is over Lances success. Sure. As if Lance staying here as the backup makes up for the oodles of picks they gave up to get him.

Harbaugh? Well, as usual, he left a trail of destruction behind his recent hirings at Michigan and SF, and is adept at rallying the troops. All his programs that he took over were talented and rudderless. All improved wildly in some cases, and Michigan even won it all amid a boatload of allegation and impropiety.

Tough row for him in the stacked AFC West now. He’ll do his usual rah-rah bullshit and get close but ultimately fail and piss off everyone around him.

Us? We will only go as far as Shanahan’s hubris allows us to. If we don’t get injured first.

More like burnt, tired, and need a vacation from my vacation.

Anyhow, this season looks like it is unravelling before it even starts. Didn’t pay any attention to much when we were gone (I did read the blog when the game ended) but it sure sounded like the injury bug turned into COVID after that win over the Raiders.

Do we have to play this last preseason game? Can we just trot out ALL 3rd stringers? I know guys need work, but we are going through players like kleenex at a porn theater.

Trust me, I used to live down the street from the Palm Theater in San Mateo. I got a great laugh when they decided to become a porn house. Friend of mine managed the place for a summer job. Good times!

But as usual I digress.

Are we gonna try to sneak Kiner thru waivers and re-sign him to the taxi squad? I need to watch the game and see the (injuries) results.

still traveling but here’s a new thread.

I cannot believe the amount of injuries and we are 3 weeks away from real games.

Hey we lost big, but overall this was a solid game on all sides of the equation. Our #2 offense played well vs Denver’s #1 defense,WR Jordan Watkins out-muscled Denver’s DB on a decent throw for a deep connection by Mac Jones, and he had a solid game, and the run game was decent, with Kiner getting 45 yards on 10 carries. At least on the first couple drives with the 2s in. The #2 defense played with a LOT more flow and power as the rookies up front did well to hold their gaps and got pressure on Nix and their 1s.

Thing is, I can look back on last year’s preseason opener and safely say we showed about 100% better effort on offense, defense, and special teams. UDFA DT Sebastian Valdez lit up the tape with pressures, tackles for losses, and 1/2 a sack against Denver’s 1s. CJ West showed well, clogging up the middle, filling his gap, and providing push up the middle.

Special teams also got into the act with a nice Junior Bergen 28 yard punt return. Nick Moody even made his 1 extra point attempt. And there were very few penalties and stupid shit going on.

The rest of the game was a 3rd string slop-fest, but overall I feel SO much better about the team than I did last year at this time. I knew back then that our style of defense and special teams were gonna be a major problem, and they were.