Forty Niners Forever

News from Santa Clara is mostly good. The defense is humming along now that we have a better pass rush, and the offense yesterday was led by Jimmy G at a 14-21 completion rate, and some nice red-zone work. The biggest surprise in camp so far is the fight for backup TE, where Ross Dwelley is moving past rookie Kaden Smith, and injured Garrett Celek. He of course was an undrafted signee, but spent the offseason in Nashville working with George Kittle and The Beater to his advantage.

Deebo Samuel is starting to show signs of life as he hauled in a deep pass between the CB and a closing safety, beat them both to the ball, and stayed on his feet for the score.

Worrisome is the play of backup center Ben Garland. He’s getting beat like a drum, and with Westie on the bricks till opening day, Garland will hopefully improve, or we may need to do something when cut-down day sends some talent into the void.

McKinnon and Verrett were nowhere to be seen,  nut K’Wuan Williams is quietly putting together a solid camp as well. He’ll be mainly a nickel back, but since we play in the NFC West with the likes of Goff, Wilson, and now Murray, I foresee a LOT of nickel. Having him playing well will be a big help.

4 days till the Dallas game!

Well, the good news is we’ve avoided the, uh nevermind. Don’t want to tempt fate. Word out of camp is that the defense is ahead of the offense. Which to me is a good thing because our defense has been a problem these last few seasons.

Granted, they are practicing against us so it’s hard to gauge how bad the offense really is, or how good the defense really is. This is akin to the 49ers back in the day when they were preparing for Super Bowl XXIV. Sure, Miami was a juggernaut on offense, but we were pretty damn good ourselves.

Miami’s defense however, was not very good, so for the Dolphins to be practicing against a subpar defense i felt, put Miami at a disadvantage as the 49ers were practicing against a top 5 defense. So, if our offense could move on our defense in practice, we would smoke the Dolphins in the game. Which we did.

Does that apply now? Well, the hope is that our defense has raised its game to the point where the offense really needs to get better to be able to hold its own against our improved defense.

Either that, or our offense is so inept that the defense isn’t really special, just playing against a bunch of stiffs.

I doubt that is the case, because even with Nick Mullens and The Beater, the team wasn’t wholly inept on offense last year, but the defense sure was. Anyhow, onward to the preseason!

The clock has officially started on the 2019 season, and for the first time in a long time at the start of camp, we aren’t worried about a player in trouble with the law, (Reuben, Aldon Smith, Ray Mc D, etc.), we aren’t worried about a GM who hates his coach, a coach that farts his way through his initial presser, a revolving door at the coaching position, and a plethora of shitty players without a clue on how to succeed.

For once it’s finally only about football. All our picks are signed. Including the great white hype that is Nick Bosa, and our hopefully #1 WR Deebo Samuel. Crazy thing about this season is that the possibilities are endless. In the immortal words of NoFear, I predict something between 10-6 and 6-10. All kidding aside, there are a lot of questions.

• Are all the offensive pieces going to click into place and become a top 10 offense?
• Will the all the new defensive pieces coalesce into a top 10 unit?
• Will Nick Bosa stay healthy? Jason Verrette? Jimmy G? Jerick McKinnon?
• Can this revamped defense rush the passer well enough to create turnovers?
• Will the secondary not get torched regularly, and not leave guys wide wide open?

We all know the drill. Injuries can waylay the best of plans, and last year’s team, one that had much the same expectations this one does coming off the 5-game winning streak of Garoppolo. Last started kinda shakey (Jimmy’s only win was nearly negated by a horrible pick near the end of the game), and was crippled by an ill-advised juke by Garoppolo. The season thereafter was an audition for myriad positions, and set the stage for yet another strong performance by a new QB late in the season. The unheralded Big Nick Mullens of course. CJ Beathard cemented his legacy as a guy who can take a hit, but was not getting it done on the field.

It seemed all our RB, DBs, and LBs, got hurt and we were revolving tons of different guys in and out of the lineup. Brieda was great but was in and out of the lineup. Jeff Wilson and Raheem Mostert played very well as 4th string replacements. the LBs and DBs however were a mixed bag of shit most of the time. However, I think a lot of that can be attributed to George Saleh. I think he did more to confuse his own players than to confuse opposing offenses. Guys were left wide open, like no one within 15 yards,  waaaaay too many times early on.  Things got a little better later as Selah simplified things and the breakdowns weren’t as prevalent.

Anyhow, here we go. The Giants already lost their presumptive #1 WR Sterling Shepard with a thumb injury. We need to keep the injury bug at bay.

Camp is almost here! Which means we are that much closer for the season to start! Last year’s early expectations, and the subsequent crash-and-burn are behind us, and the real season that is supposed to be our second coming has nearly arrived.

Of course the trepidation factor is off the charts as it was only last year that our starting RB Jerick McKinnon was waylaid by an ACL tear on day 1.  that was the beginning of the injury maelstrom that enveloped the team last year. Now that we have a new training staff, we’ll avoid the injury bug. One can hope. One can also hope that the recent acquisitions like Dee Ford and Kwon Alexander can hit the ground running. Kentavius Street can provide an outside pass rush along with rookie stud Nick Bosa.
Jason Verrett can stay healthy. Witherspoon finds his game with a better pass rush. Richard Sherman keeps up his good work.

There’s a whole lot of players coming off injury, and a whole lot of question marks around this offense. Most glaringly the play of our quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. If anything, we discovered our backup in Nick Mullens, who directed the team to some solid wins last year. Wins that came with 4th string RBs, DBs, and LBs on the field.

We had a solid draft and added weapons on offense. Just have to wait and see how this plays out. Bring it on!!

Well, they did it! They signed that missing piece from the soon-to-be dynastic 49ers. They signed their placekicker! Robbie (I’m good as gold, just ask me) Gould signed a 4 year, $19 million deal to remain with the 49ers.  Well, it’s actually a guaranteed 2-year deal that the team can bail on.

Crazy thing is, he isn’t the highest paid kicker. That distinction belongs to the Ravens Justin Tucker. He makes a cool $5 mill a year. What seemed like a barely veiled ploy by Gould to get more money, we,, he got it. And, as long as everyone is happy, hey it’s all water under the bridge. As Winder said, it’s now one less thing to worry about. I would have preferred a draft pick or 2, but as noted, everyone’s happy.

In other important news, Jimmy G has been cleared to fully participate in training camp.

The fun with Robbie Gould continues as Gould sits on the sidelines and pines for the Bears. Funny thing is, the Bears are depleted of draft picks due to the Khalil  Mack trade, and they are into Cross-bar Parkey for about $5 million in dead money after his release, AND they would likely need to pay Gould some pretty big dollars once they did trade for him.

https://www.ninersnation.com/2019/7/11/20689519/49ers-robbie-gould-reporting-decision-training-camp

He’s not going to sign a deal here. The question remains, will he sit for the season rather than play? He’s made somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million in his NFL career, so, gee, I don’t feel that bad for the poor guy.  It just seems like a total weasel move to pull this kind of shit. he ain’t a WR, a pass rusher, or star corner, FFS.

Again, kicking isn’t easy, but it isn’t the clusterfuck the Bears made it out to be.

Where’s this guy?

Andrew Baggett

Less than 4 weeks away, 24 days to be exact, before training camp starts. July 26th. Mick Jagger’s birthday. Circle that date. Why does this feel like the longest slowest offseason in history? The new CBA has something to do with it. The interminable lull between the draft and camp is the other. Crazy thing is, 2 weeks after camp starts, we have out first preseason game against the Cowboys. Seems like we barely get ANY practice in pads at full speed, and teams still get waylaid by injuries. They may have gone too far in the wrong direction with the reduction in padded practices.

Anyhow, word out of the Nick Bosa camp is that he is healthy and ready to fully participate in training camp. Ready but not able, until he signs. He and Deebo Smith haven’t inked their deals yet.  All the rest of our rookie class has signed, and although I haven’t heard anything specific, I’d think Deebo and Bosa will be at camp early with the other rookies.

Or is it? Nothing to report on these days in the doldrums between the draft, OTAs, and actual camp. Time for boys to be good boys and not get caught up in any shenanigans, or felonies for that matter. One (well, me) has to wonder if there are still a couple free agents still out there, let alone after camp cut down days.

Perusing the free agent list, a few solid DBs are still floating out there, including Morris Claiborne, and Tre Boston. With Jimmy Ward out yet again, Boston makes a lot of sense. He’s had 10 picks and 26 passes defensed the past 3 years, and is only 26. Claiborne is a good corner who would add depth along with his 22 passes defensed and 3 picks in the last couple years. Nothing spectacular but solid depth nonetheless. There’s always Eric Berry, good guy but like Ward has trouble staying on the field.

Donald Penn can be had as a swing tackle who can provide depth on the line. Wilkerson and Derrick Morgan are available at OLB. Shit, even Kelvin Benjamin is still out there.

Here’s the list of top 50.

Top 50 Available 2019 NFL Free Agents List

With lil’ Robbie Gould bitching his way out of SF, and with the kicking saga in Chicago reaching epic proportions, you’d think we could work out some kind of fleecing deal that Lynch could conjure up with da Bears. Chicago is in kicking hell, and holding open tryouts for placekickers from the magic 33 yard line. Yes, the same 33 yard line where recently cut, and still collecting bank, Cody Pankey famously double-doinked his kick in the playoffs last year.

Funny thing is, no one in the tryouts can hit from 43. They had 8 guys kicking, and they went 2-8. They narrowed it down to Dewey, Cheathan, and Howe Piniero, Blewett, and Fry. They got the benefit of the doubt and were kicking 42 yard FGs. They all missed. Because Blewett, well, blew it, he was blown off the team. They are down to Fry and Piniero. Are they even options? Are they in the market for Robbie? He’s been openly pleading to go back there after they shoved him out the door 4 years ago.

Given the fact that Matt Nagy has made this such a huge deal for the team, one would think we could work out a trade. Chicago won’t be trading draft picks to us as they have burned a shit ton last year (1st and 2nd for Khalil Mack, 4th rounder to move up and get David Montgomery) and they only have 6 picks.

Players? It would be cool to get ILB Danny Trevathan from the Bears. They’ll get cap relief of around $6 mill, they get their kicker, and we shore up our defense even more. We’d proll have to throw in a 4th round pick or something, but hey sounds good to me.

Hey, I know. The draft is over. Well, talking about it never is, so there’s that. Just wanted to post this draft info re the NFC West by draftnik Chris Trapasso. Interesting take on the Cardinals, if nothing else. He says they nailed the draft, did very well in free agency and were smart in going away from Josh Rosen. Kingsbury even gets high marks for his high-powered offense. We’ll see about that, and how fast they assimilate all their changes.

He gives the 49ers high marks. His only ding was shared by most of us. Not much in the way of secondary help. But he notes the pass rush should be vastly improved, Jimmy G and new weapons should do wonders. The hope is with another season under their belts, this offense improves greatly and the defense finally gets its collective shit together.

The Hawks and Rams are who they are and shouldn’t be backsliding much, if at all. Though I think Seattle’s defense will finally suffer from all their losses these last couple years.

Thing is, this division should be one of the tougher ones going forward. All these teams improved, and all could be vying for playoff berths.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfc-west-2019-offseason-grades-cardinals-vast-makeover-earns-an-a-49ers-also-get-top-mark/