Forty Niners Forever

Tell ya one thing, QWilliams solidified his spot as a stud in the draft in the combine. Likely a top-3 stud. His combine was very successful (4.83 40 time at 303 lb) and it already added to his draft stock. I figured that since we re-upped Arik Armstead, we would simply go for Josh Allen and be done with it.

BUT (there’s always a big but) there are three teams right behind us that might want to trade up and get their quarterback. The Giants, who say they are fine with Eli Manning (?!?), the Redskins, who have to cover for the loss of young Sir Alex, and the Raiders, whose head coach is frustrated with Derek Carr.

The quarterbacks in question are the mercurial Kyler Murray, the consensus #1 qb in this draft ion Dwayne Haskins, and the most polished guy, Daniel Jones. Rumors around the combine had Jones being the fridst QB picked in this draft. Another scenario presented comes from Walter football, who has us trading down with the Giants and taking their 1st round pick, 6th overall. In their scenario, the Giants get Haskins, and we still get QWilliams, as the Raiders take Murray, the Jets take Josh Allen, and the Redskins take Jones.

I could live with that as we’d get some additional picks from the NYGs and still get Williams.

With Kyler Murray fully committing to football, and dissing the Oakland A’s in the process, his announcement has thrown the draft board mavens into a tizzy. Throw in the fact that Murray has committed to meeting with the AZ Cardinals during the combine, you get even more rampant speculation. Murray has flown up the board all the way to the top possibly.

Given the fact that we just re-upped on Arik Armstead (much to Berger’s delight), the door has just been propped open for the 49ers to get the guy who has been called a generational pass rusher who is better  than his brother Joey. Nick Bosa of course. And given the fact that I said this could very well happen once Murray announced a month ago, the question remains:

Do we take Nick Bosa?

He is, in his words, fully healthy and ready to do al the drills in the combine in the next couple days. It would be a nice thing to see him sail through the combine with no setbacks or problems as this team desperately needs a pass rusher.

I know some of you have reservations about signing Bosa, but I’m about 90% sure they do this as I think Kliff Klavin drafts his guy in Kyler Murray. They can trade Josh Rosen and be on their merry way. And I don’t see the 49ers getting Quinnen Williams what with the AA signing.

Apparently we are in the running for Rams OLB Dante Fowler. This works for me. We need all the help we can get at LB and pass rush. Getting Fowler would pave the way for QWIlliams at #2. Sure, we are currently 4th in carrying around dead money, but that comes with the actions of one Trent Baalke, who was shitting in the sandbox for 10 years and signing shit players to long deals. Dumping a bunch of shit players gets one in this spot, and John Lynch isn’t completely rosy in this sense as we have (or will) jettisoned Pierre Garcon, the WR who waited on no one but the bench. But it could be worse, that’s for sure. Paraage the spreadsheet whiz has kept the damage manageable at least.

We are still among the top 8 or so teams with $66 – $70  mill available in cap space. It could be even more as they decide the fate of Arik Armstead, the unlikely guy to stay on the team and cash in on his $9 million option year, Jimmie Ward, the on-again and off-again CB FS SS who needs to stop breaking his arms, and Ronald Blair, the D lineman who has played himself into a bigger role and possibly a big raise.

These are the bigger FA decisions that are coming up, as we avoided dealing with Robbie Gould by franchising him (and thus pissing him off I’m sure) but we get one more year of his accuracy, and he gets one less shitty Chicago winter. His family? Sorry, start shovelling.

Not much going on out there in Ninerland, or football land for that matter. Unless the Antonio Bryant headlong rush into the looney-tunes-diva-wide-receiver-head-case-whack-job Hall of Fame is your style (TO is president and Ocho Cinco is treasurer). It’s good comedy anyway. Call me Mr. Puffy Chest? Really? Call me a Lyft. I’m getting out of Crazy-town.

Speaking of disgruntled Steelers, the guy who is much more appealing to me is Le’Veon Bell. He will not get the franchise tag from the Steelers, and will hit the free agency market soon.  Sure, we have Jared McKinnon, but look how well the run game did without him last year. Brieda, Wilson, Mostert (the free agent brigade), and even the forgotten Albert Morris led the Niners to the 6th ranked run offense in the NFC.

McKinnon has also proven to be a bit fragile, but I’d take the 5 mill cap hit to get Bell and the backups out there. We have a ton of cap space and he is a dominant RB who catches passes very well, and would fit into our system like a glove.

Another FA bandied about is Earl Thomas. Hey, we can re-create the legion of boom south. This move makes sense on just about every way you look at it. Our safeties have been fair to poor these last few seasons with Tartt, Ward, Harris, Reid, Exum, et al playing good, bad, and indifferent at various times these past few years.

I’m sure there are a lot more FAs out there who would fit (Golden Tate, Donte Moncrief at WR) but I think we address WR in the draft. No one is really floating my boat in free agency.

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And, in more fun news, Patriots owner Robert Kraft was busted for solicitation of prostitution for twice getting a happy ending at the local rub-and-tug massage parlor (Oriental Orchid) in Palm Beach, Fla.  I mean, really, Bob. Do out-call only. More control over the situation.

There’s a big block of calendar space that yields nothing in the way of football news, unless:

a) The AAF floats your boat
b) The NFL’s payoff of Kappy and Eric Reid is sticking in your craw
c) There just isn’t enough air time for Mel Kiper and his majic hair helmet.Gimme MORE!!

Our needs are many, (pass rusher, shutdown CB, safety, WR, O line) and there are several avenues in how to deal with them, but we have 2 months before the draft, and a month before free agency. Sure, the combines are coming up, but really, we are in the doldrums.

Winder, keep those videos coming!  Those old names crack open old memories . . .

Well, that, along with all the rest of the spectacle, was underwhelming at best, the worst Super Bowl of the Super Bowl era in my thoughts to say the least, was that. On paper, the Rams did little to nothing. 9 punts? 260 yards of offense? They did more by half time in most games. 3 points? Aggravating to me at least was the totally conservative play calling by McVay and company. Every first down saw a run play. I think they had 6 first downs heading into that 4th quarter. Again, that’s usually one DRIVE let alone 3 quarters of play. To combat this, they kept doing the same thing. It wasn’t until the FG drive in the 3rd quarter that they threw on 1st down. No quick passes that would have slowed NE’s suddenly stout pass rush. But the Pats played aggresive on defense, and the Rams were never able to counter.

NE wasn’t much better what with Brady throwing crap around most of the day including a 1st quarter pick, and a ton of late passes and a whopping 71.4 rating. They ran very well late though and ended up with and a grand total of 1254 on the ground.

The Rams defense bent all day, but by the end of the 3rd quarter it was still 3-3. Zzzzzzzzz. Brady had led a few promising drives, but the Rams were able to keep them at bay with the help of a missed FG and a rattled Brady. But if you punt the ball to Brady 9 fucking times, eventually he’ll do something right, and that was pretty much it as the Pats scored a TD late and Goff threw a stupid pick on 2nd down trying to lead the comeback.

Insult to injury was the missed FG at the end to at least avoid being tied with the most inept offense in the Super Bowl era

Go Rams? That is all.

Hey, it’s slow. I don’t give a shit about, nor will I likely watch, this Super Bowl.

But 24 years ago today, this happened . . .

I don’t think many of us realized at the time that this was the last high point for quite a while, but at was glorious. I remember thinking that this would have been much tougher against the Steelers, and I REALLY wanted to beat them in the Super Bowl,  but at is was we had this great beat-down of the San Dawgs.

Anyhow, enjoy.

This is the slowest time in the sports world. Radio silence from the Super Bowl teams, Basketball is in its dog-days of the grind. The big news with the Dubs at least, is Boogie Cousins and his return to the game. He’s been a foul magnet, and looks rusty, but he should round into form in time for the playoffs. Hockey? Meh. The Sharks are fine. I’ll glance at a game once in a while. Like basketball though, the season is way too long and everyone makes the playoffs.

Then there’s Super Bowl week! A maddening clusterfuck of forced interviews and canned pronouncements. Unless you are Marshawn Lynch (“I’m here so I don’t get fined”) or Chris Culliver (“Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah…can’t be…in the locker room man. Nah.”). We’ll get the scintillating Bill Belichick responses (“I’m looking at the Rams. They are a tough team.” Repeat 5,000 times) while I shove hot knitting needles in my eyes to ease the process.

Actually, I won’t even listen or bother. The quiet before the media storm becomes the quiet before the quiet. Still tired of Brady. Go rams. Ot maybe a sinkhole will swallow both teams at kickoff.

Something like that. Not gonna go out of my way to give a shit about this Super Bowl. I’m perennially sick of Brady and Belichick in the playoffs. The Rams? I’ve hated them since the Roman Gabriel days. Back when we were the dregs of the west and couldn’t get out of our own way. The tide has come and come with us and them trading off being good and bad, but they have once again ascended the mountain to get to the ultimate game.

If only for the fact that I want to see Brady have a losing record in Super Bowl games, I guess I’m rooting for the Rams. Hey, they got ex-Cal Bear Jared Goff going for them, as well as the architect of the 49ers greatest days grandson coaching them. Why not?

Super sky point to my brother-in-law who passed away a few years ago. He was a huge Rams fan and we had hundreds of running bets over the years. This beer is for you, Steve.