I’m with you, when I see Kyler play (especially the two Seahawks games last year), I’m not worried, don’t see the old threat. But I had to go back and look at his stats, and I was surprised. Had Geno 2024 TD number (21), but ran for over 500 yds w/ 5 TDs, accurate passing 68.8%, and he played his first full season since his 2nd year. And he’ll still only be 28 this year (and he’ll still only be 5’10” in his Nikes).
Anyway, it’s not like he’s hit a Kaepernick cliff by any means. Part of me thinks we remember year 2 Kyler (50 yds/gm, 11 TDs) and will always compare him to that.
I think JS and MM will be very careful about adds to their current locker room. They have collected a bunch of players that love football, and are all about the team. That's why players like Parsons, Ramsey, and now Hill likely aren't coming. They are excellent players (although Ramsey and Hill are aging) but you can't just look at that.
Now McLaurin and Hendrickson are different stories. Excellent locker room guys by all accounts. Acquiring those guys would be all about contract demands and the impact on our ability to sign younger players to 2nd contracts, as well as what the Bengals and Commanders would want in trade compensation. Both seem unlikely for those reasons. I'm not sure we need McLaurin, but Hendrickson would be a big deal to the defense, and is something we do not currently have. Odds are still remote. The Bengals may not even be interested in a transaction.
From what I can tell, despite CMC only playing in 4 games, the 9'ers were still decent in the running game (12th). Their defense was pretty bad against the run though (25th), so Salah has some work to do. They always seem to be able to crank out excellent LB's though, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them improve significantly on that this year, despite the turnover.
Kyler Murray is a very odd case. He's a hard guy to like, and he frequently shows flashes of good play, followed by boneheadedness, making a mistake at the worst possible time in the game. Then he pouts on the sideline. Hopefully that continues.
The Rams defense will be good. If Stafford plays most of the games their offense will be good too. They'll be tough to beat, and I'm sticking with that until we beat them twice in the same year.
Not disagreeing with you here... if we keep seeing guys making plays in the backfield like Pili last night, blocked FGs, and pressure generated by these guys, it WILL be something we have already. Everybody been saying MM took "Just A Guy"s and got disruptive play out if them in BAL, we could be seeing signs of it happening here already. If JS sees that like we do, then what else do we need to go pay Hendricks for when we can use the money elsewhere? The better our guys play, the closer to 0% chance we get when talking trades with anyone.
Exactly. If MacDonald can take what would otherwise just be average guys and get good/great play from them, that makes JS's job so much easier, especially cap-wise.
On the quick NFC West review. Small add-on about the Whiners D. They got rid of several high level Dplayers. Greenlaw, Ward, Hargrove and Floyd all gone. One reason drafted so many is they lost starters and depth. Saleh will help but it’s young. DLine though should still be good. And just read, Tre is struggling.
Agreed. And I liked the part where you bring unit similarity between their defense, and the draft, and our offense. Totally equal “issues” to overcome for each team. And both appear to have the coordinators to pull it off, but…
It might be fair to think that their defensive reshuffle is pretty similar to our offensive reshuffle - in scope. Both teams going young and pushing a bunch of dead cap out of the system. And us fans are optimistic about our own changes and pessimistic about theirs. But then - we tied for 1st place last year with a rising defense, while they had problems on both sides of the ball.
I know. But SJ and my points were not about team but similarity on the side of the ball and changes. This wasn’t team to team but significant one side of ball coach, player and draft similarity.
I just don’t get the hype for the Niners. Every damn year. Ooohh . . . McCaffrey is healthy! Saleh is back! They still have Kittle! Purdy is the real deal!
Seems to me they had a lousy defense last year and turned over most of it for young guys. This isn’t the offense where Purdy just needs to choose a weapon and get them the ball - it’s on Purdy now, and we’ll see how that goes. They built this roster out of the ashes of almost $100M of dead cap, #1 in the league, so it’s a moneyball year for them and this ain’t baseball in Oakland.
For all the typical national hype for the Niners and Rams, I wonder if AZ could be the team to worry about. I agree about Kyler, he’s about done, run around and fling it. But Gannon seems to be building a good program, ground up, and they’ll be motivated after last year’s early success (until they ran into certain meat grinder out of the PNW). Can’t ever count out McVay & Sneed, but they’re still one big sack away from mediocrity, with an Oline that is looking creaky. I’ll take our young guys, about to show the naysayers.
They could go good, they could be really bad. I'll give them more credit than the Cardinals because the 49ers have been good when I thought they'd be bad but Arizona is usually just bad.
I didn’t see your post before posting mine. DLine still a strength but yes they lost some good starters in Free Agency. Saleh is excellent DC but a lot of new players.
And the best part is that the agents got sick of Schefter and Rapoport getting sole credit for the reports, so in the last few years they've had to name drops which agency got the deals done. Somehow this has been completely glossed over in how we treat those reports, which should be that Rap and Schefter are merely middle men who actually don't even need to exist. The agents could tweet the news themselves.
IMHO, Kyler has hit his ceiling. If he leaned less on his athleticism and more on his study and knowledge, he would still have growth potential.
I’m with you, when I see Kyler play (especially the two Seahawks games last year), I’m not worried, don’t see the old threat. But I had to go back and look at his stats, and I was surprised. Had Geno 2024 TD number (21), but ran for over 500 yds w/ 5 TDs, accurate passing 68.8%, and he played his first full season since his 2nd year. And he’ll still only be 28 this year (and he’ll still only be 5’10” in his Nikes).
Anyway, it’s not like he’s hit a Kaepernick cliff by any means. Part of me thinks we remember year 2 Kyler (50 yds/gm, 11 TDs) and will always compare him to that.
I think JS and MM will be very careful about adds to their current locker room. They have collected a bunch of players that love football, and are all about the team. That's why players like Parsons, Ramsey, and now Hill likely aren't coming. They are excellent players (although Ramsey and Hill are aging) but you can't just look at that.
Now McLaurin and Hendrickson are different stories. Excellent locker room guys by all accounts. Acquiring those guys would be all about contract demands and the impact on our ability to sign younger players to 2nd contracts, as well as what the Bengals and Commanders would want in trade compensation. Both seem unlikely for those reasons. I'm not sure we need McLaurin, but Hendrickson would be a big deal to the defense, and is something we do not currently have. Odds are still remote. The Bengals may not even be interested in a transaction.
From what I can tell, despite CMC only playing in 4 games, the 9'ers were still decent in the running game (12th). Their defense was pretty bad against the run though (25th), so Salah has some work to do. They always seem to be able to crank out excellent LB's though, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them improve significantly on that this year, despite the turnover.
Kyler Murray is a very odd case. He's a hard guy to like, and he frequently shows flashes of good play, followed by boneheadedness, making a mistake at the worst possible time in the game. Then he pouts on the sideline. Hopefully that continues.
The Rams defense will be good. If Stafford plays most of the games their offense will be good too. They'll be tough to beat, and I'm sticking with that until we beat them twice in the same year.
Not disagreeing with you here... if we keep seeing guys making plays in the backfield like Pili last night, blocked FGs, and pressure generated by these guys, it WILL be something we have already. Everybody been saying MM took "Just A Guy"s and got disruptive play out if them in BAL, we could be seeing signs of it happening here already. If JS sees that like we do, then what else do we need to go pay Hendricks for when we can use the money elsewhere? The better our guys play, the closer to 0% chance we get when talking trades with anyone.
Exactly. If MacDonald can take what would otherwise just be average guys and get good/great play from them, that makes JS's job so much easier, especially cap-wise.
Thanks for answering our questions, pretty cool. I figured the Hill talk was bs, but I wanted to hear it from someone that knows more than I.
I just operate under the assumption that all rumors are always BS, unless it is coming from a team source, and even then...
On the quick NFC West review. Small add-on about the Whiners D. They got rid of several high level Dplayers. Greenlaw, Ward, Hargrove and Floyd all gone. One reason drafted so many is they lost starters and depth. Saleh will help but it’s young. DLine though should still be good. And just read, Tre is struggling.
I think they might get better without a couple of those players, but I do agree with you.
Agreed. And I liked the part where you bring unit similarity between their defense, and the draft, and our offense. Totally equal “issues” to overcome for each team. And both appear to have the coordinators to pull it off, but…
It might be fair to think that their defensive reshuffle is pretty similar to our offensive reshuffle - in scope. Both teams going young and pushing a bunch of dead cap out of the system. And us fans are optimistic about our own changes and pessimistic about theirs. But then - we tied for 1st place last year with a rising defense, while they had problems on both sides of the ball.
I know. But SJ and my points were not about team but similarity on the side of the ball and changes. This wasn’t team to team but significant one side of ball coach, player and draft similarity.
I think Stafford will be lucky to play half the games this season. Back issues that get worse every year don’t just miraculously get all better.
McVay is a great coach, but to me, their roster screams out 6 wins. And none against the Seahawks.
Don't say the quiet part out loud! Rams are good. Really good. A juggernaut in fact. We have no chance. ;)
A Jimmy Garoppolo season could lead the Rams to picking in the top-10 twice...their own pick and the Falcons.
Yuck...
I'm much more concerned about SF than I am about the Rams. If we just play clean football we sweep the Rams last year.
I just don’t get the hype for the Niners. Every damn year. Ooohh . . . McCaffrey is healthy! Saleh is back! They still have Kittle! Purdy is the real deal!
Seems to me they had a lousy defense last year and turned over most of it for young guys. This isn’t the offense where Purdy just needs to choose a weapon and get them the ball - it’s on Purdy now, and we’ll see how that goes. They built this roster out of the ashes of almost $100M of dead cap, #1 in the league, so it’s a moneyball year for them and this ain’t baseball in Oakland.
For all the typical national hype for the Niners and Rams, I wonder if AZ could be the team to worry about. I agree about Kyler, he’s about done, run around and fling it. But Gannon seems to be building a good program, ground up, and they’ll be motivated after last year’s early success (until they ran into certain meat grinder out of the PNW). Can’t ever count out McVay & Sneed, but they’re still one big sack away from mediocrity, with an Oline that is looking creaky. I’ll take our young guys, about to show the naysayers.
They could go good, they could be really bad. I'll give them more credit than the Cardinals because the 49ers have been good when I thought they'd be bad but Arizona is usually just bad.
Yes, that’s the Cards for you. Just when you think they might actually be good, they suck again.
The Cards are the Michael Corleone of sucking.
https://youtube.com/shorts/WHuZ3b0wxe4?feature=shared
Hah!
I didn’t see your post before posting mine. DLine still a strength but yes they lost some good starters in Free Agency. Saleh is excellent DC but a lot of new players.
NFL insider = Agent. Remember all the rumors etc about Russell Wilson. Same thing I suspect
And the best part is that the agents got sick of Schefter and Rapoport getting sole credit for the reports, so in the last few years they've had to name drops which agency got the deals done. Somehow this has been completely glossed over in how we treat those reports, which should be that Rap and Schefter are merely middle men who actually don't even need to exist. The agents could tweet the news themselves.