Mosley: Niners Looking at Trotter
Niner Pundit | May 14, 2008 | 82 comments
The 49ers visited with veteran linebacker Jeremiah Trotter this week. The team did not immediately sign Trotter, whose size could conceivably help a team beef up against the run on a situational basis. Trotter, 31, played more than 70 percent of the snaps for Philadelphia in 2006, but he started only one game for Tampa Bay last season. The NFL lists Trotter at 262 pounds, or about 13 pounds less than newly signed 49ers pass rusher Justin Smith.
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id rather have spikes but trotter would be ok by me, thats if he comes cheap though
I dont like trotter at all.I hope we dont pick him up!
Trotter is a buster, a couple years ago he was completely out of the nfl! Get spikes!
sign him!!! another good leader
maybe we shud sign both see what happens? lol
Are you guys serious? Our defense is one one of the worst every year because we have no vocal leaders that pump up the rest of the team. Last year we passed on Porter, this year if we dont get Trotter it will be a mistake. Takeo is old and quiet, hell turn out to be a Jamie Winborn.
Takeo is anything but quiet, do you even know who he is? Spikes probably has a little more in the tank at this point, but Trott has experience at inside Backer. Sign either one, but don’t expect Trott to be on field unless it is an obvious run down.
geez, you niners fans must really be desperate to want either of these washed up, eagles-castaway linebackers.
while i can speak positively of trotter’s impact in the locker room, his knees are shot. take it from someone who wanted him to stay on the eagles. look at our linebackers. they have no NFL experience and were still seen as better options than trot. while he may work in running situations, teams began to audible to a pass whenever he was on the field.
spikes had a chance to be the weakside menace he’d been early in his career, but failed miserably. he was invisible. at weakside, you want a guy who can make plays happen. How does 86 total tackles, 1 sack, 0 FF or recovered, 0 INT and 4 tipped passes in 14 games sound? it doesn’t sound like a very good linebacker.
i’d steer clear of either guy, but then again, you guys may really need the help.
At this point what do we have to lose with either one of them and as far as Trotter goes he is suppose to be one of the reasons Tiki Barber retired so there’s that against the run tackling you was talking about.
I hated seeing the niners give up 3rd and shorts all last year, if either one can come in and make a difference I say do it.
ninaz- we havent had any vocal leaders? ummmm BY anyone?
Trotter would be nice.I see what the niners are trying to do. We do need a solid vet at the “will” spot to go along side Willis. need need tuffness at that spot. I like the way this team is shaping up. I am concerned that the only posistion that i feel is great are the backs. As a unit they have no flaws. However, I do feel good about the d-line as well as ither spots. Anythig to make this team better is welcomed.We are not far GO niners
I don’t know about Trotter….we should cough up the money for Spikes. Right now, what other options do we have. Out of Spikes and Trotter you KNOW Spikes is the better player. Spikes WOULD start so unless he is wanting OUTRAGEOUS MONEY then the niners should sign him. CLEARLY the candidates they have on the roster right now aren’t exciting anyone so make one more move…..the table is set except that position.
the niners will be passing on trotter, he is well past his prime
ninaz- we havent had any vocal leaders? ummmm BY anyone?
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Ok you must not know anything about the 49ers Curly. By was one of the Nfl’S most humbled players in history and was not loud mouth at any time in his career. BY did his job well and did what he was told, which is why hes been a 49er all his career. Some of the players that have been on the team for 3 years have stated that they dont really know BY that well and he was more of a mentor and inspiration to everyone rather than a vocal leader.
9ers would be smart to sign Trotter or Spikes…. Pro Bowl vet dat knows da position….They can only keep blockers off of Willis, they would also deflect a lot of the leadership and play calling burden from him. The down fall, both are 31 an declining, but we do have Dontarrious Thomas an Ulbrich to back him up. Could be a great learning tool for Thomas. If we could get them for 1 year I would be pleased.
Personaly I want Trotter, but I have a feeling they might pass on him due to his weight and lack of starting time with the Bucs last year. Both would be a step up from D.Smith, they can both see and hope are faster….lol
Barrows is already reporting that the Niners have passed on Trotter but r still interested in Spikes. Why dont they just sign Spikes already and get it over with.
medford, because he is still weighing his options, even though he has very few, & has had about 2 months to think about it. lol
but i believe he will end up signing with us cuz we have a gut by the name od patric willis who he would love to work with, even though the bengals r interested to there defense has too many holes to fill & there whole team is just a complete joke, so with in the next week or so expect us to sigh spikes.
i bet ninaz is sad now…. no trotter, i guess the locker room will be a quite and humble place with no loud mouths. you really know alot about the 49ers, probably more then anybody….. can we hang out?
I think another team is probably offering Takeo more money, but the niners probably offer him the best opportunity to be successful, or maybe the other way around, just a guess.
I don’t know guys. I drive an hour each way to work and I listen to the NFL Sirius radio for a good part of the drive. It doesn’t sound like we will get Spikes for one reason or another. I also don’t think that Niner’s feel very good about the personel that we have at the ted spot. Thomas looks to be the front runner thus far.
Hey Guys check out this article
Somehow, we all let it pass, that peculiar edict from the Niners’ recent minicamp announcing open competition for starting quarterback.
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Open competition? Are you kidding me?
Let’s see if we have the facts straight. One of the competitors in the open competition is Alex Smith, the first player taken in the 2005 draft. The other two candidates — on an equal footing with Smith — are Shaun Hill and J.T. O’Sullivan, both of whom played in NFL Europe.
I repeat. Are you kidding me?
There is nothing in the Hill or O’Sullivan résumés that shows they are serious candidates to be the 49ers’ starting quarterback. There is nothing to make us take them seriously. But, hey, it’s only the spring, so we let this kind of silliness pass. Well, we shouldn’t. Coach Mike Nolan is lousing this up already and he shouldn’t get away with it because this lousing up is the kind of lousing up he always does.
He is a manager of men — that is his primary job description — but he is not a talented or clever or diplomatic manager of men. He manages humans with all the subtlety of a butcher cleaving a pork chop.
Compare him with Jack Del Rio, a pretty good coach who runs the Jacksonville Jaguars. Del Rio’s starting quarterback was Byron Leftwitch, and after the 2006 season, Del Rio went to bat for Leftwitch, said there would be no quarterback competition on the Jaguars. But in training camp 2007, Del Rio demoted Leftwitch, made him the backup, and the very next day, cut him from the roster. No fuss. No muss. He gave the job to David Garrard, who did a terrific job in 2007.
Del Rio showed the template for changing quarterbacks. Sure, there was a competition. Sure, he was evaluating his guys every second of every day. But he didn’t broadcast it. He kept his mouth shut.
Why? Because it was no one’s business.
Why? Because he didn’t want his team turning into a media circus and he didn’t want reporters asking day after day, “Have you decided?”
Why? Because he didn’t want cliques to form in the locker room. One receiver favors the quarterback candidate who throws to him more, but another receiver favors the other guy because the other guy throws more balls to him. No coach wants a mess like this. Nolan has invited just this mess. Good luck.
So you have to wonder why Nolan has laid the groundwork for chaos. Let’s look at recent history. At the end of last season he and Smith were not getting along — an understatement. The coach just about came out and publicly called his quarterback a wimp. Nolan never should have done this — let things get personal.
The whole episode showed serious deficiencies in Nolan’s judgment. At the time, he said Hill, with no real pedigree, would be competing with Smith to be the starter, which just about meant Smith is on the verge of being a bust. Hill’s ascension came in the clear context of bad feeling between Smith and Nolan — and it seemed Nolan was trying to stick it to Smith.
When new offensive coordinator Mike Martz went ga-ga over O’Sullivan, Nolan felt what the heck, three are better than two.
It all has the feeling of piling on Smith, and Nolan is doing the piling. You can’t help wondering if Nolan is still trying to get even with Smith in some petty personal way.
With O’Sullivan in the mix, Nolan can have three factions in the locker room instead of two or, God forbid, none. Maybe Nolan is a man who thrives on tension. Maybe he doesn’t know any better. Clearly he doesn’t care about Smith’s feelings, or peace and well-being in his locker room.
Nolan should do what Del Rio did. Name Smith the starter. Operate as if Smith is the starter. But underneath the façade he would be evaluating all three — with Martz’s help — and if Smith prevails, well, Nolan looks like a guy who always knew the score. If one of the other guys beats out Smith, Nolan could hold a news conference and announce, after deep soul searching, he’s making a change for the better. This gives him the look of a man who gave his starter a fair chance. This makes him look serious and decisive. This would win everyone to his side, and he would avoid the free-for-all he now can’t avoid.
Nolan should do all that. Jack Del Rio sure did. But Nolan can’t. Why? Because he’s Mike Nolan.
You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.
Let’s hope Nolan reads that article.
What happened to our pursuit of Takeo Spikes?….havent heard a word on that in a long time
Yall need to stop talkin shit to each other and leave the comments to people the care about football and the 49ers. I’m tired of this shit.
You mean the article that says theirs no QB compitition?There isn’t.But I dont believe we need to pick up either one of them.I think we have guys that can play the TED position.I thought that we picked up D.Thomas for that position specifacally.I know they wanna keep Ulbrich fresh for Special Teams and nickel packages.So why don’t they put B.Moore at TED.Let Ulbrich backup Willis and Grant and Thomas backup Moore.I say we leave the TED alone.We have leaders on out defense.(Michael Lewis,Mark Roman,Manny Lawson,Nate Clements,Walt Harris,Justin Smith.Our defense is looking Damn good.
What about Odell Thurman!?
Well Thurman is 6′0 235 pounds and Ulbrich is 6′0 246 pounds.They say Ulbrich is not big enough to play the TED spot,so i’m sure Thurman would not be able to.Brandon Moore is 6′1 255 punds at his lightest.Why dont they use him at the TED?
NO!!! Thurman is a TURD!!! I would rather take my chances with what we have than bring a TURD into that locker room. LET HIM GO!!!! He isn’t a good TED!!! This would be a HUGE MISTAKE.
Question….Since T. Spikes is taking so much time deciding where he will play an we turned J. Trotter down……Should we bring in Odell Thurman released from da Bengal’s….I know he has been out for a good minute but Nolan all about competition and it’s obvius he doesn’t like his TED options (Ulbrich,B.Moore and D. T) I do believe Ulbrich would be better as back up in/ special teams…we need it/ depth is key… just a thought….
Odell Thurman playing TED beside Willis…at least bring him in a see what he can do….He will come cheap, what we got to lose.
i agree with west we should look at thurman he could be a great addition to our line backer core i think all he needs is a change of scene…. odell come to san fran
I’m gonna have to go with Ryan on this one and say….Odell stay the fuck out of San Fran…….please!
So my question to Ryan the 1st, Adam49, and anyone else that may not want us bringing in Odell to see if he can play alongside Willis:
Is it because of his troublesome past? So far, that’s the only arguement I hear. Personally I’m not worried about him distrupting our locker room cause us losing will cause disruption enough. He will come cheap and we’re not making any dumb signings, throwing out money like the Raiders (Tommy Kelly) or injured (Javon Walker). As you recall, Odell looked good during his time playing. Unfortunately, he got into some trouble and me personally, am ready to take a gamble. To be honest, I would’ve gambled and brought in Pac Man if I knew he was going to be reinstated. One thing about Dallas that I hate is that they always gamble on these so called ‘trouble makers’ and end up on top as we sit back and they pass us by.
Hey West, i agree som with you, but we have taken a chance or two in the last few seasons. One of them (Bryant) turned out to be a Dumb Ass. The whole high speed in the lamborgini (Sorry for spelling). Why not just make great picks like willis, gore, and one guy who doesn’t get mentioned much lately, Walt Harris. Two season ago Harris had i think 11 interceptions and Gore had basically 1700 yards rushing and the most yards receiving. A great choice can be made without picking a troubled player. I also support you on the cowboy issue how they have passed us buy quite a bit lately. They let know about it every day at work.
I’m not worried about him being a troublemaker, I’m worried that he hasn’t played in two years. The Bengals are desperate for defensive help I think if he was near as good as he was in his rookie year they would have kept him around.
Forget Thurman no way in a 100 million years do we sign him. They dont want Bengals garbage.
Minus that Lamborghini chase he was probably our most consistent receiver after JR and TO. He was building that chemistry with Alex and looked to be his go to guy. West is right, the Cowboys take gambles and we just sit back and watch them succeed. I mean Jeff Garcia had his DUI incident, why didn’t we cut him then? If Alex Smith got in a Lamborghini and got caught speeding and gave the cops a hard time, would we cut him? Hell no we wouldn’t. This “troubled player” image is overhyped way too much. Everybody’s going to have some kind of negative history one way or the other. The bottom line is can the guy make plays on the football field? What are we always going for that “choir boy” image before we think about signing somebody. We need to take some chances and quit worrying about petty misdemeanors that dont mean shit. If it was a felony now thats another story. (See Bam Morris and Rae Carruth)
Heres something to think about..if Tom Brady was available to sign right now..but has a history of DUI, Speeding, and other off the field issues, none that were felonies or required any jail time would you say..”I dont want him on our team..hes a ‘TROUBLED’ player.” If you say yes you would say that then you should get arrested yourself for smoking that crack pipe!
Anybody else besides me and Matt Maiocco also think that this is Alex Smith’s LAST chance?
“Martz has done well everywhere he’s been. He’s managed to get production out of his quarterbacks. Most of the time, there’s been nothing to lose. He’s taken unheralded QBs and made them successful. This is a different kind of project. If Smith can’t produce numbers with Martz as his coordinator, then something’s wrong. As it stands now, yes, I’d think this is his last chance.”
MSouza, I agree da 2 yrs. could be a problem…but we wouldn’t know unless we invite him for a workout…As I look at it we dumped D.Smith for Ulbrich I dont like either one of dem starting at TED( if anything I hope D.T. can step into da TED), thatz why we got him from da Vilings right?
Joe, im with you and Matt Maiocco on that one but ill even take it a bit furthur..if Alex doesn’t turn it around this year he’s a ‘BUST’.
Despite missing much of his rookie training camp because of a protracted contract impasse, Thurman appeared in 15 games in 2005, all as a starter, and registered 148 tackles, one sack, five interceptions, nine passes defensed and four forced fumbles. The former Georgia star and second-round draft pick was a candidate for defensive rookie of the year honors.
Bring him in an see if he is a good fit beside Willis….What do we have to lose?
I’m not saying we should pass on Odell because of his troubled past at all.I’m saying he ain’t a TED LB.He’s only 6′0 235 pds.Ulbrich is 6′0 246 pds and they say he isn’t big enough.And I don’t believe this is Alex’s last chance because I don’t see why they would excercise a 3 year $7 Million buy back and cut him a year later with a huge salary cap hit.But if he has another bad year with the talent this offense has,it’s time for a change at QB.
And Gomez,Odell is no Tom Brady.If we had a chance to pick up a sure fire Hall of Famer,Super Bowl winning,Pro Bowl QB,im sure we would no matter what problems he had.(short of murder and rape).But Odell isn’t a dingleberry in Tom Brady’s asshole.And I believe he plays the same linebacker position as P.Willis.So I think we move on without him and let B.Moore play the TED.
What sucks is that Tom Brady grew up a niner fan.And wanted to play for the niners.
Adam49 D. Smith was 6-2 237 and he was our TED….Ulbrich is not wanted at da TED, he is more valuable on special teams an backing up
Adam49…..D. Smith was 6-2 237…Odell 6?0 235 pds…not a be diff.
Yeah but its not necessarily his size that doesn’t make him a good fit for the TED it is his style. He is like P_Willie a sideline to sideline tackler that doesn’t take blockers head on. The hole point of the TED is to take out the lead blockers so Patrick can have a free shot at the ball carrier. Odell is a reach at best, I’d rather stick with DT
Most of the TED’s around the league seem to be around the same weight.The best 2 TED’s in the game are Bart Scott and Larry Foote and they are both at the 240 pound mark.And both of those guys are known for their role as smash mouth linebackers.Especially Bart Scott.He’s probably the best in the league at that position.I’m just saying what i’ve read on 49ers sites.And thats that they dont think Ulbrich can withstand the punishment of a full season at TED and that they also value him on Special Teams.Which to be honest doesn’t make much sense since we go get D.Thomas in free agency to play that position and he’s only 241 pounds and we draft L.Grant for that position and he’s the same weight as Odell.Maybe what it boils down to is some Linebackers are cut out for the TED and some aren’t.No matter what the size.And I don’t think Odell is.
Eddie D to possibly purchase the St. Louis Rams? Daym that would be pretty weird to go against that man.