A Deep Breath On Monday Afternoon
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m a pretty typical fan. By that I mean that I more or less live and die by the teams I like, and when they embarrass themselves, it really gets to me. I get reactionary, irrational, emotional, angry, upset, depressed and most of all, my objectivity goes right out the window. That - I think - is pretty universal across the board among all fans who truly love their team.
Now, at the same time, for years now, I’ve felt that way on Sunday after a loss, but on Monday (or maybe midweek after a particularly horrible loss) I am able to calm down, take a few breaths and be realistic about where the team is. When you are fair with the facts and understand what is truly going on, you find it more difficult to really be upset. Yeah, it still bugs the hell out of you, but your objectivity takes over, and you end up being much more understanding about everything.
This year has been much different, however. I have found that from week two on, every week I have been getting more and more irritated. I have been on board with Nolan from day one, and have defended him basically every time people have had a problem with him - but this year I’ve been getting increasingly critical and upset with him each week. As the days go on, I’m not getting more calm and understanding, I’m getting more angry and upset. I’m finding more fault all around.
For the past couple weeks especially, fans are becoming more vocal about Mike Nolan, and questioning if he is truly the coach that can get this team over the hump. I’m not going to skirt the issue, I have been a part of that too - not calling for him to be fired mind you, but openly questioning his ability to coach properly. I’ve questioned everything from still insisting on starting Derek Smith, to allowing overly conservative philosophies to rule his team in key moments (case and point - playing for a field goal in their last possession against the Ravens). I’ve helped contribute to an increasing snowball of anger toward Nolan and my typical “day after objectivity” has been missing.
Interestingly (at least to me) - it has come back to me today.
Maybe its a reaction against the criticism that has maybe gone a little too far. Maybe its just that I’m so disappointed by this teams play that they have killed my typical passion and I really only have that objectivity left. I don’t know, but today, I took a few steps back, calmed down, took a few deep breaths and started to really analyze this whole mess in a more fair and realistic way. This is more or less what I came up with.
Lets start with the biggie - no, I am not abandoning Mike Nolan. I am still rather firm in my belief that he is a very good head coach, and that entertaining his being fired is absurd and unfair. In fact, I think the movement that has begun begging for that to happen is little more than a simplistic, over-reacting snowball of negativity. One I have contributed to, and I feel bad about that.
As fans, our memory is short - and I think maybe our early struggles have made us forget a few things. Lets take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
Its week eight in 2006. The 49ers had just been slaughtered 41-10 by the Chicago Bears. Billy Davis had been fired during the bye week, and yet San Francisco still had no defense.
At that point, the 49ers were 2-5, had given up an AVERAGE of 34 points per game, and had seen such absolute blowouts as 41-0, 48-19 and 41-10. Fans everywhere were beginning to complain that Nolan had no idea what he was doing, couldn’t manage his team or his coordinators, and that maybe the whole Nolan experiment wasn’t really working.
Sound familiar?
What happened after that week? Well, the 49ers went 5-4 down the stretch, and really got their historically bad defense straightened out. Through those last 9 games, the 49ers defense allowed only 19 points per game and played inspired football. They took absolute garbage personnel and made it a very effective unit that could keep its young and average offense in games.
Fans are inherently nonobjective, which isn’t fair to anyone. Last year when the defense was struggling, we were all crucifying Nolan about the defense, and his insistence on not firing Billy Davis. Why didn’t Nolan listen to us, the enlightened fan, about Davis - especially since we were right about him?
Well, Nolan gave the guy a chance as a coordinator, and I think that it says a lot about him that he stuck with the guy when every niner fan on earth was calling for his head. It showed he isn’t going to just sell out his guy because the fans are pissed off, he wanted to give him a fair shot at “getting things straight” with the defense. That might be frustrating for us as fans, but a head coach can’t simply get rid of somebody like that every time the fans (who largely don’t really know what is truly causing problems) go into panic mode - that happens every week about something. And lets face it - with more or less nobody competent on the field for personnel, any first time DC will struggle and its hard to really fault the guy.
But eventually, when Nolan had given Davis enough chances, it became clear that he just wasn’t up to the task, and he fired him. Then the defense started to perform well, and we built some steam and played well down the stretch.
It has now been five consecutive weeks this year where the offense basically has played like the defense did last year. Because of Norv Turners late departure, Nolan was forced to hire somebody who he likely wouldn’t have otherwise. Our playmaker tight end, who was JUST getting going got himself killed. Our golden boy quarterback got his shoulder wrecked, our line is not playing well, and our WRs were always weak. It is somewhat understandable, then, that much the same way he gave Davis a shot, he is giving Hostler a chance to figure things out - not firing him for struggling through five games.
The fan in me is outraged after two games, and wants him fired. Isn’t that the funny thing about fans - we don’t really think anyone deserves a chance and at the smallest sign of weakness, we want heads to roll. The pragmatist in me, however, understands that 5 games, 2 of which you have been completely sapped of talent, is not exactly a fair way to judge a new coordinator. Don’t get me wrong, I do think we may be seeing signs that Hostler is NOT up to snuff based on the extremely poor calls he has been repeatedly making for several weeks now, and I believe that it is now becomming apparent to Nolan it just isn’t working out, and a change is needed.
I honestly think this is Billy Davis on the other side of the ball, and it won’t take long for Nolan to get this mess straightened out. Yeah, I know - I’m as annoyed by five straight weeks of the same non-changes and coach speak as you are, but we live week to week, remember? None of us has much perspective. It’ll get fixed.
Now - are there things about Mike Nolan that have been irritating the hell out of me this year from an objective and rational point of view? Yeah - no doubt.
He’s stubborn. He has severe problems with objectivity about players he likes (Derek Smith) - he will actually hurt the team rather than replace the guys he has latched on to. He is loyal and does not bend to public pressure to act on something - which is something I typically admire, but he takes it a little too far and misses chances to improve by not acting. He has an EXTREMELY conservative streak when he is in a position to win the game. When guys like Belichick are going for it on fourth and goal when they are up by 20 points, Nolan seems to “coach scared” when it counts.
I could go on.
But guess what folks, I could take ANY coach in the NFL and pick him apart and list his problems. Who’s the best coach in the NFL right now, probably Belichick, right? Well I could write pages about my problems with him as a coach. Nobody is perfect, and every coach has his warts. The trick with that is, can the coach overcome his problems and make them irrelevant, or even un-noticed? Good coaches can - bad ones can’t. Simple as that.
Why is it that I believe Nolan is in fact a good coach, and that this teams problems are not due to his failure as a coach? Glad you asked.
Despite the problems, the man has cut the most useless fat off this team, and done it mercifully quick. He has replaced it with phenomenal talent on both sides of the ball. Granted, talent that is currently being wasted on offense, but that’s irrelevant to my point. He’s a young, firey coach, with ties to the 49er organization, and he seems to genuinely love San Francisco and wants to take this team somewhere. He has taken the defense from easily the worst in football last year, to playoff caliber in ONE year.
But the biggest reason I don’t have any desire to fire him and think that people who do are getting completely irrational, is that the offense is not Nolan’s fault. The horrible offense this year is a combination of injuries to skill positions, terrible play from the offensive line, and a rookie offensive coordinator who has been getting progressively worse every week.
You can’t fault Nolan on the injuries to Smith and Davis. You can certainly fault him for some of the line play, because he simply refuses to put in David Baas - but overall it has more to do with eroding skill, injuries and lack of cohesion. And who can we fault for Hostler? Norv Turner. If he had left at the beginning of the offseason, Nolan would have had opportunities to look at a wide variety of offensive coordinators and hire the offensive version of Greg Manusky. As it is, the loss of Turner was so late that Nolan was left with basically only his remaining offensive coaches to choose from - and lets be honest, promoting ANY of them was a total roll of the dice.
And let’s not forget as a matter of perspective here, that the 2003 Eagles were 2-3 to start the year, and people were ready to crucify Andy Reid. All that team did was make it to the NFC Championship game. Let’s not forget the 2005 Bears were 1-3 and in those three losses scored, 7, 10 and 7 points. Everyone was ready to lynch Lovie Smith at the time, and that team finished 11-5 and went to the playoffs - winning their division.
So, while I think a massive dominating turnaround like those teams is unlikely, lets not forget this is football, and things like that happen ALL the time.
So sure, I’m as annoyed as anyone with some of what it is to be Mike Nolan. He has been irritating everyone here at 49ersnews with his lack of action, refusal to honestly discuss the teams problems with the public, insistence on sticking with players and a coordinator who are not meshing, and so on. But in the end, as maddening as it is to watch the 49ers through five games, I’ve begun to realize that in reality, there’s really only a few things missing on this team right now, as much as this pathetic offense might not make you think so. Getting people healthy, and replacing the offensive coordinator with somebody competent are really the only two things I believe are standing in the way of this team living up to all that hype it got this offseason.
The whole “fire Nolan” movement has become very scapegoat-ish, which is something that fans ALWAYS tend to do far too soon. It might make us as fans feel good to pin the blame on somebody and use absolutist words to describe them, decrying them as incompetant - but I don’t think its very useful, or accurate. I think our energies are much better channeled when we are calm, rational and actually pragmatic about how we evaluate our current situation.
Once things are in place, I think Nolan will be an excellent coach for a very long time. I’ll still criticize him and complain about this team, but I’ll believe he is a capable coach until shown otherwise. This isn’t the homer in me speaking folks, this is the objective football analyst - something that many of us have lost sight of with how disappointed we have all been this year.
Here’s to a post-bye week surge my freinds.
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Very well written. I agree with you, people need to take a step back and analyze the whole situation as an entire picture. What is frustrating is that it probably won’t be until next year that our offense begins to peform up to our standards. But, if the defense keeps it up, next year should be fun to watch. This year, will continue to be hard to watch.
i totally agree with your post Matt. It’s not all Nolan’s fault, and he should stay. The blame should be squarely on the Cowboys, and the stupid Chargers front office. The whole ESPN rumor mills kept churning the bullshit of Norv as a competent Head Coach for Dallas. Then once Wade and Manunsky left, it got SD pissed at marty schottenheimer for letting them go. Then SD hires the most “competent” HC left, Norv.
Ill wait to post on this one till im sober
Im pissed again today because the cowgirls just pulled off the most improbably comeback win….anyways I do agree, should be be fired? nope, tho just like you, id like to see more Bass, and more Lelie, can it help us? who knows, but we cant get any worse! Obviously something isnt right so what does it hurt to give some of these players a chance to do something for the team? Nolan has helped the team become better, our offense wasnt all that last year when you do review some of the games, hell even some of the ones we win, the difference is that we were able to run the ball last year as this year we cant. My point is tho, when we are dead last in every offensive catigory, you cant NOT change anything personel wise and expect things to improve, especially after 5 weeks into the season.
Nice read Matty….
Thanks. Not sure I ended the piece exactly how I wanted, however. I don’t know, I might tweek it.
I definatly agrre. But, what pist me off is that the end of last season our offence made decent strides. come this offseason, we accuired djack and a couple of other guys who should have improved our offense. Now our defense is great, our special teams is great. our offence sucks. you figure it out? i can’t. We should be so much better. I had so much confidence going into this season with this team, with the schedule we have this season. i’m dumbfounded. just pray to the pigskin gods it is within our goals
Give Nolan some time………he’ll come through.
As for Hostler…….how about more than just one shot down the field?
Hostler isn’t a great play caller, but you still need receivers to run the routes, catch the ball and or BLOCK!
Fuck man, my night is ruined cause the COWGIRLS WON A GAME. FUCK BUFFALO SHOULD OF WON BUT THEY SUCK. GOD I HATE THE COWGIRLS, i wonder why….oh yeah ima Niner Fan.
Ive been telling u guys about D. Smith for weeks now he cant tackle anymore he cant cover a rb, fb, or a te wat good is he none!!!!! Nolan lost us this game his conservative plays at crucial time’s he knows wats being called he could change it if he wants to. On nfl network they were talking about the Ravens on Friday they said no team could run a reverse on them and wat do we do run a reverse dumb. WHY NOT PUT M. ROBINSON IN AT QB ON A TRICK PLAY OR SOMETHING.
Niners first half play calling.
1st down- RUN
2nd down- RUN
3rd down- Pass for a 3yd gain
THANK U HOSTLER AND THANKS NEDNEY A ROOKIE IN DALLAS MADE 2 53YD FGS
I’m with ya Matt… The only thing to be happy about this week, is that it’s a bye week. That means I have 2 weeks to work off this frustration before getting angry/upset/disgusted/etc again.
firing nolan now would only hurt us in the long run. i still believe in nolan we are so close, the closest we’ve been in a long time…and even though the offense don’t show it right now or, even this season once we get the last few pieces we will dominate.
my neighbour a cowgirls fan gloated their win in buffalo tonight and their 5-0 start this season until i made him realize that, they might win their division with their careless quarterback, they might make it to the playoffs with their ego -centric and temperamental personal, they might make it to the nfc championship game with their new head coach and good luck, they might find themselves in the super bowl with their flawed defense…and at what result the team that gets spanked by the pat’s… so, no i’m not jealous of your win cowgirl fan… cause it’s all for not
our team maybe losing right now but, our team has character on all three sides of the ball. before nolan got here we were shit. now, we have an awesome special teams, a defense that makes me proud, and the makings off a good offense…maybe missing a few ingredients and good cook all made possible by nolan firing him is the stupidest thing to do right now.
instead pressuring him to make a quick fix, that woln’t stick… as fans we should support him and hope that he makes the right decisions so the fix holds…so, until he does something tremendously stupid…LEAVE HIM BE FUCKERS, I WANTS MY DYNASTY BACK!!! STOP BEING SO DAMN IMPATIENT GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME. HE KNOWS WHAT’S WRONG HE’S JUST TRYIMG TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO FIX IT WITH WHAT HE’S GOT OR CAN GET. WHICH IS MADE HARDER BY THE FACT THAT WE GOT HIM DANCING LIKE A MONKEY TRYING NOT TO SHIT TALK HIS TEAM AND COACHING STAFF. HE CAN’T TELL US AND POINT FINGERS CAUSE THEN THE PLAYERS AND OTHER COACHES WOLN’T RESPECT HIM CAUSE WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO WORK FOR A BITCH LIKE THAT( SEE TOM COUGHLIN );(SEE ALSO THE WAY NOT TO BE A HEAD COACH)
So far we have one Pro Bowl player on r team
Andy Lee this guy has saved r butts how many times this year so far with booming punts 70+ yds.
if p-willy stay healthy there is two.
Yeah but Matt, you know if you woke up tomoroow morning, opened the paper and saw that Nolan had been fired, you’d jump for joy. I think the biggest 3 problems are: 1. Offense Playcalling 2.Nolans stubborness and being hard headed. 3.Quarterback position…I’m 100% convinced that Alex Smith does not have the ability or skill to take a team playoff deep. He’s for sure gone in, what is it, 3 years? I hope anyway, unless he actually starts to look like he knows what hes doing out there and not playing all scared. I think the o-line will eventually be solid enough to be able to find the open guy.
First off, I can’t BELIEVE the Cowboys pulled that off…. #@&%*!
Second… Excellent article Matt.
Most everyone praised the coming of our hero Nolan for many of the new blood he brought in this summer.
Adalius Thomas should go down for the season for snubbing us.
Anyway. With the progress of our offense last year, and the line play, most thought getting Kwame out would solidify the line. It was done.
Somehow they fell apart anyway.
Some say Nolan made a mistake not getting Moss. Are you kidding me? Moss was considered damaged goods with a severe bad attitude. This team had the cancer known as TO. Good luck getting that kind of attitude around SF anytime soon. Who knows what he would have done in this nonproductive atmosphere.
3 OC in 3 years? Good luck….
and like you said, Okay Nolan, you have 45 minutes to choose someone, let’s make it quick and oh by the way, make it good. So he tried to choose someone to keep the Norv offense somewhat in tact. Didn’t happen….
I still believe in Nolan, and Alex.
But like you said, it’s hard to watch them on a weekly basis.
Fans want you to go for every forth and one. But as a coach you know better.
I like that Nolan keeps all his crap in the locker room and have said so twice here.
Let’s hope he gets this ship corrected. I want to ride on a cruise ship, not the Titanic!
Hey Guys r offense looks almost as bad as this
http://www.instantreplaysportcard.com/items/helmets/‘91%2049ers%20proto.jpg LOL
you guys are probably the same people that beleived in marriuchi too-c’mon the guy has had three years and we’re regressing-at this pace our defense is gonna grow old before its time waiting on the offense and nolan to get their shit together
I don’t call for Nolan’s firing because I don’t usually do that kind of thing. It’s just not part of the discussion for me. Firing anyone on a football team’s coaching staff at this point of the year won’t fix anything.
Hostler’s coaching style, if not particular play calls, is ruled by Nolan’s philosophy. The problem is that extreme risk-avoidance philosophy cannot ultimately succeed in football. Absolute conservatism in play-calling equals predictability, and that equals failure. Even the reverses are predictable now, and don’t succeed.
Yesterday one of the Matts (Maiocco or Barrows) commented that the play-calling is so conservative that the players are afraid to make mistakes, which makes them less aggressive, which makes them ineffective. Clearly, the line is frustrated. Heitmann, who is supposed to be calling the blocking schemes for the rest of the line, seems to be unable to find the right guy for himself to block. When you come out of a snap you should be hitting someone, not fretting about choosing the right guy to block.
The press conference yesterday showed Nolan getting upset, which may be good. There were a number of questions about how come Lelie isn’t being used and Nolan could not, would not give an honest answer. That was bad. Something stinks there. Jennings’ one-game disappearance is suspicious. What’s going on?
A fast wide receiver opens the running game. There are plenty of teams that throw despite a weak running game (Green Bay, for ex) and have success. Teams take chances on offense. Last night the Bills gave their rookie quarterback a lot of rope. Maybe when they got within field goal range they shouldn’t have passed on third down, but before that bad decision they gave him a lot of chances. Likewise, Romo was still slinging the ball after SIX turnovers. You have to risk to get a reward.
Football rewards aggression. That’s why we watch it. That’s why the current Niners are both boring and lose.
Hey Bob, Nolan was just on KNBBR and was acting very similar to the way he did in the press conference. Defensive. A little mad. They were going after him a little but he stood by his canned answers. His comments clearly indicated that the offensive is going to take a while to fix. I think we all got a little ahead of ourselves with all the off season hype. It’s time to forget about the playoffs and keep hoping this team makes progress. I am not so upset about the draft nexy year. Staley will be a keeper and I am sure we can get a good player late in the first round.
I’m pissed the Cowtippers pulled that off, they got lucky because the Bills had that won until they pulled that onside kick. Damn, I was looking forward to seeing B.O. get pissed and whine. Looks like the “Devil’s Team” Won again. I hoping New England will give them a ROYAL ASS BEATEN this coming weekend. Down with those fucks, I hope we can make some serious changes and get on track so we can knock those Cowjerks out of contention! I keep dreaming!
Alexgrinder nailed it down when he said wait till the Cowtippers face some real Competition. He also said that their are alot of Cowtipping fans out their like flys on a shit patty, unfortuantly!(These fucks really believe they represent America-LOL. That is their own self proclaimed label) Someone need’s to knock those Redneck- Ego- Freaks off their High Horse. Someone thing needs to be done or your going too see more commercials of Americas version of Hee- Haw. That team does not represent America, that team represents Middle America conservative-up tight Ego maniacs! The 49ers need to get the DeBartlo Perspective back and have a mentality of winning now not later. We need pull off a blockbuster trade and get a blockbuster Receiver to mentor our mediocre receivers. We need a dominent presence in their that is emotional, and who will fire up our team. I don’t see anyone available, but we need to do some research and get a Big Superstar for this team. We need a high power offense, were fine on defense, but we need to clean house on offense and start over. We need:
DeBartlo Philosophy: What he would do:
1. We need a Superstar backup QB To Alex Smith. Like Culpepper, or Garcia. We should of got garcia!
2. We need a Superstar Receiver. Big Target like B.O.(we should of never got rid of him),or like Randy Moss, but you need a good Quarterback to jell with a star receiver. We saw what happened to randy in Oakland. And B.O. with bledsoe.
I think alex is good, but I think we should raise our expectation level like it was with Debartlo and if he doesn’t do good this year we should think of making a blockbuster trade for a blockbuster Quarteback. We should entice Garcia to come back to the Bay. He wanted to be a 49er for life. He’s kicking Ass with Tampa Bay. we should keep alex and get garcia to finish his career in a 49er uniform or go fot the Blockbuster trade for a star QB!
It all depends on Alex’s year!
First off, I will concur that firing anyone right now would be nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction and will help nothing. Now, come the offseason, well, we’ll see how things go. There’s still a lot of football left to play, and we aren’t sunk yet. We are still 2-3 and this season can still be salvaged. Nolan and Hostler better take some time this bye week to figure out what the problem is on offense. But, they MUST be able to have the guts and humility to be willing to make personnel changes, if it is needed. Not even giving a chance to players like Ashley Lelie and David Baas is disconcerting when those two units are struggling mightily. Succeeding in the NFL sometimes means benching players you would like to succeed. If Nolan can’t do that, then yes, he should be fired at seasons end. Because then he doesn’t have what it takes to succeed as a head coach.
As far as Hostler is concerned, I think he has proven that he isn’t the answer at OC. Sure, Nolan uses the “he is a first time coordinator, so he needs time to learn the ropes” excuse. Well, so is Manusky, but his defense is playing fine. I will cut Hostler a little slack, but if he doesn’t get this offense on track after the bye, he needs to go after the season is over.
Personally, I blame the Chargers for our struggles. Turner made a young and inexperienced respectable, and if he was still here, you better believe that our offense would be making the progress they should be. But, the Chargers waited way too long into the offseason to make a change at head coach, meaning whoever they pulled their new head coach would never be able to find a suitable replacement. That lucky team was the Niners. So, Nolan had to settle with Hostler and hope for a miracle.
Personally, I hope the Chargers tank this season, as they have already started to do, and probably will continue to do with Turner as head coach. Because, as awesome as Turner is at being an OC, he is a proven loser as a HC. And, if the Chargers miss the playoffs, or even possibly have a losing record, with as talented a roster as they have, I can see Turner getting fired and the Chargers going after someone like Bill Cowher. If that happens, the Niners MUST bring Turner back to San Francisco. It is the only way to make things right.
But, who knows? Maybe Hostler and Nolan will figure out a way to fix things this year. But, I’m not hopeful at this point.
Read my comments above, I think my mentality will change this team for the better, or we can stay in the same shit pit were in, and complain forever! DeBartlo would not let this shit go on this long!
Holy Shit, My niners are ranked 28 in the league in the latest ranking on Foxsports.com/nfl, then again they have been playing as if they were 32nd.
We need to raise the Bar again and Bring back what I call which is the “DeBartlo Philosophy!”
1. I agree Rob bring back Turner after this season. Give him a lucrative contract. He’ll realize after this season Head coaching is not for him in the future. He’s a coordinator!
2. Make a Trade for a Blockbuster Go To Guy Receiver(Tall and Big like B.O., and Moss. Nolan has a hard on for these small Arena football looking receivers. That’s not going to help.)
3. We need evaluate Alex smith year and he doesn’t Produce, we need to find a Superstar Backup like Garcia or Culpepper.etc. Personally I think we should entice Garcia to come and finish his career in a 49er uniform. He wanted to be a 49er for life.
4. If Alex smith doesn’t produce and is pathetic the other option is to make a trade to get a Super-Star Quarteback. Not Pennigton, a true winner!
I no some of you will say that I’m saying trade away our future, but I’m sorry after this season if he doesnt produce I would seriously consider finding that Star to replace him. We need to raise our Expectaions and our Standards like they once were I’m sorry. I need to be real and honest or were going to be passed by as a after thought by the NFL and it’s fans! We need to Bring back DeBartlo Philosophy Win Now not later. He woould not settle for this, neither should we as Die Hard Fans!
Why not place a phone call to Marty S. Think he might make a decent OC? But then Nolan would be looking over his shoulder, wouldn’t he?
Well,What ever problems we have on offense are not going to get resolved till next year it seems,unless our defense can perform a every week shut out(wich is highly unlikely) .so 7 to 20 at the most points here we come,thanks to the turner systeme.Cant wait for a new offense cordinator to hopefully come next year with some experiance.I just feel sorry for B.Y. and Larry Allan to come back to get nothing for it.
We need to raise the Bar again and Bring back what I call which is the “DeBartlo Philosophy!”
1. I agree Rob bring back Turner after this season. Give him a lucrative contract. He’ll realize after this season Head coaching is not for him in the future. He’s a coordinator!
2. Make a Trade for a Blockbuster Go To Guy Receiver(Tall and Big like B.O., and Moss. Nolan has a hard on for these small Arena football looking receivers. That’s not going to help.)
3. We need evaluate Alex smith year and he doesn’t Produce, we need to find a Superstar Backup like Garcia or Culpepper.etc. Personally I think we should entice Garcia to come and finish his career in a 49er uniform. He wanted to be a 49er for life.
4. If Alex smith doesn’t produce and is pathetic the other option is to make a trade to get a Super-Star Quarteback. Not Pennigton, a true winner!
I no some of you will say that I’m saying trade away our future, but I’m sorry after this season if he doesnt produce I would seriously consider finding that Star to replace him. We need to raise our Expectaions and our Standards like they once were I’m sorry. I need to be real and honest or were going to be passed by as a after thought by the NFL and it’s fans! We need to Bring back DeBartlo Philosophy Win Now not later. He woould not settle for this, neither should we as Die Hard Fans!
I have made a lot of the same point on several threads on our board. I just never put them all together at the same time or as well.
Good insight and advise to all of us “Average Fans”
The Niners’ talent is better than 28th. Look at what the Bills can do with a rookie quarterback.
Dillon, as much as I loved Jeff Garcia and would love to see him in a Niners uniform, I don’t see that happening. As you said, he’s doing quite well in Tampa. And, supposedly, Gruden loves him. So, why would Tampa give up the guy they think (and probably is) their best QB? Plus, Garcia has been a free agent twice in the Nolan era. I don’t think we have even shown any interest in him, even after his success last year. However, I do think that Dilfer’s best years are behind him and a more reliable backup should be a priority in the coming offseason. But, right now, that isn’t going to happen. So, we have no choice but to make due with what we have. And, I don’t think the offensive struggles are Alex’s fault. I think it’s a lack of talent at WR, bad offensive schemes, and lackluster OL play. I still think he is capable of being a solid starting QB.
I’m not on the “FIRE NOLAN NOW!” bandwagon, but I do think that all the people saying Nolan in no way deserves to be on the hot seat are crazy. If the 49ers offense remains this putrid the entire season, he should be fired at that point.
It’s up to him to turn the team around for the post-bye schedule, he certainly can’t leave it on Hostlers shoulders and at the end of the season fire him and expect to keep his own job.
complacency-not me-i for one have seen enough-this isn’t gonna get fixed this year-i wouldnt fire nolan until after the season is over and i would retain all defensive coaches-what kills me is the people who say staley is a top ten pick-i luv the guy but hes not a top ten pick-walsh and mccitrick never drafted an offensive lineman in the first round-not necessary-u draft a playmaker that high-drafting 30 or so i’m afraid a superstar wr will be ghandi-thanx nolan
Why can’t we get Jake Plummer? He would be great and don’t forget that we almost drafted him. The guy is retired because he doesn’t want to play for tampa gay, if the 49ers tried to get him he would come back! I think tampa would give him up for nothin because they are so happy w garcia right now. GO GET PLUMMER!!!!! Someone please get this message to Nolan right away!
Jake Plummer? OMFG no…
Do you have any better idea’s?
Yup, draft a high ceiling, low profile QB in the 3rd, 4th or 5th round this year, to groom behind Smith as a long term backup, who might just be an elite quarterback in the waiting (ie Matt Cassel in New England, or Matt Schaub when he was in Atlanta).
If anything happens to Alex again, he can step in and steer the ship. If Alex ends up not being our long term answer, maybe he will be.
As for now, fuck it - can’t do much. Jake is horrible.
Ted…
I think you are absolutely on track here!…
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