Justin Smiley had a great game tonight

The worst personnel decision McNolan made (and please don't mention that "other guy") was letting Justin Smiley walk. I loved the guy in the Turner system but the Hostler offense, with a bunch of immobile bulldozer on the front line, was not what Smiley was about.

So tonight, I was able to watch the Indy/Miami game with no particular interest in who won. As a result I focused on #65 the entire game. He had a Pro Bowl performance. His pass protection was impeccable. His run blocking was also excellent as he consistently was able to not only control the guy in front of him but get to the second defender as well. His footwork is very good and he usually was able to not only get the first guy on a pull but get downfield 8-10 yards of most running plays.

And all this coming back from a very serious leg fracture last season that some thought would end his career.

Jake Long gets a lot of publicity but Smiley was every bit as good as long tonight. In fact, he was able to move out and help Long pass protect against Freeney on a number of occasions.

I'm finished ragging about what a poorly conceived decision it was to let him go. I just want to give a classy guy some love for being a very good football player. The 49ers would be a much stronger team if he were the LG instead of David Baas.

I liked him to

Ya Id rather have than Baas

i was going to ask about him

I miss

he did damn good

although most of the replays showed him helping long

Originally posted by dman:
Ya Id rather have than Baas

Yea was a great player i wish the best and hope he is in Miami

It doesn't just stop at Nolan. McCloughan has stated that he won't break the bank for guards on the market.

When we let Smiley go, we had Larry Allen at the LG position, and David Baas in the wings for the RG position. The move made sense to play the 2nd round prospect over resigning Smiley, but we are paying for it now.

I'd say Baas has a 30% chance of resigning with the 49ers this offseason, and we'll have Wragge, Snyder, or a draft pick compete for the LG spot in 2010.

We're fine at guard.

Originally posted by GEEK:
It doesn't just stop at Nolan. McCloughan has stated that he won't break the bank for guards on the market.

When we let Smiley go, we had Larry Allen at the LG position, and David Baas in the wings for the RG position. The move made sense to play the 2nd round prospect over resigning Smiley, but we are paying for it now.

I'd say Baas has a 30% chance of resigning with the 49ers this offseason, and we'll have Wragge, Snyder, or a draft pick compete for the LG spot in 2010.

So far Baas has shown NOTHING that would justify resigning him for much more than the minimum. He is slow, has poor footwork, rarely gets downfield on running plays. He just isn't a very good player. It seems the 49ers are giving him every opportunity to play himself into shape after missing a lot of camp.

However, to go back to the decision, we can clearly see now that the 49ers were wrong in their assessment. We can see that Baas does not have the talent to justifiy his high selection. He is the same player now he was two years ago.

Nolan didn't complain about Smiley as much as he just said he wanted bigger players on the OL. Well, how's that working out?

Truth is, the 49ers tossed aside a #2 draft pick because he wasn't big enough. Bill Parcells knew better and grabbed him right away. I think I'll go with Parcells assessment right now if that is OK with everyone here.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by GEEK:
It doesn't just stop at Nolan. McCloughan has stated that he won't break the bank for guards on the market.

When we let Smiley go, we had Larry Allen at the LG position, and David Baas in the wings for the RG position. The move made sense to play the 2nd round prospect over resigning Smiley, but we are paying for it now.

I'd say Baas has a 30% chance of resigning with the 49ers this offseason, and we'll have Wragge, Snyder, or a draft pick compete for the LG spot in 2010.

So far Baas has shown NOTHING that would justify resigning him for much more than the minimum. He is slow, has poor footwork, rarely gets downfield on running plays. He just isn't a very good player. It seems the 49ers are giving him every opportunity to play himself into shape after missing a lot of camp.

However, to go back to the decision, we can clearly see now that the 49ers were wrong in their assessment. We can see that Baas does not have the talent to justifiy his high selection. He is the same player now he was two years ago.

Nolan didn't complain about Smiley as much as he just said he wanted bigger players on the OL. Well, how's that working out?

Truth is, the 49ers tossed aside a #2 draft pick because he wasn't big enough. Bill Parcells knew better and grabbed him right away. I think I'll go with Parcells assessment right now if that is OK with everyone here.

What made matters worse was that Smiley wanted to come back to SF.

Originally posted by GEEK:
It doesn't just stop at Nolan. McCloughan has stated that he won't break the bank for guards on the market.

When we let Smiley go, we had Larry Allen at the LG position, and David Baas in the wings for the RG position. The move made sense to play the 2nd round prospect over resigning Smiley, but we are paying for it now.

I'd say Baas has a 30% chance of resigning with the 49ers this offseason, and we'll have Wragge, Snyder, or a draft pick compete for the LG spot in 2010.

Larry Allen was at the end of his career when we got him. Why would we loose a sound young OG, just to keep Allen. Doesn't make sense to me.

Originally posted by nvninerfan1:

Originally posted by GEEK:
It doesn't just stop at Nolan. McCloughan has stated that he won't break the bank for guards on the market.

When we let Smiley go, we had Larry Allen at the LG position, and David Baas in the wings for the RG position. The move made sense to play the 2nd round prospect over resigning Smiley, but we are paying for it now.

I'd say Baas has a 30% chance of resigning with the 49ers this offseason, and we'll have Wragge, Snyder, or a draft pick compete for the LG spot in 2010.

Larry Allen was at the end of his career when we got him. Why would we loose a sound young OG, just to keep Allen. Doesn't make sense to me.

We drafted a replacement with Rachal.

Man, it's all a part of the plan. You see, we couldn't sign Smiley to a big contract because we had to leave some room for our bigtime WR that we were planning on drafting in the future. Then, when we finally did draft that guy, it was going to be no problem signing him becau..........................oh wait. That's right.




Never mind.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by GEEK:
It doesn't just stop at Nolan. McCloughan has stated that he won't break the bank for guards on the market.

When we let Smiley go, we had Larry Allen at the LG position, and David Baas in the wings for the RG position. The move made sense to play the 2nd round prospect over resigning Smiley, but we are paying for it now.

I'd say Baas has a 30% chance of resigning with the 49ers this offseason, and we'll have Wragge, Snyder, or a draft pick compete for the LG spot in 2010.

So far Baas has shown NOTHING that would justify resigning him for much more than the minimum. He is slow, has poor footwork, rarely gets downfield on running plays. He just isn't a very good player. It seems the 49ers are giving him every opportunity to play himself into shape after missing a lot of camp.

However, to go back to the decision, we can clearly see now that the 49ers were wrong in their assessment. We can see that Baas does not have the talent to justifiy his high selection. He is the same player now he was two years ago.

Nolan didn't complain about Smiley as much as he just said he wanted bigger players on the OL. Well, how's that working out?

Truth is, the 49ers tossed aside a #2 draft pick because he wasn't big enough. Bill Parcells knew better and grabbed him right away. I think I'll go with Parcells assessment right now if that is OK with everyone here.

LOL. Complaining about not signing Smiley for big time money right after Gore just ran for over 200 yards and 2 TD's is pretty damn funny.