John Clayton gives 2009 Niners season a B

Personally, i thought our ABSOLUTE ceiling for the season was 9-7. I also thought our absolute basement was 6-10. That being said, I feel about the same about this season as I did before it began. Although 8-8 is a lackluster season (especially considering the Seattle and Minny games) I feel we made expected improvement:


We received another solid year out of Gore considering A. His line B. His health and C. The passing game (in whatever order you prefer).

Crabtree, despite missing all of TC and a large portion of the season, played very, very well for a rookie under those circumstances (piled with the fact that he had subpar QB play).

Lastly, the Defense improved in pressuring the QB, albeit the fact that it still needs improvement, and taking the ball away from the opposition (see the AZ, CHI and DET games.)

To be honest, I agree with the grade of a B by Clayton. VD is a pro-bowler. Willis continues success. Turnover numbers take a huge leap (in our favor). The D dramatically improves overall (yes, I know the D's overall rank was bad but the offense, as usual, provided no relief). Crabtree shows that he's a force to be reckoned with and we get solid play from unexpected players such as Sims (in relief of Staley) and Ahmad Brooks (HUUUUUGE LATE SEASON CONTRIBUTOR).


Should we not make the playoffs NEXT year, I'll be disappointed. In terms of this year, the team finished just about where I expected them to.

[ Edited by NinerPrideinNJ on Jan 7, 2010 at 00:31:56 ]

I like our defense, but I wouldn't give it an A. We have much to improve on against the pass. B

Our offense was not as bad as everybody thinks either. We had one of the most productive TE's in the league, and a RB that gained 1000 yards with nearly 5 yards a carry. C

Special Teams killed us. Worst returning game in the league. F

Coaching: The ghost of Nolan may have haunted us a bit. Even though we may not do much in FA, our roster will look significantly different come preseason. Even if our draft is below average, we will still likely have more depth across the board, and at least one more playmaker somewhere. Samurai Mike gets a B. Tomsula gets an A for being "that guy".

Offense= C-
Defense= B+
Special Teams = C

Overall C

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:

Quote:
San Francisco 49ers: GRADE: B

Mike Singletary made an impact in several areas, developing a hard-hitting defense that wouldn't back down and getting great seasons from Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Aubrayo Franklin and others. Alex Smith salvaged his young career by completing 60.5 percent of his passes and worked well out of the shotgun, which gives him a future.

He obviously feel we did a lot better than the majority around here. I think it's a good assessment of our season. What say you?


Link to story

Doing better is all about perspective. 8-8 season wasn't the goal we thought this team would achieve.

That only depends on what his prediction prior to the season was. I'm sure we were more positive than he was prior to the season. If we met above expectations for him, then he obviously had us with a crappy record and we probably got 1 or 2 more wins than he expected us to.

In all honesty what did you expect? and what gave you reason to expect anythign better? 7-9,8-8, or 9-7 is about where I thought the niners would be especially going into the season with question mark at qb. Teams with question marks at Qb don't make the playoffs

Originally posted by JBatta49erfansince81:
Offense= C-
Defense= B+
Special Teams = C

Overall C

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:

Originally posted by JBatta49erfansince81:
Offense= C-
Defense= B+
Special Teams = C

Overall C

Only thing I would add is a failure to achieve stated goals (playoffs) and IMO, this drops us a half a letter grade. So I give us a C- on the year.

Originally posted by blunt_probe:

Originally posted by susweel:
wouldn't 8-8 be a C grade...............

50% is a F.

no curve fo you! (soup nazi voice)

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by LeadFarmer:
Offense= D
Defense= A
Special Teams = C

Overall C

dude we had a RB that went over 1100 yards with 13 TD's, and a TE that set the single season record for rec. TD for his position. our offense wasnt a D

and our special teams had an all-pro punter, an all-pro talent long snapper, a solid, reliable kicker, and only allowed 1 return TD all season i beleive.

KR/PR was the ONLY part of our ST that wasnt good. whats with this big false rumor that our ST sucked...

Because that little area of kr/pr costed us atleast two games that i can think of. instead of making plays we gave plays away. so yeah a c is justified in special teams

Originally posted by lamontb:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:

Quote:
San Francisco 49ers: GRADE: B

Mike Singletary made an impact in several areas, developing a hard-hitting defense that wouldn't back down and getting great seasons from Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Aubrayo Franklin and others. Alex Smith salvaged his young career by completing 60.5 percent of his passes and worked well out of the shotgun, which gives him a future.

He obviously feel we did a lot better than the majority around here. I think it's a good assessment of our season. What say you?


Link to story

Doing better is all about perspective. 8-8 season wasn't the goal we thought this team would achieve.

That only depends on what his prediction prior to the season was. I'm sure we were more positive than he was prior to the season. If we met above expectations for him, then he obviously had us with a crappy record and we probably got 1 or 2 more wins than he expected us to.

In all honesty what did you expect? and what gave you reason to expect anythign better? 7-9,8-8, or 9-7 is about where I thought the niners would be especially going into the season with question mark at qb. Teams with question marks at Qb don't make the playoffs

The Playoffs. It's been 5 years and if the Playoffs weren't attained, then it was a below average season. C-, I would say.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by lamontb:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:

Quote:
San Francisco 49ers: GRADE: B

Mike Singletary made an impact in several areas, developing a hard-hitting defense that wouldn't back down and getting great seasons from Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Aubrayo Franklin and others. Alex Smith salvaged his young career by completing 60.5 percent of his passes and worked well out of the shotgun, which gives him a future.

He obviously feel we did a lot better than the majority around here. I think it's a good assessment of our season. What say you?


Link to story

Doing better is all about perspective. 8-8 season wasn't the goal we thought this team would achieve.

That only depends on what his prediction prior to the season was. I'm sure we were more positive than he was prior to the season. If we met above expectations for him, then he obviously had us with a crappy record and we probably got 1 or 2 more wins than he expected us to.

In all honesty what did you expect? and what gave you reason to expect anythign better? 7-9,8-8, or 9-7 is about where I thought the niners would be especially going into the season with question mark at qb. Teams with question marks at Qb don't make the playoffs

The Playoffs. It's been 5 years and if the Playoffs weren't attained, then it was a below average season. C-, I would say.

Did you really think that this roster was a hands down, no doubt, playoff team?

I was overconfident after our start...but before the season began, I had this teams best case finish (including some lucky breaks) at 10-6. We were two last minute plays away from that...so the lucky breaks didn't go our way.

I had our worst case finish at 7-9, but even if the team had finished there, you couldn't say that we haven't made dramatic strides this season. This team is better today than it was at this time last year, and that has a lot to do with players that McCloughan picked up and Singletary & his staff have groomed.

Say what you will about our finish. This is about where we should have shaken out.

If you expected playoffs, no matter what, then maybe you are guilty of having unrealistic expectations.

Just saying.

Originally posted by Legbreaker:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by lamontb:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:

Quote:
San Francisco 49ers: GRADE: B

Mike Singletary made an impact in several areas, developing a hard-hitting defense that wouldn't back down and getting great seasons from Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Aubrayo Franklin and others. Alex Smith salvaged his young career by completing 60.5 percent of his passes and worked well out of the shotgun, which gives him a future.

He obviously feel we did a lot better than the majority around here. I think it's a good assessment of our season. What say you?


Link to story

Doing better is all about perspective. 8-8 season wasn't the goal we thought this team would achieve.

That only depends on what his prediction prior to the season was. I'm sure we were more positive than he was prior to the season. If we met above expectations for him, then he obviously had us with a crappy record and we probably got 1 or 2 more wins than he expected us to.

In all honesty what did you expect? and what gave you reason to expect anythign better? 7-9,8-8, or 9-7 is about where I thought the niners would be especially going into the season with question mark at qb. Teams with question marks at Qb don't make the playoffs

The Playoffs. It's been 5 years and if the Playoffs weren't attained, then it was a below average season. C-, I would say.

Did you really think that this roster was a hands down, no doubt, playoff team?

I was overconfident after our start...but before the season began, I had this teams best case finish (including some lucky breaks) at 10-6. We were two last minute plays away from that...so the lucky breaks didn't go our way.

I had our worst case finish at 7-9, but even if the team had finished there, you couldn't say that we haven't made dramatic strides this season. This team is better today than it was at this time last year, and that has a lot to do with players that McCloughan picked up and Singletary & his staff have groomed.

Say what you will about our finish. This is about where we should have shaken out.

If you expected playoffs, no matter what, then maybe you are guilty of having unrealistic expectations.

Just saying.

I think the expectation was to win the division. We actually went 5-1 in the division. However, A's and B's are for exceeding expectations. C's are for being par with the course. I felt we did slightly worse than what was expected, which is why I would give it a C-.

The O-Line was hit with some key injuries and retirements. That was not expected which means that part of the team underperformed. The QB was replaced, so that didn't go as expected. Gore wasn't expected to gain about 2 ypc and break big runs to keep that average higher. Raye wasn't expected to go run-run-pass as we did a couple of years ago.

The defense played as expected. We figured they would be in the top 10 and they are considered one of the better defenses in the league, but they had their flaws. They also outperformed what we thought they couldn't do in terms of the pass rush: I would give that an A.

Like many of you said, I think we deserve a C.

At least there is much room for improvement.

Let's shoot for that A next season yeah?

Defense : B+ (our DB wasn't reliable enough for an A)
Offense : C- (we are one of the worst in the league in 3rd down pct and three and outs although we're average on points scored and top 5 in red zone production)
ST : D (we're the absolute worst in returns but decent on coverage, K and P are studs but those are individual efforts so that diminishes for me the impact on the note given)
Overall : C (yes we are average and that's exactly what our record shows for in 2009, we had no bizz being in the playoffs, eg the Jets)

Expect the same next season if we don't find 2-3 impact players with FA and the draft

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by LeadFarmer:
Offense= D
Defense= A
Special Teams = C

Overall C

dude we had a RB that went over 1100 yards with 13 TD's, and a TE that set the single season record for rec. TD for his position. our offense wasnt a D

and our special teams had an all-pro punter, an all-pro talent long snapper, a solid, reliable kicker, and only allowed 1 return TD all season i beleive.

KR/PR was the ONLY part of our ST that wasnt good. whats with this big false rumor that our ST sucked...

It's not a rumor our return game sucked. And In a way special teams cost us wins against Indi, Seattle, and Minnesotta. The only reason it wasnt an F was because of our Kickers.

So you think our offense was average, please? If it was average we would be in the playoffs

Originally posted by Winners:

Originally posted by susweel:
wouldn't 8-8 be a C grade...............

Would it be a C grade if the Lions went 8-8 this year from going 0-16 last year? The grade is for how we did compared to the last several years. In the last 7 years, we had losing seasons. This year we didn't, with a rookie head coach, a new system and a QB change, as well as many injuries and a horrible offensive line. I'd say a B or a C+ is a good call.

We were 7-9 last year so 8-8 is a dissapointment.

C