why is everyone expecting us to finish 3rd or 4th in our division?

A follow up on dj43: Altho i don't have any idea how the team will shake out, i think many are incorrectly calling our 1st yr coach a "liability", tho not in those words. In fact, he will be an enormous boost to an essentially uncoached team for 8 long yrs. Er-wreck-son was just that, a flaming wreck. lilmikeynoln sure looked sharp in his new suits, but the poor guy set us back about 8 yrs with his complete lack of knowledge re: the O, and obviously flamed out in drafting(esp an OL). BM(bowel movement bigmike), what can one say, except he was promoted way beyond his capability. Great LB coach, and a failed coach at every other position. Summary: JH comes in and I don't care if he blows 4 straight calls(which he won't), but everyone, especially the media is missing the BIG POINT: Harbaugh is the single best addition to this team. And anything he does will be miles smarter and better than anything anyone of the previous HC Humptys had to offer. Based on JH alone, we are definitely one of the most improved teams in the NFC. Yeah, he can't win games because he isn't playing in them. But he does give us a coaching advantage against all but a very few top echelon NFL coaches. Give him a couple yrs and he will be spoken of in terms of Sean Payton, bellicheat, ATL, Andy Reid, and maybe a few more.

As for it being a negative for jH to be our new HC, that is baloney. We had NO coach the last 8 yrs. None of them deserved the title and that is exactly what they did for the niners...NOTHING. Nobody(in the media) is figuring that into where we end up or how we do. But they were not here to see how horridly wretched the last 8 yrs of disgusting coaching was here. They'll figure it out.

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
A follow up on dj43: Altho i don't have any idea how the team will shake out, i think many are incorrectly calling our 1st yr coach a "liability", tho not in those words. In fact, he will be an enormous boost to an essentially uncoached team for 8 long yrs. Er-wreck-son was just that, a flaming wreck. lilmikeynoln sure looked sharp in his new suits, but the poor guy set us back about 8 yrs with his complete lack of knowledge re: the O, and obviously flamed out in drafting(esp an OL). BM(bowel movement bigmike), what can one say, except he was promoted way beyond his capability. Great LB coach, and a failed coach at every other position. Summary: JH comes in and I don't care if he blows 4 straight calls(which he won't), but everyone, especially the media is missing the BIG POINT: Harbaugh is the single best addition to this team. And anything he does will be miles smarter and better than anything anyone of the previous HC Humptys had to offer. Based on JH alone, we are definitely one of the most improved teams in the NFC. Yeah, he can't win games because he isn't playing in them. But he does give us a coaching advantage against all but a very few top echelon NFL coaches. Give him a couple yrs and he will be spoken of in terms of Sean Payton, bellicheat, ATL, Andy Reid, and maybe a few more.

As for it being a negative for jH to be our new HC, that is baloney. We had NO coach the last 8 yrs. None of them deserved the title and that is exactly what they did for the niners...NOTHING. Nobody(in the media) is figuring that into where we end up or how we do. But they were not here to see how horridly wretched the last 8 yrs of disgusting coaching was here. They'll figure it out.

agree with your assessment of harbaugh and after our performance the last few years i think our projection is accurate. hell even i don't see us winning the division but do see us being a much better team by the end of the season. look out in 2013

I for one think everyone is crazy. We went 8-8 with about an equal or worse team, when Singletary was in his first year. Your seriously saying that Harbaugh will not produce a better outcome than Singletary? I say at best we get 8 to 10 wins and at worst we go 8-8 maybe 7-9 but I don't see us being in the bottom of our division at all. I don't believe the Rams will be able to overcome their tough schedule. My prediction is we start strong and finish strong with a couple hiccups along the way. I think we have no excuse for not winning all west coast games and that puts us at 6 wins so i'm hopeful obviously. I see Alex putting up his best year and possibly getting an extension so Kap can become what he has the potential for. I don't see us going to far in the playoffs, i'd say we lose in the first round. If we are in the bottom of our division this year I don't see us making any playoff runs for 3-4 years at least. Rams and Cards have good teams developing and I say we have to start now or we are going to be too far behind.

jvange, I admire your enthusiasm, and i don't know if you suffered thru these last 8 yrs of no OL or not. Heck all of us want to be positive, but the OL is maybe as many as 10 games away from becoming anything resembling a "force". That said we got ourselves a coach that can "coach around" weaknesses. Problem is there is no one on OL to build team around and that makes prognostication a problem. OL is just such a wildcard. We know how bad it was. We don't know how good it could become. And that is the problem with guessing # of Ws.

Originally posted by Daniel2778:

Originally posted by maximill15:
What have we down to prove we won't finish 3-4th?

everything i mentioned above? lol

thats your opinion, fact is, we have gotten worse on the D line, soap isnt as good as franklin (otherwise he would of been starting alst yr), bowman isnt as good as spikes (at least not yet), I do agree we have improved at safety, carlos rodgers is just cheaper than Nate, but he can't catch, nor tackle as well as nate. As for pass rushing, i think brooks is in for a big year, aldon wont make in impact till midseason cause he's still one dimensional.

We haven't improved at the most critical position which is QB. And the entire offense is behind schedule with a new coach and new offense. To think they are going to come out clicking is insane, they might need another month to have every play down.

As for arizona, they now have a decent qb AT THE WORST and maybe something close to matt schaub at the best which is huge!
Seattle is probably going to finish last, But STL is the team you have to worry about.

Point is, until Alex Smith can close out a game, we deserve the preseason predictions we are getting!

A team with a new coaching staff, led by a veteran QB that has shown nothing but dissapointment in this league.

A recipe for disaster.

"Experts" tend to not truly look at things and base things on simple matter of who's the QB. Is the QB important part of the team? Very much so but there are a lot of elements that go into a team's success other than QB.

Most pick Cardinals to be the second best team in the division based on Kolb alone but if you look at the team and think about it that choice isn't as clear cut to me.

Offense:
Cardinals have the worst running back in the division and will likely have the worst running attack.
Their offensive line isn't exactly what you call dominant
Kolb improves them but he's not even close to being Kurt Warner
Outside of Fitz who scares you on offense?

Defense:
4th worst defense in the league last year and they improved it how?
Likely the worse pass rush in the division
They couldn't stop the run last year and don't see any reason they'll start now
Secondary is banged up and in worse shape than it was last season

So besides QB and maybe O line (which we're not talking about Manning or the Jets/Texans lines) in what areas would you switch places with the Cards? So the experts logic is Kolb is going to outscore opponents but throwing it to Fitz 50+ times a game.

Who is this Ashley Fox? On espn.com

Anyway, I dont buy Arizona at all, Kolb = Overrated. So, Division is wide open.

And has anyone noticed the Rams first 7 opponents. I can see them easily being 1-6 to start the season.

Originally posted by AJ_Larrea954:
because they are too busy blowing Sam Bradford and Kevin "Scott Mitchell" Kolb.

Fun Fact in the final 5 games last year Bradford threw 1 TD(which was against us) 6 INTS and sacked 12 times,I expect him to hit the sophomore slump and not to mention Rams went 4-0 in preseason,so we all know what that means. And Kolb just blows. We are the most talented and stacked team in this very weak NFC West f**k what the so called "experts" think.as long as Alex doesnt f**k up, and the offense can gel We WILL prove the doubters and haters wrong

This! Sometimes it takes time for the light to come on in a players head. I'm betting that JH has found the switch in Alex's head and we are about to witness some exceptional football from our QB. Now if the rest of the team can hold up through the rigors of the season, we might just find ourselves on top of the West at season's end. Sttranger things have happened!

Probably because after sucking for about a decade, we've lost the benefit of the doubt.

Reason #1 Quarterback, AZ, St. Louis above SF until our qb's improve
Reason #2 7th offensive system in 7 years. Offenses rarely do well first year out.

'Coaches emphasis on ST is a smoke signal that they are not confident in the offense.

Only 1 back up OLB

2 rookie qb's and a qb yet to prove his worth
A suspect secondary

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/07/the-pft-postseason-picks/

FWIW, Florio picked us to win the West . . .

Originally posted by dwy621:
And has anyone noticed the Rams first 7 opponents. I can see them easily being 1-6 to start the season.

I have to agree that I also found the Rams schedule to be very incouraging ....... they could stumble mightily in the beginning.

QB play