The Move that sparked the turnaround for the Franchise

SingleBrainCell fired.

Harbaugh hired.

// Thread....

Originally posted by Kolohe:
Our new numbers 99 and 22 are placed in the top 10 in sacks and Int's. Our old 99 and 22 through 6 games haven't recorded a sack or an int.

Good point.

Nothing could be finer than to be a Forty-Niner!!! I'd say Harbaugh for President, but I'd rather have him as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. f**k yea

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by JREED23:

Originally posted by HessianDud:
the turnaround was Jed deciding to make Baalke GM, because Baalke and Harbaugh are BFFs.

I actually agree with this. I was going to say signing Harbaugh, but to go back to what made that possible is probably a more accurate assertion.

yeah, i mean, in all seriousness, the move was blasted at the time, but Baalke is an "all-ball" kind of guy and I'm fairly certain that he articulated to Harbaugh an idea of a football team, a way of doing things, that Harbaugh could sign on for. They're simpatico. Harbaugh is smart enough to not put himself in a situation where he doesn't think he can be successful, and I think Baalke helped convince him that he could do that here, in the way he wanted to.

That's a great point, and one that I think has really been overlooked. It is very critical for the GM and Coach to be cut from the same cloth and share a common vision. When people occuping these spots are pulling in opposite directions it just doesn't work, and every thing falls apart. I would even contend that harmony between these two spots is as vital as a QB developing chemistry with his receivers. Trent and Jim have done this. I remember reading durring the offseason of how well they got along, working out together, and their ultra-competive raquetball games. They put in the time to build that chemistry, and we are seeing the benefits of it now.

Well Singletary was fired early because they wanted Harbaugh and wanted to remove all barriers to get Harbaugh signed. They even interviewed Hue Jackson before they talked to Harbaugh to fufill the "Minority" coaching rule. I was a little nervous when Harbaugh went to Miami but knew that they hadn't interviewed a coach of color before they talked to Harbaugh.

Thank God they hired him. Can you imagine if we won the five games that were so close last year and made the playoffs under Sing. We would ahve been behin the eight ball on Harbaugh. It seems like the stars aligned.

Harbaugh didn't have to leave his home or move the family.
Harbaugh having the Stanford connection
Harbaugh having the West Coast Mentor in Bill Walsh
Inheriting a team with a solid foundation on defense at least a solid front seven, so that he can bring over Fangio who is a 3-4 Master.
Team that has solid TE's (Walker and Vernon)
Solid Runner in Gore
A front office guy in Baalke that speaks the same language and is on the same page with the coach in knowing what players he wanted.
NO BAD ATTITUDE PLAYERS

I love Harbaugh, but he inherited so much more than Bill Walsh. I will give Harbaugh credit for bringing new enthusiam, a fun work environment, and getting his team prepared even though he had the shortest offseason in NFL History.

YES SING HAD TO GO........Thank God Jed York realized that he shouldn't be making front office decisions (In hiring Singletary in the spur of the moment at the end of the season) and he also trusted Baalke enough to make the football decisions.

The last seven years have been horrible, but if it meant that we were getting Harbaugh.......it was WORTH THE WAIT!

Originally posted by bret:
I understand your point about Sing, but if they hadn't lured Harbaugh that moment wouldn't amount to a hill of beans.

As for what player move made the bigges impact? It's close between drafting Aldon Smith and letting Takeo Spikes go, but I'd have to go with the latter. I couldn't understand all the hue and cry at the time about how indispensible Spikes was (he was a 10 year vet who had only once been on a winning team and he'd NEVER been to the playoffs), but even I had no idea how incredible NaVorro Bowman was going to be.

To me, while Patrick Willis might be able to stake a claim to NFL Defensive Player of the Year, it is Bowman who has so far been our Defensive MVP. The reason is simple: Patrick could cover the field side to side and almost single-handedly take away the opponent's running game. Now Bowman can do that too. There are only a handful of linebackers in the entire league who can do that, and here we have two of them! Now on passing downs, Bowman can spy on the back out of the backfield (did you notice him running down Jahvid Best?! That's "track star" Jahvid Best!! And he did it against Michael Vick too.

That has left Willis free to take away the tight end ONE-ON-ONE! This is HUGE! This means Whitner doesn't have to crowd the line, but can join Goldson playing deep, which in turn frees up the corners to take chances underneath. The effect on the whole defense has been electric: corners playing tight, holding the short passes to little or no gains, or breaking them up altogether, or better yet, intercepting!

Good call, NaVorro Bowman has far outplayed anything TKO had given us or is doing this year. I remember when Salem Raheeed was drafted, he made the comment that he wanted to be the best third round pick of the draft that year. The reason I bring this up is because I beleive NaVorro said something similar, although I don't think he limited his expectations to the third round. We'll, we all know that Saleem flamed out, but it looks as if NaVorro has a shot at being something special. I'm really impressed with him.

lol, Saleem Rasheed

I've yet to come down from the high!

Hope I never come down from this high

Originally posted by NinerPrideinNJ:
THIS!

Where are all the Manny supporters now?! All of us on this board with a half a brain knew this guy stunk years ago.


As for Clements, he was decent for us for a few years but never anything spectacular. It was evident last year that he fell from mediocrity to sucky, jumping routes and making stupid plays to account for his lack of speed.

GOOD RIDDANCE!

God fellas, how great does this season feel so far? We were long overdue for this and much more. It's been a long, long wait. I've yet to come down from the high!

Just remember Cincy actually dosn have a good D. Just not as goood as ours

Originally posted by 52thegreat:
And I just have to add: LOL @ Singletary for not wanting to draft Willis.

Really? he had draft imput when he was just a LB's coach? That was one move McClueless and Nolan got right.
I do remember sing did not want to draft Crabtree either and wanted Oher. McClueless set him straight on that one too.

Originally posted by GorefullBore:
lol, Saleem Rasheed

oh wow, lol, another "great " Terry Donahue pick

Kind of like a Flow Chart. Sing is fired by Jed and Jed makes Baalke GM - Baalke makes HG our Head Coach - JH brings in his coaching staff.

Sings firing led to the hiring of Harbaugh - coach of the year.

Originally posted by ziggy_gonna_rock:
Its all in the eye of the beholder and can be interpreted in different ways. But, If you go back to last season's Rams game debacle and how Singletary's bouncing back in fourth of QB's was handled, which led to his firing with 1 game left, sparked a change.

As a fan I can see that this meant enough with the Bull s**t . I remember the NFL and fans talking so much s**t about Singletary's firing with 1 game left, but that right there was a statement saying I'm done with the bull s**t and I need to start looking for a Head coach right now, not next week or the week after , but right muthaf**king now.

To me, that's what changed the atmosphere and If I were a player on the team, I would've taken that move with a sense that something good was gonna happen.
Whether or not the 49ers make it to round 2 of the Playoffs or get to the Divisional round or get a bye doesn't matter. What matters is that SF is relevant again. And each game, Opponents will dread going into a game with this team.

I think that game gave the York's enough public sentiment to back what they were already planning to do, but were probably going to wait until end of season to do. The meltdown with players forced their hand to get him out of here right away, because they saw how caustic the situation had become.

Originally posted by GorefullBore:
lol, Saleem Rasheed

I had high hopes for him ..he was quick, but couldnt handle playing inside linebacker

I'm glad we are starting to get production from our first round picks , since we drafted so many turkeys in the first round over the years

Reggie McGrew
Rashaun Woods
Jim Druckenmiller
Kentwan Balmer