Is David Akers the best kicker we ever had?

Originally posted by DirtyP:
They had the cap room to make him an offer, they made him no offer

Yeah, if the situation between the Niners and Manning was further along as some people think it was. The Niners would have made the offer on the table to Manning. Most likely would have heard it with the media sometimes afterward.

Originally posted by susweel:
If you are happy with your QB there is no need to "evaluate" another QB.

I believe they were happy with alex, manning was a special case because of his history. But nothing happened and to most of us, alls well that ends well. Not all agree with this. No names mentioned but thier initials are susweet!

Originally posted by susweel:

Originally posted by oldman9er:
Could it not be that our reported contact with Manning was a favor to Tom Condon? That our "presence" in the Manning sweepstakes is what forced the Broncos' hand in giving up a ton to Manning? If I were the Denver GM and heard that a SB contender suddenly threw their hat in the ring on someone I desperately wanted to be on my team? That unknown bluff would tempt me to offer the player more than I originally planned to, and would obviously benefit player and agent.

I dont even think you really believe that. Do you really thing Manning needs teams to do him a favor, come on dude you're better than that.

We are throwing out theories... no need for the personal attacks, sus.

I do think it's possible that Denver offered Manning 16 mil per and less control, but once they saw "we were a knocking on the door", they bumped their offer up more to try and edge us out.

How is that an unreasonable theory?

Originally posted by cciowa:

Originally posted by susweel:
If you are happy with your QB there is no need to "evaluate" another QB.

I believe they were happy with alex, manning was a special case because of his history. But nothing happened and to most of us, alls well that ends well. Not all agree with this. No names mentioned but thier initials are susweet!

Obviously they weren't happy with his production that the reason they even considered Manning, also the reason they gave him more weapons this year because they want more out of the passing game. Alex is an average QB and hopefully he gets the job done this year because the schedule is gonna demand more from the offense this year.

Gotta love JH and Baalke for be ruthless and try to do whatever it takes to improve the team. Yesterday's comment was just damage control but it was past due. He probably would have been better off not saying anything.

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
If Alex would have stayed and not do any team visits then that might be plausible, but we almost lost AS

we almost screwed ourselves and lost two good quarterbacks. the niners reminded me of a spayed b***h in heat that week. You stand still you get screwed,,, you run and you risk getting bit in the ass

Eric Branch ‏@Eric_Branch I'm starting to question whether Jim Harbaugh ever "recruited" Robert Griffin III when he was the coach at Stanford.

Originally posted by baltien:

Originally posted by oldman9er:
Tell me something then. If your theory were accurate, what on Earth would possess Alex to state that he was happy with the offer? Wouldn't that alone kill any leverage he could have possibly wanted to have? Wouldn't that be like telling the world that he is dishonest and actually trying to make himself later look like the greedy and entitled jerk?

What I am saying is.. if Alex was really unhappy with the offer, he would (if stating anything) state that SF is low-balling him and make THEM out to be "the bad guys" in that situation.

Doesn't that make sense? It's just far more reasonable to believe that the offer was made... Alex accepted it vocally... and before he had a chance to sign it? Baalke put some brakes on it for whatever reason. Better fits the timeline when late in the game, Alex took his trip to Miami. He was irritated at his agent and Baalke for halting the signing process (for whatever that reason).

I'm not sure if I get what you're saying. It's not a theory, but a fact that Alex had a contract offer sitting on the table a good two months before free agency hit. For whatever reason, he didn't sign it. Draw your own conclusions. IMO, that signals that he thought he was worth more than what was being offered, and put off signing it to drive up the price. Fast forward a few weeks, free agency hits and the 9ers show interest in Manning.

It is not known whether or not we offered Manning a contract (though I'm sure numbers and parameters were discussed). Smith, still hoping to get more money and probably pissed that we courted another QB, starts exploring other options. Shortly after Seattle signs Matt Flynn, leaving Miami as the only team that was interested in Smith besides SF.

Not surprisingly, the next week he resigns with the 49ers for basically the same amount of money that was offered to him previously (3 years, $24 million). Don't know about you, but that tells me that Smith/Condon thought they could squeeze more cash out of the FO, it blew up in their faces, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

Good post Baltien, you hit the nail on the head

So, really, what did 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh say on Wednesday?Rather than bring his press briefing to an end on a question about Isaac Sopoaga, Harbaugh wanted to turn the clock back to the 49ers' interaction with Peyton Manning from more than two months earlier.

It's a reasonable guess that Harbaugh's statement was in response to Jon Beason, the three-time Pro Bowl linebacker from the Carolina Panthers. Beason wrote on Twitter last week that the 49ers would've gotten rid of Alex Smith if Peyton Manning had signed with the 49ers.

In addressing the Manning issue for the first time in depth on Wednesday, Harbaugh made several conflicting statements. But there were two main points that hold up:

1. The 49ers would not have given one-sixth (or 16.7 percent) of their 2012 salary cap to acquire free-agent quarterback Peyton Manning.

and . . .

2. The 49ers wanted Alex Smith back regardless of whether they signed Manning.

On the first point, the 49ers' adjusted cap after their rollover from 2011 is $138 million. Linebacker Patrick Willis accounts for 12.8 percent of the 49ers' cap at $17.6 million for the 2012 season.

At the time, a well-placed source said Manning's agent had not talked contract specifics with either of the three teams remaining in the picture. But each team knew the "starting point" for negotiations was around five years, $90 million.

So if the 49ers were not interested in paying that kind of money, they could've gotten out before Manning called Harbaugh to say he was signing with John Elway's Denver Broncos.

At that point in the offseason, the 49ers were $18 million under the cap. They could've structured the contract in a way to award Manning the same $18 million he received from the Broncos in the first year of the contract while taking a cap hit of around $5 million.

So, in other words, the 49ers never would have been forced to invest one-sixth of their cap in Manning. In future years as Manning's cap figure rose, the league's cap would also be rising from the new television contracts.

Also, I do not doubt the 49ers would've wanted Smith back on the team even with Manning around, as Harbaugh said on Wednesday.

"Now, were we out there seeing, evaluating if we could have them both? Heck yeah," Harbaugh said. "And you evaluate that, you eliminate the possibility."

Again, this is a matter of money.

The 49ers increased their offer to Smith from $8 million guaranteed to $9 million guaranteed after Manning signed with the Broncos, a source told CSNBayArea.com at the time. Throughout the process, the 49ers played hardball with Smith.

Just the same as the 49ers changed their offer to Smith after Manning signed elsewhere, it's reasonable to believe the 49ers would have changed their offer to Smith if they acquired Manning.

After all, the contract Smith eventually signed with the 49ers makes him the 19th highest-paid quarterback in the NFL. Does anyone believe the 49ers would've signed Manning and paid Smith a contract commensurate with a starting quarterback.

True, the 49ers never took their offer to Smith off the table. That was not necessary. Smith never came to them during that time to sign the 49ers' initial proposal.

* * *

Harbaugh's initial, unsolicited statement, however, is a lot more difficult to take at face value:

"There's the perception out there, and it's an erroneous perception, that we were flirting with Peyton Manning. . . . It's silly and it's untrue. It's phony. Even the perception that we were pursuing him. We were evaluating him."

Yet, Harbaugh admitted Manning called him to let him know of his decision to sign with the Broncos. So, prior to Manning's decision, the 49ers evidently did not remove themselves from the competition to acquire the then-free-agent quarterback.

On the topic of which side opened the dialogue between the sides, Harbaugh was evasive. This would've been the time for him to reveal that Manning initially called the 49ers to express his interest.

Instead, when asked if Manning made initial contact with the 49ers, Harbaugh answered, "Yeah, like I said, there was interest. We evaluated it, pursued it, or evaluated it and there was conversations."



MM breaks it down pretty good.

http://www.csnbayarea.com/football-san-francisco-niners/niners-talk/Decoding-Harbaugh-Manning-Smith-was-all-?blockID=717180&feedID=5936

Originally posted by lamontb:
He was better off not even commenting on the subject. Props for trying to boosts Smith's confidence but we all know they were doing way more than evaluating. This is just coach talk. .

Exactly what I was thinking. I would rather he not even bring it up. What he said was a little contradictive to me. He finally said they wanted them both.

Ok, I can believe that, but to say the 9ers didn't persue Manning is walking a thin line between the truth and untruth. Either the 9ers wanted Manning or they didn't.

My vote goes to they wanted Peyton and Alex.

Pretty sure you are not allowed to post such large quantities of an article... You as a vet know better.

As Jim Trotter of SI reported prior to word of the 49ers involvement, "The owner of one 2011 playoff team told SI that while his club was not pursuing Manning, it would seriously consider signing him (pending a positive medical report) if he phoned and said he wanted to play for them."

I believe we were that team and Manning did reach out to the 49ers and not vice versa. Then Harbaugh and Roman went to take a look, liked what they saw and stayed in the hunt before Manning chose Denver.

I don't think it's much more complicated than that.

Good one Sus

My 2 Cents...

49ers were pursued by Manning. They had no intention of going after him and had no intention of paying that kind of money.

It was MANNINGS people who made the first contact. They did their due diligence and liked what they saw of him. They were in the running for him but were never going to pay nearly what the Broncos did.

I think they wanted both Manning and Smith, but they also knew realistically that it wasn't likely for them to coexist. WANTING both of them doesn't mean there was a real CHANCE to have both of them. Alex leaving tho would have been HIS decision. The Niners just weren't going to offer him a big contract if they had signed Manning.

The media likes to spin this stuff to tell the story they want to tell. I just think Harbaugh got sick of it and the Beason comments were the tipping point.

BOTTOM LINE: Yes, they were in the running for Manning, but they didn't initiate the contact, they weren't chasing after him and they were never gonna pay what Denver did. That last part may well be the reason he's not a 49er.

I'm doubtful they'd have signed him. I thought so at first that they'd jump all over it.

BUT as it unfolded and I read many comments in the Zone - if we paid Payton [pun intended] that kind of money, we wouldn't have been able to resign as many of our FA as we have and wouldn't have any $ left over for much else. I think the current and future state of the franchise is in better shape w/out Payton.

Now it's history and I can't wait for the soap opera crap to go away and for TCamp to start.

if by "evaluate" he means put a dollar amount on a contract then............... yeah.......


if by "pursue" he means they said "fuk dat" when the broncos put their offer on the table...... then yeah.