Coaching priorities next year......

Nice post. A full off-season should help with a lot of the issues that you listed.

- Timing between QB & WR needs to improve. Size & Speed is needed at WR/TE.
- OL needs to be better in blitz pickup.
- RB's and OL need to be better in short-yardage situations. Might need to add a goal-line/short-yardage specialist RB.
- Defense & Special Teams are money. They just need to keep doing what they're doing. Aldon must become an every down player.

I believe Harbaugh subscribes to the Walsh method of practicing game simulations to develop speed and fluency of plays. He hated wasting time on drills that took time away from actual game situations. Singletary's nutcracker would be a perfect example of a waste of time.

Agree with most of your observations Hearstfan but disagree that Smith throws poorly on the run. He is actually pretty accurate. Smith needs work getting rid of the ball quickly on timing routes. They will be working on timing, timing and timing. WRs will work on getting through their routes consistently. Not late, not early but on time. They need work on middle routes. Some velcro may be sewn to receivers hands.

Oline work will be fun to watch. Who will be the starter at RG? Snyder, Kilgore or someone else.

I like your observation on Culliver. Even when beat he was right there. Could be a star.

With out further offseason moves yet to be made, I would say the most important is to get Kaep up to speed to be a good, competent backup at QB. We were very lucky Smith didn't get injured this year. I don't think we would have been 13-3 had that happened. Would have been a disaster for both Kaep and the team to have him on the field so early.

The recievers need to work on their hands. Crabtree, Vernon Davis, Edwards, Ginn and Delanie walker all dropped easy passes including Touchdowns. Gore dropped a number of easy screens in the flat. I wouldn't mind signing someone like Reggie Wayne knowing he is older now but isn't likely to drop a lot of passes.

What? 5 post and no mention of Kyle Williams or ASmith is the zuxors???

Niner Talk, you're letting me down, yo!

- 98

Good post... You nailed most of them. I'd like to see the WRs work on coming back to the ball when Alex is in trouble or scrambling and not stopping and standing there. Also, Alex using pump fakes more often and being more decisive. Also, changing the cadence once in a while... Alex has drawn people offsides a lot of the time in the past when using his barking. Working on passing out of the jumbo formation. Switch things up.. need to get more of the playbook learned and Roman has to get his head out of his butt at times. An offseason should make him more fluid and help him to be able to call better games. I'd like to see us continue to get new trickeration plays but nothing with our RB's throwing especially since none of them have ever thrown a pass. Use the jet sweeps more, get some new stuff in....

The 2 most important things though IMO are blitz pickup/pass protection and QB mechanics/WR timing. We get better on those two things alone and that solves a lot of our problems. Oh, and getting a big wr/te will help this but we have to be better than 25-30% or whatever we are on 3rd downs. It's pathetic... need to work on that in the offseason. Work on developing plays/routes Alex feels comfortable with on that down, work on blitz pickup for that down, play against our defense and do various situations with different yards to gain and on different spots on the field. (more slants!!!) Alex has to work on getting balls batted down (using passing lanes and our OL can help by practicing getting DL down... we really don't cut block much anymore)

P.S. Anyone noticed how we stop doing those "sneaky" shifts on 3rd downs to get people to jump? Guess when one ref says it's legal and the other says it's not it isn't worth risking it. It was pretty much a judgment call on if they made a movement forward.

They need to scrap whatever package that has justin Smith trying to block instead of an actual lineman.

Ol biggest need for work followed by Alexs accuracy. However we need Wes that can actually get open to help him out

Originally posted by kidash98:
What? 5 post and no mention of Kyle Williams or ASmith is the zuxors???

Niner Talk, you're letting me down, yo!

- 98

3rd down conversions and red zone offense----I am sure the coaches will review every single play in those situations and see what went wrong.

The pass play calling needs to be improved overall, including better red zone plays that Alex is comfortable actually throwing. (Alex holds the ball an extra split to full second on most pass plays including in the red zone.)

Originally posted by swim4speed:

The pass play calling needs to be improved overall, including better red zone plays that Alex is comfortable actually throwing. (Alex holds the ball an extra split to full second on most pass plays including in the red zone.)

This