Thank you Donte Whitner!

I hope we can find more hidden gems in FA this year. I actually liked Whitner in Buffalo for his ability to tackle and he brought that to SF. He had like 140 tackles in one season with them.

Whitner's hit on Thomas won us the Saints game. Fact.




Set the tone, prevented a TD and took out one of their biggest weapons.

Wears the same number as one of my fav niners, Chet Brooks. Hits like him too!

Originally posted by niners9:
whitner was great, but rogers was better

Roger that

Originally posted by ChazBoner:
Whitner's hit on Thomas won us the Saints game. Fact.




Set the tone, prevented a TD and took out one of their biggest weapons.

great hit, but they had the lead with a minute left, unless the impact of whitners hit helped alex smith hit vernon davis, i dont see it as a fact

Whitner brought the glue to our DB's. He's the leader that everyone of our DB's respects. Not by talk but by his walk. That's why he's still here.. No disrespect to Rogers he did a great job for us last year. But I feel that it was mostly because of everything around him.. I really think he as good as gone with his asking price.. Our young DB's did a great job too.. And I'm sure the coaching staff really likes our backups.. Corners will move around a bit and we'll be young there.. but our two hard hitting center fielder remain.. As well as our D-line and the best LB core in the league! Thank you Whitner for being a mans man and a leader...

Michael Lewis was decent.

That is all.

The FS's in this defense are vital. There's a reason why our OLB's excelled in the pass rush and that's because the CB's mainly had flat coverage or cover 3 with a FS moving down to help the MLB's.

Goldson's and Whitner's ability to hit AND cover ground fast is what sealed the backend of this Defense. The backend sucked when Goldson was out early in the year.

He also got burned by TE's most of the season. He cost us the Dallas game, along with Rogers. He's been an improvement nonetheless.

Whitners' true value is that is called the defenses and set the dbs. Having Rogers and Whitner back there are like having coaches on the field. Their play settled down Goldson and Tarrell Brown.

So the whitner signing was huge and we got him at a good price. He has his limitations, but watch them draft another safety more in the mold of the cover man and when it's time for whitner to go, you move goldson to strong. But that's a few years away. But I believe they will draft a safety this year. We are thin there.

Originally posted by 9erred:

Originally posted by Rathman_44:

If Whitner doesn't knock out Pierre Thomas against the Saints - that game is waaaay different. He was worth the signing on that play alone not to mention solidifying the back half of the secondary. People downplay how complimentary he was to Goldson. I believe his signing was made that much more significant be the way it affected Goldson's ability to play "his" game.

That is like saying David Tyree was more important than Eli Manning because he made a catch on top of his helmet. While I love Whitman, and the resigning, Carlos Rogers went man to man every game taking out the best WR on the opposition. This coupled with his picks made him the number 1 FA signing. I hope they can lock him up for 3 more season or 4.

This is like comparing two sports cars, they both are high performance, and you hope the niners can sign them both.

He makes a point. That play changed the game. They were owning us that first drive...

IMO Donte was our best FA pick-up. Dashon played with reckless abandon and gambled (and baited qbs) ALOT to get all 6 of his picks and the countless number of big hits. Carlos also was able to undercut and gamble on the slants, ins, and out routes ran by slot receivers. The only way they would be able to play underneath routes and gamble on plays is by having a sound, disciplined safety behind them to 1.) have safety help behind them, and 2.) be the deep safety that takes away the first or deep option leading to his progression to the 2nd and 3rd options which have to be made UNDER PRESSURE. Donte is that safety, he played the run ridiculously well and was often our deep safety protecting everyone's ass. Without him Dashon would have to be the deep safety were he would have to stay DISCIPLINED, which we all know is not his best attribute. Without Donte, Carlos would have to play pure man lining up 7 to 10 yards back in order to not get beat (a la the ghost of cb's past #22 Mr. Lockdown Nate). Donte allowed everyone else to make the plays, he stayed disciplined and protected the deep half on most plays. Without Donte our Defense would be like the Ryan Clarkless Steeler D that got burnt by Mr. Tebowmerica . All in all its a TEAM effort. Everyone did their job and players made plays when they were given the chance.

In the words of Bart Scott... "CAN'T WAIT!!!" for next season. Go Niners.

Thanks? For doing your job? Ok, thank you. I guess.

Originally posted by defenderDX:
He also got burned by TE's most of the season. He cost us the Dallas game, along with Rogers. He's been an improvement nonetheless.

Madoodoo cost us that game, IMO.

Originally posted by crabman82:

great hit, but they had the lead with a minute left, unless the impact of whitners hit helped alex smith hit vernon davis, i dont see it as a fact

If he doesn't do that the saints score(TD) and then have Pierre Thomas for the whole game and it could have changed thegame.

And your comment if alex at the end well they would have been down. More and would have changed. The philosophy of both teams and then at the end the saints would only have needed a FG.