AJ Jenkins is a 49er

Originally posted by dj43:
I posted this in the Randy Moss thread over in FA forum but it fits here as well.

In an interview with Cincinnati media, Bengals HC Marvin Lewis expressed rather strong criticism of the 49ers for playing Randy Moss ahead of AJ Jenkins last season. According to Lewis, not only did Moss contribute little to the 49er offense, it prevented Jenkins from getting the playing time necessary to develop.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2013/03/17/lewis-discusses-free-agency/

Though it is somewhat in hindsight, I happen to agree with Lewis. As we have discussed in the Jenkins thread, either Baalke and the scouts did a lousy job of scouting Jenkins, or they grossly overestimated what Moss could bring to the team. Though Harbaugh often praised Moss for his "professionalism" and locker room presence, I believe that not using Jenkins at all was a high price to pay for Moss' "presence."

At this time last year it was clear that perhaps the greatest area of need was at WR, hence the moves to sign Moss and Manningham plus drafting Jenkins. Now with Moss moving toward retirement and Manningham a BIG question mark for next season, the 49ers still do not know what they have in Jenkins. Harbaugh's failure to include Jenkins at least enough to know whether he was a Baalke screw-up or not, puts the team in the same place they were at this time last season - they need to draft another WR to give them the speed (and height) they will need to compete against the better secondaries around the league, most particularly the Seattle secondary.

Or maybe he couldnt even learn his assignments correctly?

Real easy to lose playing time when you dont know your assignments. Harbaugh wasnt just blindly not playing him for the sake of not playing him. Something was going on. Hence why we saw a no namer getting playing time at the end of the season while Jenkins was collecting splinters with his ass.

Originally posted by paperplanemedia:
Agreed. Brandon Jacobs was in the same boat. If Hunter and Jacobs didn't get hurt we would have never seen LMJ on the field. Let's hope this trend of giving these older guys a higher spot on the depth chart just because they were good before doesn't continue.

How is it any were close to the same situation? Jacobs had 5 carries; and spent the entire year on the inactive list. James got in when Hunter went down, and there was room for him to play. Hunter was simply the better RB. If he comes back healthy and recovers fully, he will still be the better RB.

Originally posted by IdahoNiner:
How is it any were close to the same situation? Jacobs had 5 carries; and spent the entire year on the inactive list. James got in when Hunter went down, and there was room for him to play. Hunter was simply the better RB. If he comes back healthy and recovers fully, he will still be the better RB.

I'm talking about LMJ vs. Brandon Jacobs. No doubt Hunter is better than both.

Lack of strength probably would effect him more for a long grueling season, not a couple of plays a game. And the coaches would have cherry-picked pass patterns where strength was not an issue. There must have been serious issues to keep an expensive first-rounder out of there. We will see next year.

Originally posted by paperplanemedia:

Originally posted by dj43:
I posted this in the Randy Moss thread over in FA forum but it fits here as well.

In an interview with Cincinnati media, Bengals HC Marvin Lewis expressed rather strong criticism of the 49ers for playing Randy Moss ahead of AJ Jenkins last season. According to Lewis, not only did Moss contribute little to the 49er offense, it prevented Jenkins from getting the playing time necessary to develop.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2013/03/17/lewis-discusses-free-agency/

Though it is somewhat in hindsight, I happen to agree with Lewis. As we have discussed in the Jenkins thread, either Baalke and the scouts did a lousy job of scouting Jenkins, or they grossly overestimated what Moss could bring to the team. Though Harbaugh often praised Moss for his "professionalism" and locker room presence, I believe that not using Jenkins at all was a high price to pay for Moss' "presence."

At this time last year it was clear that perhaps the greatest area of need was at WR, hence the moves to sign Moss and Manningham plus drafting Jenkins. Now with Moss moving toward retirement and Manningham a BIG question mark for next season, the 49ers still do not know what they have in Jenkins. Harbaugh's failure to include Jenkins at least enough to know whether he was a Baalke screw-up or not, puts the team in the same place they were at this time last season - they need to draft another WR to give them the speed (and height) they will need to compete against the better secondaries around the league, most particularly the Seattle secondary.

Agreed. Brandon Jacobs was in the same boat. If Hunter and Jacobs didn't get hurt we would have never seen LMJ on the field. Let's hope this trend of giving these older guys a higher spot on the depth chart just because they were good before doesn't continue.

I am in general agreement with your sentiment here but the situation at RB was rather different than at WR. The 49ers knew they were loaded at RB and LMJ was sort of a bonus pick who could become sort of a Percy Harvin hybrid RB/WR. The WR situation was obviously a greater need all season long.

It was clear two years ago that Moss had very little left. His speed was gone and he was never a good route runner. His game was pure speed and vertical leaping ability. He was a stop gap hope. In hindsight, that was a vain hope.

I just do not buy the idea that Jenkins is so lacking in brain power that the staff could not have put him in for 5 or 6 plays that he did know well and see for sure what he could do. Of course if the 49ers do not draft a WR until the later rounds it would suggest they believe Jenkins can be the guy but that is a stretch, IMO. Until you see a guy in the game, you don't really know what he can do. In this case, the PT given to Moss seems to have set the timetable back for Jenkins and the rest of the passing game.

double post...

better have at least 500 yards this year with a few TD's.

Originally posted by jreff22:
better have at least 500 yards this year with a few TD's.

It's just hard for me to imagine Jenkins was so bad that even after MM and Williams went down that he could not get in the game at all. Moss wasn't doing anything to speak of and giving up 6-10 plays a game for him in order to find out what Jenkins had doesn't seem like so much of a stretch. Lewis made a good point, IMO.

In the view of this Seahawks fan, it seems like Harbaugh slowed the future of Jenkins (and depending on how Jenkins feels, possibly even ruined him for the team in a worst case scenario) to stick with a veteran solely for the "win now" aspect. Even if he WAS that bad in practices throughout the year, (doubtful, frankly) the learning experience in real games would surely have helped him a lot. Particularly if he had to go up against our secondary a couple of times. If his problem was rookie ego, he'd have been humbled right quickly.

I'll be curious to see what happens with him in the 49ers training camp/pre-season/regular season. The decision to keep him off the field for the year might have cost you guys the Super Bowl. (Obviously, there's never just one thing that causes a win or a loss, but there are typically a couple of things you can point to that would have made a difference in the W/L column.)

Originally posted by RolandDeschain:
In the view of this Seahawks fan, it seems like Harbaugh slowed the future of Jenkins (and depending on how Jenkins feels, possibly even ruined him for the team in a worst case scenario) to stick with a veteran solely for the "win now" aspect. Even if he WAS that bad in practices throughout the year, (doubtful, frankly) the learning experience in real games would surely have helped him a lot. Particularly if he had to go up against our secondary a couple of times. If his problem was rookie ego, he'd have been humbled right quickly.

I'll be curious to see what happens with him in the 49ers training camp/pre-season/regular season. The decision to keep him off the field for the year might have cost you guys the Super Bowl. (Obviously, there's never just one thing that causes a win or a loss, but there are typically a couple of things you can point to that would have made a difference in the W/L column.)

Who is seattle looking at with their first pick this year?

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by RolandDeschain:
In the view of this Seahawks fan, it seems like Harbaugh slowed the future of Jenkins (and depending on how Jenkins feels, possibly even ruined him for the team in a worst case scenario) to stick with a veteran solely for the "win now" aspect. Even if he WAS that bad in practices throughout the year, (doubtful, frankly) the learning experience in real games would surely have helped him a lot. Particularly if he had to go up against our secondary a couple of times. If his problem was rookie ego, he'd have been humbled right quickly.

I'll be curious to see what happens with him in the 49ers training camp/pre-season/regular season. The decision to keep him off the field for the year might have cost you guys the Super Bowl. (Obviously, there's never just one thing that causes a win or a loss, but there are typically a couple of things you can point to that would have made a difference in the W/L column.)

Who is seattle looking at with their first pick this year?

... percy harvin

Originally posted by NinerBuff:
... percy harvin

The 25th best WR in the league for a first rounder?

Pretty steep.

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by NinerBuff:
... percy harvin

The 25th best WR in the league for a first rounder?

Pretty steep.

He's either a top 10 WR or not playing due to injury. But I guess, on average, 25th best is about right.

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by NinerBuff:
... percy harvin

The 25th best WR in the league for a first rounder?

Pretty steep.

...plus 60 million dollars.

Pass.

Originally posted by NinerBuff:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by NinerBuff:
... percy harvin

The 25th best WR in the league for a first rounder?

Pretty steep.

He's either a top 10 WR or not playing due to injury. But I guess, on average, 25th best is about right.

Here are 10 receivers i would take over Harvin, injured or not:

Megatron
Andre Johnson
Julio Jones
AJ Green
Roddy White
Brandon Marshall
Dez Bryant
Demaryius Thomas
Victor Cruz
Mike Wallace

I could go on. Harvin isn't that good. Not sure why they gave up that much for him.