Originally posted by cciowa:
Originally posted by oldninerdude:
Originally posted by NinerBuff:
I bet they'll have Bakhtiari and Alama-Francis on speed dial. Until Haggan's suspension is up, they're really flirting with disaster. I mean, they don't have a single backup OLB on the roster right now.
I think you're right, both Bakhtiari and Alama-Francis appear to still be available if they wanted to resign either of them.
I think you're right, they appear to need another OLB as a backup.
I'm not sure I agree with you about no backups on the roster right now, tho.
Haralson is 6'0" and 255, and there are a couple guys an the roster right now who could fill in for him.
Dobbs, at 6'3" and 275. We've already seen him in the preseason at OLB/DE in nickel situations.
What about Bowman, at 6'0" and 243? He played OLB at Penn State, and has shown some natural pass rush ability with the Niners. He's not much different in size than Von Miller, who plays OLB at Denver and seems to do pretty well. So if needed, how about Bowman at OLB?
Gooden, at 6'2" and 243 might also fill the bill.
Then there's the secret weapon, that guy named Miller, who plays FB now, but in college played . . . yes, OLB, and played it pretty well. Defensive guys are taking his snaps at FB/HB, could he play some OLB if necessary?
Are we seeing some more creative thinking from the coaching staff?
creative thnking or are weakening positions with all this talk of moving players around a few days before a huge game. i shudder to think miller one one one with someone out there and to see rogers drooling at that one. gee here is a thought maybe they should have thought about how they were going to solve this when they put him on the injured reserve list
You don't know how much thought, work, effort the coaching staff put into their decision. None of us does.
For all we know, Miller has been working out at OLB during part of training camp, on days when the media doesn't have access.
One thing we do know: the staff knows far more about the roster and about available replacements than we do. They also know more NFL football than we do.
Fangio was quoted last season about Bowman, and what a great natural pass rusher he is. Could it be that Fangio's got some surprise packages ready for GB that we haven't seen yet?
How about this one: On a first or second down (base 3-4), Aldon suddenly moves inside of Justin Smith, making it appear that he's playing ILB, and Bowman shifts out to Aldon's OLB position. Then Aldon, who has an excellent inside rush, brings the pressure, along with Justin Smith AND Navarro Bowman--from the outside. I gotta think those guys would overwhelm GB's OL! .
If a fan like me could dream this up, you think Fangio hasn't considered it? (And Dobbs could fill in for Aldon in that situation as well, plugging up the A gap like the DL he is.)
Bottom line: the OLB position is of concern, and interesting to discuss on this board, but there's no reason to panic, yet, and certainly no basis for condemning the coaching staff, which seems to have done pretty well and made some pretty good decisions so far. IMHO.
