Bakhtairi signed to take Haggans place

With the changes made to kickoff rules this year, kickoff returns only occur maybe once a game. This effectively cuts the amount of ST coverage plays in half. This is probably the biggest reason for semi-dismantling last years dominant coverage squad.

A lesser reason is probably that they valued youth/potential over ST coverage players. We have lots of young potential at certain positions (WR/RB/DL) and they decided that is worth more than the punt coverage unit.

Anyway, these are the tough decisions that good teams face. It will just get worse in the next few years, eg "resign Crabtree to a $60M contract?" etc.

You can always second guess the FO, but in this case they made a well thought out, rational decision. (well thought out decisions were sometimes lacking in years previous)

Originally posted by DirtyP:
Cartwright was always a decent special teamer, never great. CJ Spillman would have been our ace regardless of whether we kept Cartwright or Costanzo or both. Cartwright has never been anything carrying the ball. He's old and washed up. Probably will never see an NFL field for the rest of his career. Harbaugh and Baalke kept Dixon over Cartwright, meaning they believe he is the better all around football player. I think they have earned our trust on that topic.

Please provide a specific example of how Dixon "sucks" on special teams. Our coverage units have been fine so far. The touchdown allowed was a mistake by the refs.

P. he just looks slow running down the field and i do not think he has made one tackle. if he is not going to carry the ball at running back then I thought he would be or should be a beast on special teams. i just think we have given up to many kickoff return yards and maybe its not all dixons fault but to me he just looks slow. yes i understand about the punt return not being anyones fault but i just feel dixon should be more of a presence. I guess that is not a very good answer to your question and i am sorry about that.i just am a little worried about coverage so far. You see it different than me and thats ok!

It was Harbaugh who delivered the bad news to Bakhtiari three weeks ago. And it was Harbaugh's message that made Bakhtiari decide to stick with the sport. "'You did everything you could do. You did a great job,'" Bakhtiari said Harbaugh told him. "He was proud of the effort I put in, proud with what I accomplished. ... It made it harder. I really wish he had been like, 'Listen, football's not for you.' That would have been easier. Then I could have said, 'Ok, I'm not meant to do this.'" The journeyman linebacker had lived in a spare bedroom at Staley's house during the offseason. After being cut, he moved back in with his parents in Burlingame. But he left all of his stuff at Staley's, and he's moving back in today. "I took a couple of days to get my thoughts together and recalibrate. And then it was like, OK, I really want to keep after this thing. It's a long journey. It's a long way to get to your individual goal. I'll keep going until it absolutely ends."

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archives/2012/09/bakhtiari-ill-keep-going-until-it-absolutely-ends.html#storylink=cpy

Originally posted by cciowa:
P. he just looks slow running down the field and i do not think he has made one tackle. if he is not going to carry the ball at running back then I thought he would be or should be a beast on special teams. i just think we have given up to many kickoff return yards and maybe its not all dixons fault but to me he just looks slow. yes i understand about the punt return not being anyones fault but i just feel dixon should be more of a presence. I guess that is not a very good answer to your question and i am sorry about that.i just am a little worried about coverage so far. You see it different than me and thats ok!

Just remember that on special teams its not everyones responsibility to get all the way down field immediately. You have guys that race downfield to make the initial tackle while everyone else has to stay in their lane to prevent the big play. Give it some time and Im sure we will be as good as last year