What is your biggest priority for improving the 2013 roster?

Originally posted by niners94:
How tall is Byrd? Whitner is too short to cover tight ends

same height.

Donte Whitner is fast though... Jarius Byrd aint as fast. They also dont play the same position.

BOLSTER THE SECONDARY..FA, DRAFT DO WHATEVER IT TAKES

A BIG NASTY PASS RUSHER AS WELL

Replace Whitner and upgrade one of the corners. As much as I love Whitner's hitting and tackling, he doesn't match up well with wr's or te's.

Replace...

Culliver
Whitner
Rogers
Brown

Keep Goldson

Originally posted by NinerGM:
I agree somewhat but I think it would be monumental waste of resources if we don't invest in the DL. The defense completely changed in NE the moment Justin Smith came out of the game. Suddenly Tom Brady looks awesome when he hadn't all night and teams figured out how to nullify the 49er pass-rush. We need to upgrade Will Tukafu and the other DL bench players that we have on this team. There has to be an upgrade in rotation where every guy coming off the bench can contribute significantly to the game - just like we expected Hunter and LMJ to do so as runners, we have to have the same expectations for our DL guys. I agree we do need to do something about the safeties. From what I can see, it seemed to be more scheme/communication than coverage. People just looked lost out there and that's something that needs to be corrected. I hope Fangio is holding Donnatel's feet to the fire - why his guys get caught in no-man's-land so often. If you're a DB and you're alone in space you're probably in the WRONG place. This seems to be a recurring theme and needs to be addressed during the off-season. More man with disciplined CB plan and less zone.

Thoughts?

PS - Am I the only one who's completely unplugged from ESPN and other sports news outlets? I just can't stand to hear talking heads go on and on about Ray Lewis blah blah blah. Man f**k the Ravens. Seriously.

Ditto and Ditto on both counts. Plain and simple it's time to draft atleast three new DL guys. Our philosopy also must change ie we need a rotating DL scheme. Heck, down the line, Justin, Aldon and Ahmad were all injured. No wonder our defense went flat.

We need 3 De Linemen (2 pass rushers to help Aldon & Ahmad and the other to be a 320LB runstuffer to help Justin & Ray McDonald) and in free agency, sign a kicker & a CB and hope to GOD AJ Jenkins isnt a bust because MOSS is done as a 9er as far as i'm concerned, Culliver had an awful game & an awful stupid comented Super Bowl week but he is young & fast & talented so he can still recover.

I think the DBs do well considering they get no help at all.


Alten Smith...am I the only one who thinks he might not be a long-term and consistent player, for various reasons?


A really good DE and NT always has a home, on any team.


Gots to sort out the wide receiver position. CrabT is really good. Try to get another elite WR.


Walker does a lot of things very well and is a big asset who should be kept, but no denying that those big old TEs always seem to have success around the league.


I think Ackers was hurt, expect him to be great again next year.


Lots of hate on Ginn. Is a reliable if not spectacular punt returner, doesn't seem to do much else. LMJ will probably be the kick and punt returner next year anyway.

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Trade up for more dynamic players who might make a difference, could have used a pass rusher this year, and then fill in the openings with FAs. Baalke and Harbaugh tend to do this and it is a very effective way to manage both the salary cap and keep the pipeline full with significant talent.

Can they get an impact pass rusher? DB? WR? NT? If they can get any truly great prospect at any of those positions they should go for it...not sold on the idea of going in needing a certain position...other GMs might eat you alive in trades.

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Trade up for more dynamic players who might make a difference, could have used a pass rusher this year, and then fill in the openings with FAs. Baalke and Harbaugh tend to do this and it is a very effective way to manage both the salary cap and keep the pipeline full with significant talent.

Can they get an impact pass rusher? DB? WR? NT? If they can get any truly great prospect at any of those positions they should go for it...not sold on the idea of going in needing a certain position...other GMs might eat you alive in trades.

Agree that two or three impact guys are what the team needs. Already good all around and so the only need is for a couple of star players, other than at QB and LB.

But, given a choice, the weakest area seems to be the pass rush. Man, some QBs could text back there before the pressure came. One wonders about the long-term prospects of both Smiths and there seems to be a determination to never blitz. The DBs held up amazingly well under the circumstances. And of course there is no such a thing as a NT who is too good...

Next, the wide receivers after CrabT.... Moss...uh. You would think a star free agent receiver might want to come here.

Tight end is good, Walker is a valuable all-around player, and Davis is darned good, but those big tight ends around the league always seem to do well and a really good one would be a clear advantage and upgrade.

Kicker Akers will be fine next year. He was obviously playing through pain.

LMJ or Hunter will return punts and kicks.

And if there is a real star available, whatever the position, you have to pick him up if he falls in your lap.

I dont think the entire secondary needs to be replaced but they need a serious attitude adjustment and need to spend the next 7 months working on jump balls. They cannot play the lob ball at all. The Falcons proved that and the Ravens jumped all over it. They threw more lob balls in one game than I can remember seeing. Ryan does it because he has no arm but hes got the two best receivers in the league after megatron. Flacco did it because they saw how terrible our db's were at playing the jump ball and lobbed it up time and time again. It was disgusting to watch and all the credit thrown at Flacco should have been immediately diverted to his WR's. They were outstanding all game long. Ours...... Not so much.

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
D-line
Corner
Safety
Kicker
WR

In that order, Justin Smith is our only consistent D linemen, and he is old and injured, lack of pressure from pass rush exposed our corners, and safeties. Akers is old, injured, and done for. Crabtree and Mario are a good one two, but after that the cupboard is bare. Kyle is servicable, but has baggage, Moss is old and looked scared yesterday, I can't stand to look at him anymore, Jenkens....well if he could have helped I'm sure the coaches would have tried, he can go too. I know he was a 1st round pick, but I would rather cut ties and bring in another WR than waste a roster spot on a project. If La'Mike can learn to return punts we can finaly dump Ted Ginn, I've seen double amputees with better hands.

Mario is hurt way too much. WR needs to be addressed in some fashion. DL needs some freshness. Haralson needs to come back at right price.What exactly is Kyle Williams baggage? Moss needs to be done as Niner. Thanks for the time and the help but we need more effort during games.

Originally posted by SkyGod:
Replace...

Culliver
Whitner
Rogers
Brown

Keep Goldson

it is probably not realistic but this poster said nothing wrong here

Our ST need a major over haul. We need a pass rush and a new OC

Games are won on the lines.

A mediocre secondary will look good with a decent pass rush.

so the question is, whether FA or the draft, which of those 2 areas can be improved the most immediately.

I'm no draftnik, but here's the FA list, anyone grab your eye ?

http://nfltraderumors.co/2013-nfl-free-agents/

I see the biggest problem with the secondary is our safeties. Both safeties are not known for coverage skills and have been exposed as liabilities in coverage. This is really bad when we essentially play a cover-2 style of defense. Whitner is definitely is our worst DB in coverage. I propose that we release Whitner and resign Goldson as a strong safety. I think Goldson will excel at strong safety because of his all around game. Then we will need to add a coverage free safety through the draft / free agency.

Regarding our corners, they are decent. We definitely don't have a shutdown corner. However, according to PFF our corners rate out pretty well. I believe the team mis-used Rogers by playing him on the slot receiver. He is much better on the outside. Brown is a solid corner. Culliver has a lot of talent and has shown flashes of being a very good corner. According to PFF, he was playing great up until the week 14 (Patriots) and then his play dropped off. He has to work on his consistency. We do not have a corner that matches up well with the small shifty slot receivers. How about moving Brown to the slot receiver and leaving Rogers on the outside?

For the most part, we have the players necessary for a good secondary. We need to replace the weakest link and then add a good slot receiver cover guy. Furthermore, a healthy Aldon and Justin will go along ways to improving the pass rush and helping out the secondary.

No it doesn't.

We need a healthy JUSTIN SMITH and a healthy and productive ALDON SMITH. Fix that triceps and get rid of the bone spur. Do the rehab. And lets get this pass rush going again for the first time in a long time.

When these 2 were healthy and clicking we had no problems with our secondary. People weren't completing deep bombs on us because they didn't have much time. Now they have all day to throw and that makes everything so much worse. We have a pass rush problem mostly due to injuries. Not a DB problem.

They need to dump Whitner and draft a better cover safety