What is your biggest priority for improving the 2013 roster?

Originally posted by Joecool:
I don't think it is our personnel as much as it is our defensive game plan. Cully and Rodgers had tight coverages aside from that blown coverage Jacoby Jones TD.

Fangio needs to get his head out of his ass and force QB's to make quicker decisions sometimes.


BLITZ every once in a while Fangio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are the least creative team when it comes to blitzing.

I totally agree. With all that speed at the linebacker position, there should be some complicated blitz packages mixed in by next season.

Originally posted by GNielsen:

Originally posted by Joecool:
I don't think it is our personnel as much as it is our defensive game plan. Cully and Rodgers had tight coverages aside from that blown coverage Jacoby Jones TD.

Fangio needs to get his head out of his ass and force QB's to make quicker decisions sometimes.


BLITZ every once in a while Fangio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are the least creative team when it comes to blitzing.

I totally agree. With all that speed at the linebacker position, there should be some complicated blitz packages mixed in by next season.

I have a feeling we will not see any complicated blitzes until Fangio is gone. So much talent at LB and we keep 3 of them to cover and act like slot CB's.


ARGH!!! Are we too scared to blitz?

Originally posted by Joecool:
I have a feeling we will not see any complicated blitzes until Fangio is gone. So much talent at LB and we keep 3 of them to cover and act like slot CB's.


ARGH!!! Are we too scared to blitz?

or maybe he doesn't trust our secondary to hold up if we don't get home on the blitz.

With how bad our secondary played this postseason I can now understand the skepticism.

I don't get the Carlos Rogers hate. He wasn't targeted that much was he? It seemed to be Brown or Culliver being picked on by opposing QBs. I'm not sure if that speaks more about Rogers' man being covered or the opponent saw the weak link in Culliver, but either way, Rogers isn't the big problem in the secondary. I know Rogers had much less INTs this season but how much of it was because the man he covered wasn't being targeted?

I think we gotta resign Walker. He played his heart out in the SB and made a ton of huge plays. Keeping him, along with a healthy WR corps and hopefully a participating Jenkins, keeps the passing game dangerous.

Most work obviously has to be done in the DB. I like Whitner and Goldson, but they're not a great combination and I don't necessarily want them both at S next year. They both hit hard as hell, but are liabilities in coverage. All last we heard--and we knew--that the Ravens could exploit our DBs, and they did just that. Culliver seemed way too cocky to me as a rookie last year, and though he played OK this year, he fell in to the media day trap and played an absolutely horrific game in the SB. He must have given up around 150 yards including a TD on 3 plays alone--the bomb to Boldin on the sidelines, the TD where he didn't even touch the guy down for some asinine reason, and that backbreaking third down conversion where he gave up about 25 RAC to Boldin along the sideline--and his PI was also a huge turning point. He's talented, but I wouldn't miss him or his attitude.

Draft for depth along the DL and add some FAs there as well. It's odd, but for the first time since Mooch, I'm more confident in the O then the D now. They really slipped up at the end of the season, and if that trend continues, next year won't be pretty.

Hopefully we can beat the odds and return to the SB next year, this time getting our ring.

Bolster the D.

There is no way the Justin Smith injury should have been so crippling to this team. And there was even speculation after last years draft that we were being risky getting no addition personnel on the DL and taking chances because we didn't have any injuries the prior year.

Lets learn from this.

Do our DB's ever get a rest? Hell does our D ever get a rest? If there is one thing that I hope we address, its more depth all over the D. It was pretty evident that our defense was mentally and physically drained the last quarter of the season. I honestly will nvr understand why we didn't use our 2nd string backfield to give the starters a rest. Maybe it was because the W W L record we had and some of our wins were to close a game to do so? Still doesnt make much sense, we see most teams bring in their backups regardless of the score, the Ravens did it in the SB.

I hope this draft we find the backups we need to give our D the well deserved rest they need.

Let me vent: I was so sick of hearing how great our D was all year, when what I saw was the very definition of mediocrity. Our sixth Superbowl D, was the worst ever. Any of the other 5 would have brought us a win against the Ravens.

We had some really timely turnovers/takeaways, but we just couldn't force many offenses (especially the better ones) off the field after 3rd down. Not sure why it bothered me so much. So the defense gets better press than it deserves? Maybe it just bugs me, like a girl who is a 7 but think she is a 10.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by rudedog:
I think Fangio is going to have to start rotating some of the guys on the DL. I would draft a couple of good DE and start grooming them to take Cowboys place. But these guy playing every down most of the season is taking its toll by the playoffs.

This. I agree completely. There needs to be a viable rotation of at least 3 DE's throughout the game, as well as 3 OLB's rotating in and out.

+1

Scratch Cary Williams off the FA list. No way I want that punk on our team.

WR- Crabtree-played like a top 10 pick, needs to build on good habits and not fall back into bad ones Randy-age Mario-injury prone AJ-lacks experience, needs "coaching up" Ginn-return guy, odd man out .....passing league+Kap's cannon=Major upgrades coming in Receiving core

OL-stacked TE-stacked

QB-replacement for smith.......but what style of QB? Duel threat? west coast? need a decent backup for sure


DL-need to bring in 3rd down pass rusher, line depth is a concern given the rate of times we rushed 4....we need a few more hybrid type guys

LB-stacked

DB-Brown-solid not great Rogers-age Whitner-hits/bad coverage Goldson-legit top 5 FS Culliver-has it physically, lacks mentally, needs "coaching up" .....what if we don't sign Goldson? what if an NFC foe signs Goldson? show him the money! Whitner/Rogers/Culliver spots could be upgraded and should.....whitner might be the odd man out

ST- Lee-top 5 punter Akers-mentally might be done with football

My number 1 concern for the defense is not resigning Dashon
Goldson

Originally posted by SFL49ER:
My number 1 concern for the defense is not resigning Dashon
Goldson

I would sign him and cut Whitner. Move Goldson to SS and draft FS or move Culliver to FS.

I have a wish list of things I want, starting with the coaches pre-game preparations, game-plans on both sides of the ball, in-game adjustments and clock management, slow-starts, penalties, vanilla schemes, etc. That's a lot and it all falls on coaching. I hope they grow and learn from this year. CK will not be a mystery to anyone, like Alex wasn't to start the year.

As to players?

Defense:
FS - we need a S that can track balls, defend passes, make INT's, lead, get sideline-to-sideline and actually help over the top without starting 25 yards deep. He also needs to be a stellar tackler and can bring a blitz and play inside the box.
SS - should be interchangeable in the 3-4 but I'd trade big hits for sure-tackling and range/speed.
CB - I thought Culliver would be "our" big, physical CB who can disrupt routes and out-muscle the bigger WR's of today's game at the LOS but with no help over the top, he's been exposed and he doesn't seem to be very bright. I would love a Revis with a huge chip on his shoulder. Brown plays big in big games. Scheme can help him more (not play off 15 yards on 3rd and 5) as can coaching (learn to play the ball and not the receiver AFTER he catches it - he had a simple pick-6 in the Superbowl). That said, if the NFL is going to allow the CB's to play in the Ronnie Lott era again, why not go the way of Seattle and convert 220 6'4" LBers to CB's so we don't have to play 20 yards off and by being physical, only have to cover for under 4 seconds.
DE's - Ray's been M.I.A. all year long for the most part and with Justin hurt, it really showed our weakness. That said, it also showed that our coaches are too timid to rotate. RJF got pancaked in the Superbowl.
NT - we have not had that wide-bodied, low-center of gravity prototypical NT that can clog the A-gaps, command double-teams AND collapse the step-up-lane in the pocket.
OLB's - we've got three coming back this year from injury and a rotation could go a long way esp. on Aldon's side. Scheme can help exploit mismatches, moving these guys around even more (Brooks played SAM, WILL and RDT in the Superbowl). And if we do find some pass rushers, use them!
ILB's - more depth and spend all offseason learning how to cover receivers/TE's in the RZ, particularly the EZ. Both have been horrendous in this area. That said, they rarely have S help either. Two stud S's could essentially shore up 3 positions...like the NT position.

Offense:
QB - time to step up Tolzien. The problem is, he's polar opposite of CK. We'll need a CK 2.0 should he go down.
WR - it's safe to say the micro-receiver experiment should be over (Williams, Jenkins, Manningham, etc.). For a big physical, power running team, two of them got blown up on one running play by one guy trying to run block. And if we want to run an anti-WCO, we need some big physical WR's who can out-muscle DB's, take the top off and run-block very well; you know, like the plethora of these WR's we faced ALL year long and who just torched us in the Superbowl.
TE - I wanted Fleener. Still do. If we had a Fleener and VD on 4th and goal from the 5, nothing is an easier pass for a QB than a quick one in the middle of the field/EZ...Flacco did it twice to us (one with Pitta, the other with Boldin). It's a "slightly" higher percentage than a roll-out and pass-on-the-run to Crabtree with multiple defenders and no room to maneuver. Walker is still a jack-of-all-trades so bring him back as well.
RB - we still need a Gore 2.0...but WITH breakaway speed. We're all talking about the final 4 plays but those 4 plays don't happen if Gore had home run speed. Hunter is an absolute beast (enormous loss). James did a admiral job filling in but he does fumble and isn't as explosive/quick/fast/decisive as Hunter was pre-injury. Hunter can also run very well between the tackles. We also use Gore as a FB and ask him to block esp. out of the Q offensive formations. We need a bigger body here.
FB - Miller is a silent MVP but we rarely use him in the passing game (scheme). But if he does go down, who's up next?
OL - Next C up? Let's see some real competition this offseason and a couple more diamonds in the rough. We need more depth at T for sure and another stud G should a Iupati/Boone go down.

My number 2 concern for the defense is drafting a pocket collapsing NT or getting one through a trade. (Alex Smith, anyone)

...in the first round with a trade up to a very high pick if we are targeting someone in particular