Culliver to Safety?

Originally posted by IdahoNiner:

Its pretty sad. He asnt even the worst player in the secondary in the superbowl.

Whitner and Goldson had far worse games.

the highest grade I could give this secondary is a c+ for the body of their work.

my opinion does not match the statistic on culliver...so ill defer to the numbers....

I expect this secondary can be shaken up and be masked by the front 7

Originally posted by gunslinger8:

Originally posted by modninerfan:
... why should we just dump whitner? you got somebody better in mind?

How about because he gave up more touchdowns than any safety in the league? Draft someone, sign a FA, scrape something off the bottom of your shoe.

link?

Originally posted by IdahoNiner:

Originally posted by Elrossoneri:
The Cully bashing is this year K.Williams bashing?

Its pretty sad. He asnt even the worst player in the secondary in the superbowl.

Whitner and Goldson had far worse games.

I'm not sure what game you were watching. Culliver had a horrible game. That Jones brainfart was all on Culliver. The play called for Whitner to break on Boldin and if you watch the play, you can see that this is exactly what Whitner does. Culliver's job was to make sure Jones didn't get behind him and he screwed up. He had a horrible game - his worst of the year at the worst possible time.

Now, by the way, I agree that Culliver was good most of the year. Again, my only problem with Culliver's game, when it's on, is that he seems to have trouble finding the ball in the air, especially on long passes and then going up to contend for them. I assume they'll be working on that part of his game this off season so I'd rather they keep him developing at corner because other than the Super Bowl, he was usually right there with the receiver last season.

Originally posted by DaveWilcox:
Let's bring back Nate Clements and move him to safety.

hahaha ...I actually thought of that too dave ...this time we dont need to sign him to an 80 million dollar deal

Originally posted by GNielsen:
I'm not sure what game you were watching. Culliver had a horrible game. That Jones brainfart was all on Culliver. The play called for Whitner to break on Boldin and if you watch the play, you can see that this is exactly what Whitner does. Culliver's job was to make sure Jones didn't get behind him and he screwed up. He had a horrible game - his worst of the year at the worst possible time.

Now, by the way, I agree that Culliver was good most of the year. Again, my only problem with Culliver's game, when it's on, is that he seems to have trouble finding the ball in the air, especially on long passes and then going up to contend for them. I assume they'll be working on that part of his game this off season so I'd rather they keep him developing at corner because other than the Super Bowl, he was usually right there with the receiver last season.

All the media attention he received for being homophobic no doubt contributed to his lack of focus, but he is a very good young CB. And it is frustrating to watch him stay step for step with a receiver only to have the ball nearly hit him in the helmet as it reaches the WR for a catch. Just a bit of awareness, a turn back at the right time, and he would have knocked down so many more balls.

Not totally true. There are lots of options for cap management starting with some of the higher paid players who clearly didn't play up to their expensive contracts and who have viable options waiting in the wings (some with players behind them training for a full year or two):

Playing GM, here are some POTENTIAL moves (see some of the bigger moves the Falcons and other teams have made to date):

Lost @:
Alex (- $9,750,000) - gone; replaced by rookie
Rogers (- $7,344,531) (+ $9,000,000) - gone; replaced by top tier FA CB (e.g. Revis et al)
Goodwin (- $5,016,668) - gone; replaced by Looney/Kilgore
Manningham (- $4,950,000) - gone; injury settlement; replaced by AJ/Williams is back
Whitner (- $4,933,333) - gone; replaced by Goldson
Akers (- $3,616,668) - gone; replaced by draft pick
Haralson (- $2,870,000) - gone; replaced by draft pick and Johnson/Fleming
Soapoaga - gone; replaced by high draft pick
RJF - gone; replaced by Ian Williams
Moss - gone; replaced by Lockette and high draft pick

Could retain @:
Walker (+ $4,000,000) - signed to 2 year deal for 2 year 8 million?
Goldson (+ $7,250,000) - signed to 4 year 30 million and moved to SS; FS position filled with Spillman/Robinson/Culliver or high draft pick


Per AB:
Cuts/Trades:
Alex - $9.75m saved
Goodwin - $4.35m saved
Mario - $2.35m saved
Akers - $4.05m saved
Haralson - $2.87m saved

Total cap room now $22.713M

Signings:
Walker and Goldson equals $11.25M
Current cap room- $11.463M left

Originally posted by dtg_9er:

All the media attention he received for being homophobic no doubt contributed to his lack of focus, but he is a very good young CB. And it is frustrating to watch him stay step for step with a receiver only to have the ball nearly hit him in the helmet as it reaches the WR for a catch. Just a bit of awareness, a turn back at the right time, and he would have knocked down so many more balls.

culliver looses the ball when his back is to the ball....

the screw ups in the Superbowl are screwups we have seen before.

he is young lets hope he gets better.

He reminds me of Merton Hanks with out the nose for the ball. Hanks went to saftey because of plays like that.

Hanks was a tad bit before cover 2 mophed in to the Tampa 2....on the correct defense maybe hanks never moves to FS,.....maybe next year the 49ers pick up a center fielder and Cully does not get left on those islands

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by NinerFan408:
This is the Zone's go to topic any CB that has a down game or season someone comes up with a brand new idea.........................LETS MOVE THEM TO SAFETY!!!!

They used to say the same with Nate Clements.

And got their wish with Mike Rumph.

I could understand the move if we don't re-sign Goldson...his skillset might be more conducive to FS than CB. He was the starting FS for South Carolina for his sophomore and junior seasons. The move would give time to whatever rookie(s) we draft to learn the defense and also prepare for 2014 when Whitner's contract would be up. Cox could fill the nickel CB role. That doesn't account for whatever CB's we draft and/or sign as a FA. I think it's one of the reasons Baalke's not going to pay Goldson $8M a season...he know's he's got Culliver as insurance if he needs it.

If they draft Trufant or someone like him at corner with their first or second pick, they may be thinking about a move like that. Culliver has great coverage skills. He just has to find the ball. Maybe he would have an easier time with that from the middle of the field.

Originally posted by Willisfn4life:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by NinerFan408:
This is the Zone's go to topic any CB that has a down game or season someone comes up with a brand new idea.........................LETS MOVE THEM TO SAFETY!!!!

They used to say the same with Nate Clements.

And got their wish with Mike Rumph.

cully was a safety in college though so there is a bit more merit to it

Originally posted by Dshearn:
culliver looses the ball when his back is to the ball....

the screw ups in the Superbowl are screwups we have seen before.

he is young lets hope he gets better.

He reminds me of Merton Hanks with out the nose for the ball. Hanks went to saftey because of plays like that.

Hanks was a tad bit before cover 2 mophed in to the Tampa 2....on the correct defense maybe hanks never moves to FS,.....maybe next year the 49ers pick up a center fielder and Cully does not get left on those islands

Agree that the failure to look for the ball is ongoing, not just Super Bowl related, so perhaps Baltimore exploited him more?! At any rate, it's hard to find CBs who can run with receivers as well as Culliver so I hope the rest is a coach-able phenomena. I really liked Hanks but for some reason he doesn't remind me of Culliver...probably the neck!

Culliver has played well for us. He had ONE bad game where it mattered most, and was a dips**t for opening his mouth. Moving him to safety is just ludicrous atm.

Originally posted by Butter:

If Goldson walks, would the Niners slide Culliver over to FS? I know this years draft is loaded, but I think they need to dump Whitner, so they could still draft another safety.

The obvious problem with that is they'd be playing to young players who aren't used to leading the defense. I'm not on the anti-Culliver band wagon, and maybe its too soon to move him out of the CB slot but it'd save the Niners a LOT of $$$.

Dropping both our safeties? Don't think so.

Originally posted by modninerfan:
... why should we just dump whitner? you got somebody better in mind?

Whitner is a statue in coverage.