Losing Crabtree could be a blessing in disguise...

You can either look at the loss of Crabtree as either a crisis or an opportunity.

Yes, it is terrible that we're losing Crabtree for so long, and we have to accept that. What the coaching staff I would imagine has to do now if they haven't already is implement a Plan B.

I think this is an opportunity to see what the team can do now that Kaepernick has to now train to work outside of his comfort zone of tossing it to Crabtree most of the time. On the bright side, at least this happened during OTAs and not during the regular season. Let Crabtree get better and in the meantime, let's see what our current talent can do. We've got months before the regular season starts before any of us need to start hitting the panic button in earnest.

This can also have a hidden benefit of allowing our young players and players that have flown under the radar last year to really come out onto their own and be more than just decoys, so we have multiple threats instead of just one major threat. Think of guys like Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald, and what happens when defenses sell out on stopping both of them.

If you can learn to make the most out of a bad situation and maximize the potential of what you have, it's pretty amazing how much you can overcome by using what you've got, and learning to use it well.

losing ur best WR for a season is never a good thing. THIS IS PISS!

I'm anxious to see Kaepernick develop rapport with the other receivers, particularly in critical situations. If the team can continue to win without Crabtree then it will help in the long run. The great teams spread the ball around making it impossible for the defenses to key on one player as Balt did in the Super Bowl. They took Crabtree away and yet CK still tried to squeeze the ball to him...that is not a healthy offensive move.This year CK has had time with several other receivers and will likely be more aware of their capabilities.

It's definitely not a positive not having him on the field.. The only positive that I can see coming out of this is being able to sign him after this season to a cheaper deal than if he was able to put up better numbers than last season

Originally posted by Cooper22:
It's definitely not a positive not having him on the field.. The only positive that I can see coming out of this is being able to sign him after this season to a cheaper deal than if he was able to put up better numbers than last season

This

Repost from comment in editorial:

Frankly, I see a silver lining here. It is easy for a young QB to develop a dependence on one receiver - CK seemed to be heading that way with Crabs. When that happens, it makes it a lot easier for a defense to disrupt your success. This will force Ck to develop chemistry with a lot of his receivers - VD, McDonald, AJ, Patton, LMJ, during the offseason and training camp, which will make them better with a diversified attack that is hard to stop when the season arrives. When Crabs comes back (this year or next) the 49ers will be more balanced for it. And if Crabs gets crazy in contract negotiations, they'll be ready to survive without him.

SILVER LINING MAN - I'm sticking to it. :)

Originally posted by HearstFan:
Repost from comment in editorial:

Frankly, I see a silver lining here. It is easy for a young QB to develop a dependence on one receiver - CK seemed to be heading that way with Crabs. When that happens, it makes it a lot easier for a defense to disrupt your success. This will force Ck to develop chemistry with a lot of his receivers - VD, McDonald, AJ, Patton, LMJ, during the offseason and training camp, which will make them better with a diversified attack that is hard to stop when the season arrives. When Crabs comes back (this year or next) the 49ers will be more balanced for it. And if Crabs gets crazy in contract negotiations, they'll be ready to survive without him.

SILVER LINING MAN - I'm sticking to it. :)

Good job, and good concepts.

i see a couple of silver linings.

1) if crabs continued to progress, he was going to price himself out of coming back to sf. he was tough to sign as a rookie and hopefully, he wants to continue to grow with ck.

2) it's going to give more touches to guys that are looking to improve. manningham and kw will have to prove they are healthy and worthy of being a #2 or 3. jenkins is going to have to show some promise or he's going to be a super expensive #5 receiver. it may open a developmental spot for a guy like lockette or a guy like hall, who could help returning punts.

I wouldn't call it a positive, rather an opportunity. Someone will step up and I'm excited to see which horse will win the race.

There isn't anything "good" about this, but some of the opportunities it creates is for us to really see what we have in Jenkins and company.

Originally posted by Protoman:
You can either look at the loss of Crabtree as either a crisis or an opportunity.

Yes, it is terrible that we're losing Crabtree for so long, and we have to accept that. What the coaching staff I would imagine has to do now if they haven't already is implement a Plan B.

I think this is an opportunity to see what the team can do now that Kaepernick has to now train to work outside of his comfort zone of tossing it to Crabtree most of the time. On the bright side, at least this happened during OTAs and not during the regular season. Let Crabtree get better and in the meantime, let's see what our current talent can do. We've got months before the regular season starts before any of us need to start hitting the panic button in earnest.

This can also have a hidden benefit of allowing our young players and players that have flown under the radar last year to really come out onto their own and be more than just decoys, so we have multiple threats instead of just one major threat. Think of guys like Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald, and what happens when defenses sell out on stopping both of them.

If you can learn to make the most out of a bad situation and maximize the potential of what you have, it's pretty amazing how much you can overcome by using what you've got, and learning to use it well.

Like this meme.."crises or opportunity". I agree. We don't know whether it will cost us this year or not. Time will tell. But I'm all in on the idea that this could be a blessing. We need to develop some other WR's. Boldin maybe one year. Crabs, maybe one after this and on to bigger contracts elsewhere or Dallas. Manningham? We have to find out if we have some real talent in Jenkins, Patton, McDonald and Lockette now. One or more of these guys could step up and be really good which would set us up well for next year. Consider what next year would be like with Crabs back, the option to resign Boldin, and Jenkins or Patton ready to take a #2 and McDonald having made us forget Delanie Walker. That would be a very, very good spot to be in. And if worse comes to worse, and none of these guys bloom, it would make it really clear we need to do something in free agency and the draft.

Originally posted by barrymartin:
Like this meme.."crises or opportunity". I agree. We don't know whether it will cost us this year or not. Time will tell. But I'm all in on the idea that this could be a blessing. We need to develop some other WR's. Boldin maybe one year. Crabs, maybe one after this and on to bigger contracts elsewhere or Dallas. Manningham? We have to find out if we have some real talent in Jenkins, Patton, McDonald and Lockette now. One or more of these guys could step up and be really good which would set us up well for next year. Consider what next year would be like with Crabs back, the option to resign Boldin, and Jenkins or Patton ready to take a #2 and McDonald having made us forget Delanie Walker. That would be a very, very good spot to be in. And if worse comes to worse, and none of these guys bloom, it would make it really clear we need to do something in free agency and the draft.

Yup. I was reading tweets from Maiocco last season where VD was saying he was having trouble developing chemistry with CK. Now's their chance to get on the same page before it does threaten to cost them their season.

That's life in sports for you, something like this was gonna happen sooner or later. I'm glad they got a heads up before having a backup plan really became an issue.

This year on short yardage, hand it off to Okoye. We can have our version of the Nigerian nightmare sorta except he be the Nigerian dump truck.

Crabtree's loss is both crisis and opportunity. Hopefully someone steps up to fill the void.