I'm still proud of our team......

We should be contending for the rest of the decade. After that Kap will be in his early 30's and should still be playing at a high level.

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:
With next year's weak schedule I can easily see us going 13-3 maybe 14-2

I thought the schedule was brutal. AFC West had 3 playoff teams. NFC South is Carolina, New Orleans (dome), Tampa Bay and Atlanta. Lovie will make Tampa Bay a top 12 defense and Atlanta will be viable. That leaves the NFC East...ok, i'm with you there but it's still 2 cross country flights.

Originally posted by pfizz:

Originally posted by Rubberneck36:
Its amazing that people think a window has to close in 3 years. Did they miss the run the patriots, colts, etc. went on? Draft well, some key free agents, sign the right folks have great leadership and coaches and it keeps going.

Amazing it keeps coming up from a fan base who watched 16 straight years of winning 10 games or more.

Niners will be fine.

Go niners!

While I mainly agree with you those teams had elite QBs. Kap is not elite.

He may not be elite YET Bottom line is he's still developing into a true QB. Yet he's taking us further than any QB in recent time. Sure you can say that the "D" has a lot to do with it. The way I see it, as long as our defense stays put, it will buy Kap some time to become elite.

If they continue to draft well and stay a year ahead (drafting guys like Lattimore and Carradine to replace guys like Gore and Justin Smith 1-2 years later) and if Kaepernick continues to develop, their window is going to last years a la the Patriots. The good thing about it is that Kaepernick is smart and has the work ethic, determination, and physical ability to become an elite passer. If it doesn't happen, it won't be for lack of effort. Elite coach is huge here as well.

Still, not getting a Super Bowl out of this current three year run hurts. They were definitely the best team in the NFL in 2012 and 2013, maybe 2011 as well. I can understand 2011 as the team had no passing game. The 2012 team struggled on defense after Justin Smith got hurt and had mediocre special teams. This year's team, IMO, was the best team out of the 3 but also had the toughest path to the Super Bowl. Karma will come around. At some point this team will have an average year, sneak into the playoffs, and win the Super Bowl despite other teams being better.

Originally posted by jbeale49:

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:
With next year's weak schedule I can easily see us going 13-3 maybe 14-2

I thought the schedule was brutal. AFC West had 3 playoff teams. NFC South is Carolina, New Orleans (dome), Tampa Bay and Atlanta. Lovie will make Tampa Bay a top 12 defense and Atlanta will be viable. That leaves the NFC East...ok, i'm with you there but it's still 2 cross country flights.

we're not playing in nfc south next year. only new orleans.

New England put the blue print out there how to sustain winning seasons. If you don't need players, don't pick them. Trade the pick. We also learned, COACHING MATTERS!!!! Have good coordinators. New England's next man up is always viable. They've had the luxury in Tom Terrific. Thats the xfactor. Not only is he a top 3 QB in the last 30 years, he is not breaking the bank with his contract. He gets it.

Trent has done all of the above. Coaches, coordinators, mortgaged our future using picks. We will have +/- 12 picks in every draft for the foreseeable future. After we address the obvious needs created thru cap casualties, we will trade more picks. What are we going to do? Draft a running back? Not a chance! Trade it! The Eric Reid situation is case in point. Veteran Safety in Whitner, cap casualty in Dashon, replace with mid-1st stud, whitner embraces roll as mentor. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Kap, like Brady, is our xfactor. What is he going to cost? 18M is insane in my mind and will break us. Long story short? In Trent, I trust.

I just want Roman fired. Point. Blank.

Originally posted by crabman82:
we're not playing in nfc south next year. only new orleans.

Thx, was going off the top of my head from when i checked it. Saints being 2nd place, us being 2nd place...thats one of the 2 "flex" games. And that's the toughest draw of the 2nd placers...not to mention in the dome.

Still a tough schedule, IMO

Absolutely proud of every guy on this team! I'm tired of reading this non sense about "our window closing" as long as we have Harbaugh we will always be contenders. We are taking it next year. We have a plethora of draft picks to

I don't believe our window is closing. I just believe that we missed on opportunities to win the SB. We invest a lot of emotion in this team throughout the entire season, hoping to have something to show for it in the end. But we keep coming up short. I am worried that Harbaugh will be the next Andy Reid; that he will have sustained success year after year, but will never win the big one. I hope it's not the case, but after three years of this with the same results, I'm not sure when it'll happen.

I think Kap will become a really good QB, but we're going to need to fill other holes in our team. Most importantly we absolutely need a legitimate wide receiver that can stretch the field. We still don't have anyone like that. We can't continue to rely on throwing the ball into tight coverage because we have receivers like Boldin and Crabtree that can go up and get it. It eventually leads to what happened at the end of the game yesterday. We need to be able to spread defenses and make more explosive plays on offense.

Also, our run game was not very good this year, especially at the end of the season. I don't know if the Offensive Line just wasn't playing well or whether Frank Gore is simply not the same player. Hopefully Lattimore will prove to be a solid replacement for Gore and we go back to being an elite run offense. But we may need to look at drafting O Linemen also, especially if we can't keep Iupati.

Finally, while they may have looked decent at times this year, I think we definitely need DB help. Yesterday our CBs did not have a very good game. I was flipping my lid when more than once on 3rd and 8 the Seahawks were easily getting 9 yards on a slant because our CBs were playing 10 yards off. These are all areas of need which will continue to keep us in the running. But in the end, we HAVE to be able to win the big one, which has not yet happened in the Harbaugh era.

Kap just has to be bigger than he was this game. I'd rather we had a game manager in the 4th qtr than whatever the hell he was trying to do.

The whole window closing is such BS. As long as we have Harbaugh we will be right there

Originally posted by Rollininers:

Good season. We lost to a good team. Best team won

We lost to a good team but the best team lost. Still my team though.

You make your own opportunities, year after year. My money is on Baalke.