worried about nose tackle!

Workout Sopoaga and A.Franklin and sign one of them for depth insurance. Not too sure about Purcell, he needs more time to develope and needs to get stronger and Dial is more of a 3-4 DT/DE.

The run defense we had in 2011 is very hard to sustain year to year.

Originally posted by teylo31:

Originally posted by BrianGO:
When Bowman came into the league, and started flying around, he stood out on the field. I was excited when he was set to replace Spikes in year two, but people said, "Spikes was a vet, and he was in there for a reason. Bowman misses tackles, he is a third round pick, he is too small, and I am worried about that position." All the same kind of stuff.

Borland played middle linebacker at Wisconsin, so he is more ready than Bowman was coming out of Penn State as an outside linebacker.
People are saying that he seems like he knows what he is doing out there. Even veterans are asking HIM questions about the defense. Willis himself said that Borland reminds him of Bowman.

As for the physical:
I don't know what his stinkin 40 time is, and I don't care. On the field, his feet move extremely quick. He changes direction extremely quick. He can dance around defenders and slug them in the mouth. He is not a little guy. He is short, but very solid and muscular, and delivers an explosive hit to the blocker.
I don't give a hoot what his "three cone" says he can do (I don't know what it is), because on the football field, this guys speed and movement stand out.

I watched the other linebackers playing with him, they were not as instinctive as Borland was.
Skov was fairly impressive also, just not as physically gifted as Borland. Moody simply doesn't have the instincts. Wilhoite is solid, very athletic, but not a natural linebacker. Neither display the power or feet of Borland. Can they run faster in a perfectly straight line? I bet they can. Do I care? No.

Borland can't replace Bowman, no one can, but I think he will be good from day one and has some upside.
Borland is a like an athletic Gary Plummer. Plummer was our best linebacker on our 94 Super Bowl team. I think Borland is similar, and in time, I think he can be even better than Plummer, because he is so athletic.

We'll have to see.

What are you talking about

Which part?

-- Borland was an inside linebacker at Wisconsin.
-- Bowman was an outside linebacker at Penn State.
-- Borland is more ready than Bowman was, as a rookie, because he is playing his natural college position.

Which one of these points is problematic?

meh

IAN WILLIAMS IS BACK, WE GOOD!

Originally posted by NinerDreamer11:

IAN WILLIAMS IS BACK, WE GOOD!

Championship.

We don't need a big 330 LB run stuffing monster, as long as we have a solid lineman that can hold the point of attack and contribute and get in sync with the rest of the front 7 , we'll be ok ...but losing Dorsey is a big loss, hopefully our younger lineman step up when their number is called

Outdated position

From 1 to 15 is pretty significant. Teams don't bother running on the edge with us with Brooks and Aldon out there. The success teams have had with us is in short yardage runs, goal line runs and mostly right up the gut between the tackles. We've never had a plugger at the NT position but rather athletic NT who are more slashing A-gap players. Given that we only use the NT position 40% of the time and given that teams pass against us in this passing league, it hasn't been a huge issue for us...until we play power running teams and esp. in the playoffs. If I was Jim, I'd take a page from his brother John and look to get a plugger in there ala Ngata or Williams very soon. If not, against power running teams, I'd play straight up 3-4 but if we start losing the battle, I'd quickly change to a 4-man DL and play more press.

Originally posted by teylo31:

Originally posted by BrianGO:

When Bowman came into the league, and started flying around, he stood out on the field. I was excited when he was set to replace Spikes in year two, but people said, "Spikes was a vet, and he was in there for a reason. Bowman misses tackles, he is a third round pick, he is too small, and I am worried about that position." All the same kind of stuff.

Borland played middle linebacker at Wisconsin, so he is more ready than Bowman was coming out of Penn State as an outside linebacker.
People are saying that he seems like he knows what he is doing out there. Even veterans are asking HIM questions about the defense. Willis himself said that Borland reminds him of Bowman.

As for the physical:
I don't know what his stinkin 40 time is, and I don't care. On the field, his feet move extremely quick. He changes direction extremely quick. He can dance around defenders and slug them in the mouth. He is not a little guy. He is short, but very solid and muscular, and delivers an explosive hit to the blocker.
I don't give a hoot what his "three cone" says he can do (I don't know what it is), because on the football field, this guys speed and movement stand out.

I watched the other linebackers playing with him, they were not as instinctive as Borland was.
Skov was fairly impressive also, just not as physically gifted as Borland. Moody simply doesn't have the instincts. Wilhoite is solid, very athletic, but not a natural linebacker. Neither display the power or feet of Borland. Can they run faster in a perfectly straight line? I bet they can. Do I care? No.

Borland can't replace Bowman, no one can, but I think he will be good from day one and has some upside.
Borland is a like an athletic Gary Plummer. Plummer was our best linebacker on our 94 Super Bowl team. I think Borland is similar, and in time, I think he can be even better than Plummer, because he is so athletic.

We'll have to see.

What are you talking about

Why are you blasting on this kid I love his enthusiasm. What he is saying is instincts and natural ability can make up for physical attributes. I've seen it in HS and college ball. Borland can be great and so can Wilhoite, our line was a bit scary against the Ravens.

i think we are fine at NT as long as williams stays healthy. I think the Dline will be like this...of course J smith and mcdonald starting with williams in the middle. Tank will spell smith, Dial will spell Mcdonald, and TJE will sub with Williams. But for the most part i think williams will be doing most of the NT work and he is a beast when healthy. As for the run stuffing i think our system will do fine without bowman. Willis will take care of the coverage and im assuming borland, if he learns more quickly, will just be unleashed to make the tackles which he shines at

I don't know why people keep saying 49ers don't need 330lbs NT, if they want to stop short yardage situations they do. The 49ers can stop good teams from running the ball with Ian Williams but to stop elite teams like seachickens they need a big NT like wilfok.

Originally posted by walshjr1978:

I don't know why people keep saying 49ers don't need 330lbs NT, if they want to stop short yardage situations they do. The 49ers can stop good teams from running the ball with Ian Williams but to stop elite teams like seachickens they need a big NT like wilfok.

Athletic 330 lb guys with low center of gravity are hard to find.... And like it's been said before, our scheme dictates that an NT is only in play about 40% of the time. So we can't go breaking the bank on one of these guys. Who knows, maybe Dial ends up developing into a true NT. He looks too tall to me though.

Originally posted by 5280High:

Outdated position

Ha!

No way. If thats true it will make a comeback quick when teams power run for 7 yards on first down every time on your base defense and they cant get their players off the field. If you cant stop the run to a certain degree, your team will always suck.

Originally posted by 5280High:

Outdated position

Ha!

No way. If thats true it will make a comeback quick when teams power run for 7 yards on first down every time on your base defense and they cant get their players off the field. If you cant stop the run to a certain degree, your team will always suck.