Originally posted by Rascal:
Originally posted by Giedi:
Originally posted by Rascal:
Originally posted by Shanghai69er:
Originally posted by NickSh49:
The 49ers in 2014 will take a step back defensively until everyone is healthy, assuming everyone else stays healthy and out of trouble.
The 49ers in 2014 will take a step forward offensively, thanks to more 3-5 WR sets and Carlos Hyde. Colin Kaepernick will progress as a quarterback.
The 49ers in 2014 will struggle a tad early on in the season. They will then come on later in the season.
The 49ers in 2014 will make the playoffs, but will not win the division.
After that, anything is possible. The core of this team is still strong. I'm not worried, but I expect some more losses this year.
10-6
Originally posted by defenderDX:
the defense will get score on a lot this year. more than years prior. If the offense and company can't carry the team when the defense can't, we're in big trouble.
Crabtree
Boldin
Stevie J.
Lloyd
SO MUCH RECEIVER DEPTH! If we falter I blame the coaching staff
Unfortunately (for these opinions is that) our identity is still as a run-FIRST team. I agree with Nick that our D will take a step back, especially with Bowman, Aldon, Dorsey, and RayMac missing time + the inexperience of our 1st-round nickle. I DO believe also, though, that our offense will lack 100% conviction of its identity throughout the first, say, 6-8 games of the season. Feeding Crabs and Boldin is one thing, but trying then to implement Stevie J. and Ellington into the gameplan is going to leave our offense anemic, "scattered", and unsure of itself early on. Hopefully we can find a comfortable medium as early as possible.
x 2. As much as I rarely agree with NickSh49, I will give him the first 3 points, but not the latter ones. First off, 10-6 might not necessarily get us into the playoffs. And if we don't win the division, that means we will have to go through C-Link again in the playoffs like last year and we all know how that went. Although I said 6-10 in the "Bold prediction" thread, but that was a slight exaggeration for the nature of that thread, being realistic I am probably 1 game off from NickSh49's prediction, I am calling it 9-7 and may just get piped by the Cards for the playoffs.
Bottomline ? I am totally with Shanghai, the biggest concern lies in the offense and specifically our passing game. I am just not convinced Kap has progressed enough if at all. I hope I am wrong, if it is the same Kap we will be in seriously trouble as our success or failure of the 2014 campaign will hinge on him. And it doesn't matter whether we have Stevie Johnson, Brandon Lloyd and Bruce Ellington, if Kap can't see them it won't make much of a difference.
My fear is regression to the mean. After 3 straight outlier years where we get to the NFC Championship game, we're due for a possible drop in performance. 10-6 record is a possibility for this team if it doesn't develop the offense needed to carry a young and inexperienced secondary and a defensive pass rush missing it's best rusher for 9 games.
That is why I said it pretty much falls on Kap. We all know he is athletic and can rush and we all know we have a pretty decent backfield apart from LMJ. In other words, for sure we can run the ball, but passing wise not so much. That was why I wanted to take a legit QB in the draft specially Garoppolo to give Kap a run for his money before we hand him the $100 mil+ contract and call it a make or break year for Kap. Oh well, I guess that's all history now, not much we can do about it.
You make a good point. I do believe that the team thought long and hard about this. Harbaugh worked out a few QBs pre-draft.
But the Niners were caught between a rock and a hard spot, I believe.
They had to completely make over the defensive backfield. I do believe that they realized that their existing backfield was absolutely putrid (except for Reid), they just weren't going to measure up and depth was a problem too.
In hindsight I believe that their strategy was: Let's fix the backfield and depth issues through the draft and plug our other shortfalls, back-up QB and WRs, through free agency.
On the face of it, Baalke did an absolutely masterful job at it. A few hiccups, but on the main, excellent.
Looks like a great WR corp. And to shore up the QB position Baalke brought in Gabbert. I think that this was a player both Harbaugh and Baalke rated highly in the year he was drafted. He has just outstanding measurables. Unfortunately one cannot measure heart or instinct until the player is actually in-house. Gabbert dropped the ball; otherwise this was a slam-dunk offseason performance by the FO all the way. Still is.
Unfortunately for the team, if there is a weakness, it could be in the most important position on the roster. Although we don't know for sure that that is the case. We'll have to see. The signs are a little ominous IMO.
I've been a big proponent of Kaepernick since the beginning. I think that I was in a minority that want to trade up to get him. I even wanted him to start in his first year (a very unpopular position to be espousing on the WZ). I thought that he had the mental toughness to be able to handle that. Obviously the coaching staff knew what they were doing.
My only concern is that, having watched him play, while I give him absolute top marks on "heart" and commitment, he still has to prove the "instinct" aspect of his game. IMO only, that aspect was missing a bit last year when it really needed to show. That's something the great ones demonstrate off the bat; it's not something one can teach, you just have it or you don't. Everything else is good. Mentally tough. Athletically, he's off the charts. Irrespective of his possessing superior instincts, the team can still win with Kaepernick at QB. It just makes it a bit more of a slog.
I've got my fingers crossed that the "instincts" will show up, but I am concerned.