49ers Fan: The Problem is Money & Motivation

I happened to stumble upon this comment while reading about our disastrous, last-ranked red zone efficiency this year. I have to admit, I don't think it's too far fetched to think this individual may have a point. Yes, these guys are professionals paid to do a job and while they SHOULDN'T let things like this affect them, can you really say for sure it doesn't? It's hard to pin the team's seemingly colossal failure to meet expectations up to this point on one specific thing, but I wonder how many others have thought that the comment I'm quoting below may be at least one part of it all.

It makes me laugh how 49er fans are all searching for the reason why the 49ers suck this year. First it's Harbaugh, then it's Roman, then it's the players, now the red zone is a concern. The reality is the players and coaches don't just forget how to do their jobs. Players and coaches who worked together at a very high level for the past three years don't just become incompetent overnight. Crabtree doesn't just forget how to catch a football overnight. This leads to a question of motivation on both the players and coaches behalves.

At first, the NFL Network (that does the bidding of the owners) floated the story that Harbaugh had lost the locker room. But that story didn't wash. It didn't wash for two reasons: The players all came out in support of Harbaugh after the Deion Sanders story, AND the second reason is there were enough players on this team when the team was forever sub .500 under Nolan and Singletary. These players are glad still to have a coach who gives them a legit shot at winning Super Bowl rings. A very telling stat is that Harbaugh has more wins in 3 years than Jed York had in the 8 or so York owned the team prior to Harbaugh. Bowman, Kaepernick, Crabtree, Boone, Martin, Bethea and several others came out and publically supported Harbaugh after the NFL Network story.

What happens after a team wins the Super Bowl? Players get paid. The Seahawks? Tate got paid in Detroit, Bennett got a huge payday, Russell Wilson will soon get paid.
The 49ers didn't win the Super Bowl, but now their players, some of whom are coming into their second and third contracts (the big contracts) now want to get paid regardless if they've won a Super Bowl or not.

When Vernon Davis ended his ill-advised holdout, he said, "At least I tried," and made reference to other 49ers players on the team who weren't happy with their current contracts. Alex Boone held out. Brooks is underpaid and there's rumors the 49ers were shopping him prior to the trade deadline. Even the coach, Harbaugh, is in a contract dispute, with both sides agreeing to stop negotiations until next year (or never again).

This team isn't performing because collectively (especially the players in their second and sometimes third contracts) aren't being paid. Guys like Frank Gore, Anquan Boldin and Justin Smith don't care about money because they're done. This is their swan song, and they're the real victims. But if you get enough guys in their prime, wanting to be paid more, with a coach in the same boat, also wanting to be paid more, eventually you're gonna have motivation problems and head scratching seasons. It's nobody's fault but Jed York. Offensive lines don't just miraculously go from one of the best in football to somehow forgetting how to pass block. Guys like Crabtree and Vernon don't just forget how to catch a football. Ahmad Brooks and his sack numbers don't just plummet because he's forgotten how to rush the qb. It's a motivation thing. The NFL fired its bullet at Harbaugh - claiming the lack of motivation was Harbaugh's fault. But the lack of motivation is monetary, and Harbaugh politicks for his guys constantly.

Here's Harbaugh's politicking for his guys: Terrell Brown's agent's bonehead move to let Brown practice in Texas instead of Santa Clara costs Brown 2 million dollars. Harbaugh comes out publically and says, "We'll make it right." But the 49ers' front office doesn't make it right. After the NFC Championship game with Seattle, Harbaugh says he wants to compete again next year with "This exact same team regardless what the front office wants" but Harbaugh isn't given the chance. Gone are Whitner, Goodwin, Brown, Rogers (3/5th of the 49ers' secondary that hasn't been replaced adequately in my eyes). During the Cleveland Browns drama when Harbaugh was on the trade block, Harbaugh politicked for his DC - getting Vic Fangio a raise. The issue isn't a rift between Harbaugh and his players. The issue is a rift between the players and the front office. The NFL Network and Jed York tried to pin the rift between players and the front office on Harbaugh. Why the hell would Harbaugh want to coach here next season?

Harbaugh's one of the best coaches to come into the NFL in the last 25 years. And for Jed York to not see that and not try everything in his power to not only protect his head coach but value him and support him speaks to Jed York's lack of football acumen. And to me, that means the 49ers are gonna suck for the next decade, maybe longer, after Harbaugh leaves. Harbaugh will be York's Curse of the Bambino. You don't let Harbaugh walk, like you don't trade Babe Ruth. You do it right. You pay your players and your coaches fair market. You do things the right way. If you don't... resentment will set in and the players and coaches won't perform for you. But Jed York doesn't understand any of this...

Wow, that's an interesting take. Jed could care less though, he's got his stadium now.

Does anyone really really care?

Originally posted by verb1der:
Wow, that's an interesting take. Jed couldn't care less though, he's got his stadium now.

And he shorted the fan and team to get it. He got his Super Bowl 50 along with the non-Roman Numeral digits. How can anyone not look at the stadium situation and say it's not, or wasn't, too good to be true? All of these other owners are mired in their attempts to renovate/rebuild and Jed York fast-tracked it (and moved it out of San Francisco).

Another thing that got me was Jed York floating the "Uncle Eddy wouldn't settle for anything less than a Super Bowl, and neither will I!" mentality. b******t, dude. That was pre-salary cap era. Those teams were f**king loaded with talent. The level of parity in the NFL is the highest compared to any other professional sport. Sure, the 49ers might've been relatively loaded, but it's still close.

We lost the Super Bowl. It amounted to bad luck. Look at The Catch I. And Joe's first Super Bowl. Impressive damn performances, but they had things go their way.

You replay the 2011 NFCCG, 2012 Super Bowl, and the 2013 NFCCG 100 times and we win a majority of all of them.

The biggest bang-for-your-buck in the NFL is paying head coaches. Coaching is a huge edge in this league of parity, and it doesn't apply to the salary cap. How is it a surprise the son of the man who locked up the Gatorade refrigerator isn't paying one of the most successful coaches of the 21st century?

Lol, ya right. If players want to get paid they play lights out to pad their stats so they can collect in FA, especially true for Crabtree. If you think Crabtree is going to purposely drop balls because he wants to get paid more I don't know what to say.

This goes for Boone and especially Harbaugh too. Jim is smart enough to know an 8-8 season won't help his future pay day with this or any other team. The defense has no such issues. The Niners are losing because the offense is playing like dig crap. This isn't a factory job where people work at the same place their whole lives, stats and wins is what brings pay days. Playing like s**t has the opposite impact on future pay days.

Originally posted by Phil:

Lol, ya right. If players want to get paid they play lights out to pad their stats so they can collect in FA, especially true for Crabtree. If you think Crabtree is going to purposely drop balls because he wants to get paid more I don't know what to say.

I'm confused -- did you think he was saying players are "purposely" playing bad? His point is the players are collectively off because essentially they cannot seemingly put together a game where all of them are COLLECTIVELY focused on the field. So many ugly games this year, even the wins. It's hard to ignore that the team does indeed often look "broken", unfocused, unaware, distracted, and all the synonymous terms that go along with those.

That's a flipping dumb take imo. Boone is underpaid, but beyond that most our guys make solid to better money for their position.

HARBUGH shelved the extension talks fearing setting a bad precedence when they had Boone and Davis both holding out with 2 years left just like Harbaugh had, York had nothing to do with that decision. Davis is STILL one of the highest paid players at his position, but sucks because he missed too much training camp. Boone sucks because he missed all of training camp. Crabtree sucks because there are too many roosters in the hen house and he knows his time in SF is done after this year. The offense sucks because we have an offensive coordinator that shouldn't be one, and Harbaugh sucks because of his blind loyalty to Roman and the rest of his awful offensive staff (minus Rathman).

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by Phil:

Lol, ya right. If players want to get paid they play lights out to pad their stats so they can collect in FA, especially true for Crabtree. If you think Crabtree is going to purposely drop balls because he wants to get paid more I don't know what to say.

I'm confused -- did you think he was saying players are "purposely" playing bad? His point is the players are collectively off because essentially they cannot seemingly put together a game where all of them are COLLECTIVELY focused on the field. So many ugly games this year, even the wins. It's hard to ignore that the team does indeed often look "broken", unfocused, unaware, distracted, and all the synonymous terms that go along with those.

If pay is an issue, traditionally people play better so as to demand more. Davis held out because his stats were padded, because the Niners had no viable WR's fir a while in 2013. He knew, with an influx of WR's comming in he'd get less passes thrown his way and his stats would suffer so he was trying to cash in on his 2013 numbers. His "absence" this year is to be expected when you have Johnson and Lloyd comming in. Crabtree just seems to be having a s**t year which totally hurts his chances if making more money. Kap isn't playing well and he just signed that new contract! And his pay will actually suffer from poor performance. The issue here isn't money.

Same problem for every Champion Caliber Team. Baltimore Ravens blew up. Seattle to a lesser extent. 49ers are right up against the Salary Cap - they CAN"T pay everybody what the Open Market would allow if they were to enter the free agency.

Unless you cut some mid-level talent (relying on younger players) or all your players buy into a Championship run and are willing to "sacrifice" top dollar, this is how the NFL is set up to level the playing field.

Originally posted by WINiner:

That's a flipping dumb take imo. Boone is underpaid, but beyond that most our guys make solid to better money for their position.

HARBUGH shelved the extension talks fearing setting a bad precedence when they had Boone and Davis both holding out with 2 years left just like Harbaugh had, York had nothing to do with that decision. Davis is STILL one of the highest paid players at his position, but sucks because he missed too much training camp. Boone sucks because he missed all of training camp. Crabtree sucks because there are too many roosters in the hen house and he knows his time in SF is done after this year. The offense sucks because we have an offensive coordinator that shouldn't be one, and Harbaugh sucks because of his blind loyalty to Roman and the rest of his awful offensive staff (minus Rathman).

I think the Niners have a lot of problems and distractions right now, and many of the things you mention above are just part of the pieces that I think culminate into the resulting failure we've seen so far. The 49ers are in for a real hard battle to make the playoffs this season. This team could easily go 8-8. Right now, I don't think any worse than 10-6 will get you into the post-season this year.

Lol, ya, that's exactly what this offense deserves, more pay! Lol

Originally posted by Phil:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by Phil:

Lol, ya right. If players want to get paid they play lights out to pad their stats so they can collect in FA, especially true for Crabtree. If you think Crabtree is going to purposely drop balls because he wants to get paid more I don't know what to say.

I'm confused -- did you think he was saying players are "purposely" playing bad? His point is the players are collectively off because essentially they cannot seemingly put together a game where all of them are COLLECTIVELY focused on the field. So many ugly games this year, even the wins. It's hard to ignore that the team does indeed often look "broken", unfocused, unaware, distracted, and all the synonymous terms that go along with those.

If pay is an issue, traditionally people play better so as to demand more. Davis held out because his stats were padded, because the Niners had no viable WR's fir a while in 2013. He knew, with an influx of WR's comming in he'd get less passes thrown his way and his stats would suffer so he was trying to cash in on his 2013 numbers. His "absence" this year is to be expected when you have Johnson and Lloyd comming in. Crabtree just seems to be having a s**t year which totally hurts his chances if making more money. Kap isn't playing well and he just signed that new contract! And his pay will actually suffer from poor performance. The issue here isn't money.

I think the players want to do well, and want to win, but I think this fan's thought is that players might be focused too much on the present circumstances instead of making the best of it and doing the best they can to better their situation. Like I said, it's hard to say 100% either way. In the corporate environment, this thing does happen -- and you're right that logically, the underpaid person with the talent and ability to do great things would go above and beyond to earn the raise, but I think there are some examples where it doesn't always turn out that way (person doesn't always perform to that level, and/or the raise never comes). At some point, I think there's room for the possibility that there could be a ride-it-out-until-I'm-somewhere-else sort of mentality.

Again, just to clarify, by no means is this to say that this is what's going on.. but it's an interesting thought that this individual had and I wouldn't be too surprised if it has some truth to it.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by WINiner:

That's a flipping dumb take imo. Boone is underpaid, but beyond that most our guys make solid to better money for their position.

HARBUGH shelved the extension talks fearing setting a bad precedence when they had Boone and Davis both holding out with 2 years left just like Harbaugh had, York had nothing to do with that decision. Davis is STILL one of the highest paid players at his position, but sucks because he missed too much training camp. Boone sucks because he missed all of training camp. Crabtree sucks because there are too many roosters in the hen house and he knows his time in SF is done after this year. The offense sucks because we have an offensive coordinator that shouldn't be one, and Harbaugh sucks because of his blind loyalty to Roman and the rest of his awful offensive staff (minus Rathman).

I think the Niners have a lot of problems and distractions right now, and many of the things you mention above are just part of the pieces that I think culminate into the resulting failure we've seen so far. The 49ers are in for a real hard battle to make the playoffs this season. This team could easily go 8-8. Right now, I don't think any worse than 10-6 will get you into the post-season this year.

I don't even know if 10-6 will. I'd say there's about a 90% chance our season is done.

Originally posted by Phil:
Lol, ya, that's exactly what this offense deserves, more pay! Lol

yes, lets give roman a pay raise