Stop Blaming the Front Office

I continually see numerous fans and media blaming the front office and making Harbaugh a victim. Enough is enough. As you all bash the front office and trash Jed and Baalke, think again about who it was that brought Harbaugh into the fold of this organization. Who was it that got the 49ers a new state of the art stadium. Who was it that pulled the 49ers out of cap hell and built a Superbowl quality roster.

Yes, Harbaugh is going to leave, but stop assuming that it's because we have some sort of idiotic management. They are not stupid people, and they obviously want to win. I believe they've shown that. The problem is, many fans are getting Jed York mixed up with his parents, and that is simply not true. They are also bashing Baalke, based on 2012, but forget many of his homeruns that are setting us up to continue to be players in the future. It wasn't Jed York or Trent Baalke who set up game plans, coached adjustments, or chose the starters. The failures on game day, have more to do with Harbaugh and his offensive staff then anyone else.

Vic Fangio was dealt probably the worst card, due to injuries, and he prevailed. He put together a top 5 defense with whomever he had to work with. Harbaugh and Roman had an abundance of talent on offense, and they couldn't come up with a winning plan. They didn't play to Kaepernick's strengths, or the run game's. They tried forcing a round peg in a square hole. It's very possible that ego played a role on both sides, but the front office is in charge.

I think the front office deserves a ton of credit for putting this franchise in a position to be elite. I'm not one of the many on here who think Harbaugh is a poor victim that we can't possibly live without. Thank you Jed and Trent for doing your jobs very well, not all of us are naive. Good luck finding your next coach, we're rooting that you land the right guy for the job.

I agree completely. The ONLY issue I have with the FO is that they could have stopped all of the media frenzy if they had re-signed Harbaugh in the offseason. But then I realize, if they feel their coach is going to regress, then why re-sign him?

I think there are going to be a TON of stories that come out right after the decision is made to let Harbaugh go. Fans might change their minds about this whole thing, but the info never comes out before the second shoe drops.

I agree - the FO has no reason to play bully in this, Harbaugh has been winning but falling short. If he'd been willing to change there would be no story here.

I'm fully behind the brass on this one. There is a good chance that we'll have to blow the offense up entirely. This means new OC, possibly new QB, new receivers etc. I don't think Jim Harbaugh likes the word "new". He's very loyal to staff and player personnel and this is resulting in an endless loop of crud.

This will be Harbaugh's biggest challenge moving forward. You need to learn to embrace change in order to keep your team on top. I wish him luck.

Can't blame the front office. They are frustrated. All good things must come to an end. I just pray we have luck in finding a new coach who will no doubt be an upcoming offensive minded assistant coach.

Originally posted by TheRatMan13:
I agree completely. The ONLY issue I have with the FO is that they could have stopped all of the media frenzy if they had re-signed Harbaugh in the offseason. But then I realize, if they feel their coach is going to regress, then why re-sign him?

I think there are going to be a TON of stories that come out right after the decision is made to let Harbaugh go. Fans might change their minds about this whole thing, but the info never comes out before the second shoe drops.

My understanding is that Harbaugh declined their previous offers of a contract extension. So you can't even put the lack of an attempt on the front office either. I believe they came to an agreement to hold off negotiations until after this season. Harbaugh bet on himself, and it didn't work.

There is plenty of blame to go around for various issues, but on the field our results would have been much different this year if we had one thing . . . A COMPETENT OFFENSE. That clearly falls on the players and coaches and most specifically the "QB Whisperer" and his OC.

I know we didn't have the internet back in the 80s, but I've always been a subsriber to SI, Sportning News and even 49ers Report, but I never recall Eddie and Bill having trouble renewing contracts..

I do however remember when Eddie D stripped Bill his Presidencty...

Originally posted by 9moon:
I know we didn't have the internet back in the 80s, but I've always been a subsriber to SI, Sportning News and even 49ers Report, but I never recall Eddie and Bill having trouble renewing contracts..

I do however remember when Eddie D stripped Bill his Presidencty...

Policy had to step in as a mediator to keep Eddie from firing Walsh on a couple of occasions.

Originally posted by SonocoNinerFan:
There is plenty of blame to go around for various issues, but on the field our results would have been much different this year if we had one thing . . . A COMPETENT OFFENSE. That clearly falls on the players and coaches and most specifically the "QB Whisperer" and his OC.

This is my exact point. The front office has a job that includes player personnel, budget, and stadium construction. They haven't blown any of those. They signed Kaepernick to a great deal, considering what the market demanded. The contract they constructed allows the organization an out if they need it. To me, that's brilliant and well done. They also built a beautiful state of the art stadium that this organization desperately needed. Candlestick wasn't going to cut it anymore. And they have creatively managed the draft, making us one of the better movers and shakers on draft day, in the league.

PN's Mike Sando tweeted an interesting statistic earlier today, pointing out that Alex Smith is tied with Tim Tebow for most delay of game penalties since the start of the 2011 season. Although a given delay of game can be blamed on a variety of people, the quarterback is the one called for the penalty.

Over the last season and a half, one of the concerns I think most of us have is the 49ersuse of timeouts. It seems like more often than not, the 49ers have burned all three first half timeouts with most of the second quarter still to be played. Against the Arizona Cardinals they did save a timeout for the final two minutes, but they had to use a pair of their timeouts because time was running down before they could run their plays.

Unfortunately we have no way to know whether this is slow play-calling from upstairs, or delays on the part of Alex Smith. The offensive coordinator calls in two plays to the quarterback, giving Alex Smith the option to run the play given, or "kill, kill kill" it and make a change. Is it possible that is slowing things down? I don't know the specific names of plays, so I don't know if play-call length is an issue.

Whatever the case, this has developed into a fairly noticeable issue. Ideally they would use the bye week to rectify it, but if the length of play-calls is part of the problem, then I'm not sure there is really an in-season fix at this point. Any thoughts on this issue? This seems to be the biggest weakness for the Jim Harbaugh offensive coaching staff.

http://www.ninersnation.com/2012/11/3/3596042/49ers-penalties-2012-timeouts-delay-of-game-alex-smith-jim-harbaugh




Why is it that after four seasons, this coaching staff still doesn't understand how to manage the playclock? If they haven't fixed such a basic issue after four seasons, is there any reason to expect them to do so after five?

Right now I'm on the fence with the front office, depending on who they replace Harbaugh with.

I won't take sides or make a stand until I know the full story -- until then I hold both sides equally responsible for screwing up a Very Good Thing. Somewhere, somebody's Ego got in the way of the team, and that's unacceptable.

Yorks, lol

Originally posted by Prospector:
I won't take sides or make a stand until I know the full story -- until then I hold both sides equally responsible for screwing up a Very Good Thing. Somewhere, somebody's Ego got in the way of the team, and that's unacceptable.

Give me a scenario where the front office ruined it. What could they have done, and why?