ESPN NFL Rank does not look good for 49ers

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/NFLRANK2015/top-100-players

With Aldon Smith gone, the 49ers have no top 50 players (at least according to this ranking) and their only top 100 players are Joe Staley (31 years old) and Navarro Bowman (27, but coming off a severe injury). On the other hand, the Seahawks have 7 players in the top 50 and 9 in the top 100. If Bowman stays healthy, he may ascend in next season's rankings, but this is one of the least talented 49ers teams in a long time. This may be the least talented roster since 2007, but I felt a lot better about that roster with talented young players like Willis, Gore, Davis, and Staley who we could build a team around.

It took 4 year for that team to make the playoffs and the division has only gotten stronger. How long do you think it will take for the 49ers to make the playoffs again?

Originally posted by eastcoast49ersfan:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/NFLRANK2015/top-100-players

With Aldon Smith gone, the 49ers have no top 50 players (at least according to this ranking) and their only top 100 players are Joe Staley (31 years old) and Navarro Bowman (27, but coming off a severe injury). On the other hand, the Seahawks have 7 players in the top 50 and 9 in the top 100. If Bowman stays healthy, he may ascend in next season's rankings, but this is one of the least talented 49ers teams in a long time. This may be the least talented roster since 2007, but I felt a lot better about that roster with talented young players like Willis, Gore, Davis, and Staley who we could build a team around.

It took 4 year for that team to make the playoffs and the division has only gotten stronger. How long do you think it will take for the 49ers to make the playoffs again?

I care less for ESPN rank than I do about week 1. DAL didn't look like a playoff team after week 1 last year while we looked like a freight train. That ended up wrong so anything can happen but it doesn't start until about 10 days from now

At least Bowman and Staley made the list and were not left off like the list voted on by player's themselves. Gotta hope a couple of the young players step up and become the next stars.

rankings are 4 losers. Who cares what the media thinks

I actually think the division has gotten a bit weaker. I could be 100% wrong, but the Rams don't really look too much improved, the Cards will be playing with Stanton at week 6-8 again (he's not half bad in Arians' system though), and it looks like the Seachickens have a horrible OL too.

ESPN says we're going to suck?!! Season is over! Might as well not even play the games

Nobody here is pretending like we have a good shot to make the super bowl. But all the negative rankings are based on the media looking at players lost from our team. They refuse to look at and judge this team by the players we currently have. They also refuse to look at the contributions those players lost made to the team last year when we were 8-8. There's still a lot of talent on this team....more than teams that have made the playoffs in previous years. I think we have more talent then last years team when you factor in Willis/Bowman/Aldon/AD/Dorsey/Brock/Justin and others either didn't play/barely played/or had limited snaps.

With all the crap we've been through....I think we can still be a playoff team if the line proves to be decent and some of our young guys step up.

Originally posted by jedediahyork:
I actually think the division has gotten a bit weaker. I could be 100% wrong, but the Rams don't really look too much improved, the Cards will be playing with Stanton at week 6-8 again (he's not half bad in Arians' system though), and it looks like the Seachickens have a horrible OL too.

It's definitely weaker than it was in 2007. The division as a whole is weaker than last year if you include the 49ers, but I think the Rams got better and the Seahawks and Cardinals stayed the same. I think the Seahawks are relatively unchanged - their OL does not look good, but it hasn't been great for the past few years. Wilson and Lynch were able to carry the offense without weapons at WR and TE and now they have Jimmy Graham. The Rams defense is one of the youngest and most athletic in the league and added Nick Fairley, so they should be solid. The Rams downgraded from Bradford to Foles, but they added Gurley who is going to be a beast and beefed up their offensive line in the draft so their offense should be about the same. The Cardinals have Palmer back and as long as he stays healthy, should be as good as they were last year. They lost a veteran in Dockett, but their secondary and front 7 are still solid.

Although our future looks shaky, I could care less about ESPN and their "expert" anal-ysis.

f*ck ESPN

49ers are close to the bottom the barrel right now...somewhere in the bottom third of the league. ESPN is saying nothing profound here.

Maybe im just optimistic, but I can see this time next year Carlos Hyde being a top 3 pick in fantasy leagues because of the year he is about to have.

I wonder where we would've ranked around the beginning of 2013? You figure that Willis, Justin Smith, Bowman, Aldon, Davis, Staley all would've been on that list. I wonder who else? In fact, I feel like one of those years the 49ers did have the highest number of top 100 players on the list.

Originally posted by JimHarbaugh:
Maybe im just optimistic, but I can see this time next year Carlos Hyde being a top 3 pick in fantasy leagues because of the year he is about to have.

Not with the current offensive line. We lost Iupati and Davis. Even if we have no injuries on the offensive line this year, it won't be much improved from last season which was terrible. At least Jonathan Martin won't be playing this season. I've been avoiding Hyde at his current ADP (30's) and picking Gore ahead of him. Still think Hyde is a good player, but I think our line needs to improve before he becomes an elite fantasy player.

I think we've upgraded our weapons, there's no doubt about that. Our defense has looked decent, not great, but we have playmakers.