Skill vs character

Ideally you want both, but since we are all grown ups here, or most of us anyway, we know that's not reality.

Chip values character over skill

1. Waived Jackson (gang association)
2. Traded McCoy (just assaulted 2 police officers)

So my question is, to you 49er fans, how does the organization look at these things, and how do you? Would the owner or Baalke bat an eye in signing someone like Greg Hardy, if they thought he could help the team? Would you care?

Spence says hi

First Desean b***hes out and gives 0 effort in trying to get the football across the goalline in the playoffs and now McCoy is sending people to the hospital.


Smoothie withdrawal symptoms?

I applaud Chip for not giving lip service. He DROPS a lot of people off of draft boards because he feels they
1. Lack a love for football
2. Put themselves first
3. Have prior run ins with law

Past actions predict future actions in majority of cases. I think QB is the position were they need to be a leader and have the ability to speak to the media. Pull up any press conference were Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning lose, they take the loss on themselves and praise the team. Players llike Kaepernick and Cam say their obligatory few words then say "I'm Done."

I don't think it's too much to ask of someone to not put themselves in bad situations or to not be a jerk. If you have god given talent like these athletes have, you have an opportunity to make money and gain notoriety (if that's your thing) that most of us will never know. It is an opportunity that is incredibly temporary for most. We all have our own issues or baggage of some sort. I'd just hope that these guys know who truly has their back and who is just using them, but mostly I'd hope they would avoid bad situations like the plague. Know where they are and who their surrounded by and that they are likely to be a target.

So my question is, to you 49er fans, how does the organization look at these things, and how do you?

For me personally it depends on the types of transgressions the player has made. I don't care if they're a stoner, but I do care if they beat women. These are just two potential examples among many. I think that organizations will look at the bottom line and also weigh public opinion. If a player negatively affects their bottom line they will cut the cord. But I don't believe for a second that it is about being classy. These are corporations and corporations only care about making money and its disingenuous of them to pretend otherwise (yet they do pretend, and make sure it is known when they do good things -- photo ops, etc.)

Would the owner or Baalke bat an eye in signing someone like Greg Hardy, if they thought he could help the team? Would you care?

In Hardy's case I don't think they would touch him. But generally speaking I don't think they would bat an eye as long as that player plays and is an impact player, up until the point that they aren't playing due to their actions. I don't see that Hardy is all that much of an impactful player, he wasn't last year for the Cowboys, so I wouldn't want him on the 49ers. Depending on what the player did, if it wasn't that bad IMO, and depending on if they were an impact player I would probably want them on my team it's a tough question to answer because it is very nuanced. Sometimes it is very black and white, most of the time it is very gray.

Originally posted by TexasDuck:
Ideally you want both, but since we are all grown ups here, or most of us anyway, we know that's not reality.

Chip values character over skill

1. Waived Jackson (gang association)
2. Traded McCoy (just assaulted 2 police officers)

So my question is, to you 49er fans, how does the organization look at these things, and how do you? Would the owner or Baalke bat an eye in signing someone like Greg Hardy, if they thought he could help the team? Would you care?

The team needs a character injection right now. There is way too much variability in play from week to week to simply blame it all on coaching like a lot of the zone does. From conditioning issues, to preparation issues, and to personal issues there is just too much of it on this team right now. Skill is one thing the Broncos have it in spades, but they also have plenty of veteran leaders who can hold the ship steady. This team really doesn't have enough guys with that kind of clout. So alongside the underclassmen 20-21 year olds we've added the past few drafts we really need to emphasize seniors and team captains. Guys who will come in and outwork their more talented peers, win starting time, and motivate the guys behind them to get their act together.

If you want to have a team that can be good for a decade you need to have about 80% high character guys and 20% skill risk type players. Right now I think the 49ers are weighted too heavily towards the latter. It's why the more veteran 49ers teams in the earlier part of the decade were able to instill a winning culture when mixed with the talented, but poor character guys like Aldon, Brooks, Crabtree, Culliver, and A. Davis. Their individual talent provided that extra jump to give the 49ers advantages in game, but at the same time they could rely on the character guys to put the work in and count on them week to week. Since those guys have started to cycle out or decline physically they've been replaced by more and more low character guys, and the team has declined. It's why beat reporters say the team looks so great in mini-camp and training camp, but during in game situations they can't execute.

It's not always a 1:1 trade off though in the case of a guy like Willis, but I think after the offseason and season we just had we need a culture change of guys who are going to come in and be fully dedicated to their craft, and not completely shut down if Chip Kelly pushes them too hard.

I think you have to define both extremes first. How skilled is skilled and how bad is his character?

So do this mean Riley Cooper is a high character guy?

I think most NFL guys seemed to be both. Your core guys in the locker room must have both talent and good character. Then if there's a character issue guy that has talent, then the core guys can deal with it, overcome it, and still be a very good team locker. Even a good character guy may make a mistake on occasion outside of football.

But what you can't have is someone with chronic bad character problem. Also, common sense should stop you from having wife/GF beaters and murdering convicts on the team no matter how talented.

If you wanna know what the perfect players traits are just remember Willis, Gore, Justin. All heart

Yea seems to me McCoy was traded due to his salary and D Jax was just a pain in Chip's ass. I don't see either move having much to do with off the field character issues. This is a gray area. Depends on the guys' talent level versus his character issues.

But he kept Riley the racist?

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
So do this mean Riley Cooper is a high character guy?

Chip asked all the black leaders on the Eagles for advice. All of them said Cooper should be reinstated and that he made a mistake. Only after that, was he allowed back on the team. The problem with Cooper was that he didn't seem to to be very appreciative of the gesture by the black players. Chip didn't act on his own. Just like when he reinstated LaGarrett Blount at Oregon. He did so afgter seeking Harry Edwards advice.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

First Desean b***hes out and gives 0 effort in trying to get the football across the goalline in the playoffs and now McCoy is sending people to the hospital.


Smoothie withdrawal symptoms?

As soon as I viewed this I knew he was our Man.

Lets put it this way, Chip did it his way and got fired..

Tomsula did everything he was told to do and got fired.

Where do you wanna be??