The 49ers are centered on the wrong player.

The team did build for the QB, things jsut didn't work out. Look back when we drafted Alex Smith.

We paid top dollar to get what appeared, at the time to be a franchise LT in Jonas Jennings.
In the 2005 draft, after Alex we took Baas (OL), Gore (RB) and then Snyder (OL). Basically you have Heitmann and Smiley on the team and you added 3 more players to the OL. Also you gave your QB an excellent RB to help him out.
Then the year after? We signed the best free agent WR in Antonio Bryant and drafted a beast of a TE in Vernon Davis, thus trying to give Smith more weapons. I believe we also signed Larry Allen here too.

The point is, we tried to build for Alex, he just wasn't good enough. Also we got Mike McCarthy as OC in 2005 (turns out he can call a heck of an offense) and then Norv Turner in 2006. Unlucky for us, both these guys get hired as HC's for other teams.

I think the plan that Nolan and Scotty had laid out was actually pretty good. Sign the best LT on the market, draft OL, RB and then sign best WR and draft TE.

Originally posted by Niners99:
just what we need...another college coach.

can we please just hire a proven NFL caliber coach for once? someone who has succeeded as a head coach in the NFL before.

The problem that is see here is that if a coach is a proven winner in he NFL, he's already coaching. And the few available names being tossed around, well I'm just not as hot on them as most.

- Cowher: been out to long and NFL could have already passed him by also he's a defensive coach. No thanks.

- Dungy. Not coming back

- Gruden. Might be an option, he did take a good TB team and win a super bowl, but he also took that same team and ran it aground.

Originally posted by BigYellowKahuna:
I agree on offense you must tailor your team around the QB. I am an Alex Smith advocate and don't try to hide it but this season has opened my eyes to some items. I think the Niners have tried to put pieces in place to make Alex more successful (drafting of Crabtree and the 2 1st round lineman). Not saying they haven't made mistakes (not drafting more speed on Offense like Desean Jackson) but they have tried. Alex does not have great pocket awareness and has become gun shy making inaccurate throws because of a bad line. And yes, we are not playing to his strength combined with bad coaching and game plans. I think the Niners should resign Smith but not as a starter but as a back up. We will need to either draft or obtain a new starter in free agency this upcoming off season because the QB is the most important person on offense.

I too have been a big fan of Alex, however I find myself Growing more and more frustrated with the guy this year. To the point that I'm just ready to see him leave and try to resurrect his career elsewhere. I still think he can be good just don't see it happening in San Francisco.

Its funny how everyone on this thread including myself agree that an offense should be taylored around your QB. That being said, Smiths' strength is the spread offense. We "should" open up the game for the first half in a spread and a heavy dose of Gore in the 2nd half or at least mix it up. It's sad that the people that are getting paid for this don't even see that. That's why as much as I like what Sing has done for this team I hope he's gone at the end of the year. I hope they bring in Gruden or Mortingweg or someone offensive minded.

Originally posted by Kalen49ers:
The team did build for the QB, things jsut didn't work out. Look back when we drafted Alex Smith.

We paid top dollar to get what appeared, at the time to be a franchise LT in Jonas Jennings.
In the 2005 draft, after Alex we took Baas (OL), Gore (RB) and then Snyder (OL). Basically you have Heitmann and Smiley on the team and you added 3 more players to the OL. Also you gave your QB an excellent RB to help him out.
Then the year after? We signed the best free agent WR in Antonio Bryant and drafted a beast of a TE in Vernon Davis, thus trying to give Smith more weapons. I believe we also signed Larry Allen here too.

The point is, we tried to build for Alex, he just wasn't good enough. Also we got Mike McCarthy as OC in 2005 (turns out he can call a heck of an offense) and then Norv Turner in 2006. Unlucky for us, both these guys get hired as HC's for other teams.

I think the plan that Nolan and Scotty had laid out was actually pretty good. Sign the best LT on the market, draft OL, RB and then sign best WR and draft TE.

You make good points and I do agree that the initial plan was a good one. Except for one major mistake, a defensive rookie head coach drafting quarterback. That leaves no plan in place that could have prevented what happened.

Originally posted by Kalen49ers:
The team did build for the QB, things jsut didn't work out. Look back when we drafted Alex Smith.

We paid top dollar to get what appeared, at the time to be a franchise LT in Jonas Jennings.
In the 2005 draft, after Alex we took Baas (OL), Gore (RB) and then Snyder (OL). Basically you have Heitmann and Smiley on the team and you added 3 more players to the OL. Also you gave your QB an excellent RB to help him out.
Then the year after? We signed the best free agent WR in Antonio Bryant and drafted a beast of a TE in Vernon Davis, thus trying to give Smith more weapons. I believe we also signed Larry Allen here too.

The point is, we tried to build for Alex, he just wasn't good enough. Also we got Mike McCarthy as OC in 2005 (turns out he can call a heck of an offense) and then Norv Turner in 2006. Unlucky for us, both these guys get hired as HC's for other teams.

I think the plan that Nolan and Scotty had laid out was actually pretty good. Sign the best LT on the market, draft OL, RB and then sign best WR and draft TE.

The 9ers sort of tried helping Smith out with the selection of David Baas in the 2nd round and Snyder in the 3rd round in 2005 draft. The same could be said for the 2007 pick of Staley and the FA oline pickups you mention. However, those onlinemen haven't really helped that much. Staley is the most overrated linemen on the team. Baas hasn't been very good with the 9ers and the FA signing of Jennings was just awful. Snyder is the best of the lot in terms of value for the pick/singing and even he isn't a top flight olinemen.

I agree with your statement that lot's of the 9ers decisions or choices have resulted in some otherwise bad luck. But that shouldn't mean we place the results of all these bad choices and bad luck on Alex Smith or any one player. The past 8 years have been a clusterf--k regardless of QB.

Originally posted by socal81:
Its funny how everyone on this thread including myself agree that an offense should be taylored around your QB. That being said, Smiths' strength is the spread offense. We "should" open up the game for the first half in a spread and a heavy dose of Gore in the 2nd half or at least mix it up. It's sad that the people that are getting paid for this don't even see that. That's why as much as I like what Sing has done for this team I hope he's gone at the end of the year. I hope they bring in Gruden or Mortingweg or someone offensive minded.

Agreed. In the periods last year when the team did use a spread system and took Gore off the field Smith did well and so did the team. I think we can have an offense that is centered on Smith but still keep Gore happy. At some point Gore is going to get hurt if we continue to be so RB focused.

Good points across the board, which I'm sure many of us have been saying in one way or another for quite some time.

It's true, you can only do so much to "make it better for Frank" .. but they're an insurmountable amount of things you can do to help the QB, which in turn helps the entire team, which in turn.. also helps Frank. Our coaching can't see that, and thus we fail.

Very good post and I agree. It is a QB driven league and even w/ Alex we would be doing better if we played out of a shotgun most of te time.

Look at the Chiefs as an excellent example of what real good coaching can do.

Originally posted by Kalen49ers:
The team did build for the QB, things jsut didn't work out. Look back when we drafted Alex Smith.

We paid top dollar to get what appeared, at the time to be a franchise LT in Jonas Jennings.
In the 2005 draft, after Alex we took Baas (OL), Gore (RB) and then Snyder (OL). Basically you have Heitmann and Smiley on the team and you added 3 more players to the OL. Also you gave your QB an excellent RB to help him out.
Then the year after? We signed the best free agent WR in Antonio Bryant and drafted a beast of a TE in Vernon Davis, thus trying to give Smith more weapons. I believe we also signed Larry Allen here too.

The point is, we tried to build for Alex, he just wasn't good enough. Also we got Mike McCarthy as OC in 2005 (turns out he can call a heck of an offense) and then Norv Turner in 2006. Unlucky for us, both these guys get hired as HC's for other teams.

I think the plan that Nolan and Scotty had laid out was actually pretty good. Sign the best LT on the market, draft OL, RB and then sign best WR and draft TE.

I'm not sure I fully agree here. I think I'll agree it didn't work out, but more because the pieces didn't come together like we would have hoped.

Bryant got both injured and suspended. Baas couldn't crack the starting lineup. Our LT was constantly injured, Jennings was always hurt and never played a full season. Snyder was far from good then, and still isn't great now. We had Kwame "false start" Harris at RT. Larry Allen's play dipped dramatically after one year. All our OC's left year after year. Smiley left and then was on the trading block for the Dolphins because he wasn't good enough.

Yeah, it didn't pan out like we hoped, but I can't sit here and say "Alex just wasn't good enough" as the reason it didn't. We just can't say he caused all the problems listed above.

You guys do realize drafting a QB in the first round will only further make Gore the focal point of the offense. The niners have had terrible coaching all around and thats what the problem is....any decent coach left because the organization is a mess.

Originally posted by wolfpack52:
You guys do realize drafting a QB in the first round will only further make Gore the focal point of the offense. The niners have had terrible coaching all around and thats what the problem is....any decent coach left because the organization is a mess.

The only decent coach we've had was Norv Turner as OC in Smith's second year.

I think Nolan was a horrible head coach but a great GM. Based on the Nolan drafts I'd take a risk of hiring him as a GM if I was a bad team in this league. I don't think he's nearly as good at coaching.

Let's see, you are thinking this team is not built around the QB? You must be on dope!
I believe, we took Smith and a few linemen together, The next year we drafted Vernon at #7 overall, the lowest a ever for a TE, to help Alex. We have brought in and drafted WR's galore including Crabtree early in the first round. An overwhelming number of this teams draft picks have been on the offensive side of the ball, all to help Alex.

We switched from a West Coast offense (our heritage) to the "digit" system, to make things easer for Alex, we put more shotgun and spread elements in the offense for Alex. We brought in Mike Martz offensive guru. who turned a bag boy (Kurt Warner) in to an NFL MVP!

Yea, we need to do MORE for Alex!

Gore is absolutely the reason we suck....what's our record as a smash-mouth football team???? not good

Originally posted by wolfpack52:
You guys do realize drafting a QB in the first round will only further make Gore the focal point of the offense. The niners have had terrible coaching all around and thats what the problem is....any decent coach left because the organization is a mess.

I disagree, look at the rams.