Have we improved at all from last year?

The only thing i am scared of is the fact that we are so far behind all the other teams that didn't have a total system/coaching change for the coming year.

Coaching and Special Teams will be vastly improved. This year's draft brings in a number of players who will be good on Sp. Teams. They are fast, tough and are not ready to start on the O or D.

Nedney may be a big loss if he doesn't make it back but the rest of the units will be better due to coaching.

Harbaugh has hired competent assistants who know what he wants and who can teach. That has been sadly lacking. Nolan was a manager type coach, not a teacher, and Singletary was a short term motivational specialist. Neither wore well or understood offense.

The systems this team will install will be flexible enough to take advantage of the teams strengths and opponents weaknesses. If they jell right away they should have a winning record or it may take them a year to install everything and find their guys. Either way it will give we fans hope and enjoyment!

Same team basically just the coaching changed. We will find out if coaching was our biggest problem. I personally think our roster is like Swiss cheese full of holes.

The coaching was just awful last season. From all of the reports, Singletary was causing all sorts of problems behind the scenes. Look at the first game of the season and I think you see exactly how messed up things were. They couldn't even get the playcalls in correctly. That's something that should have been figured out and fixed during the preseason at the latest. And then when we started getting the playcalls in, they were terrible. I got so used to run-run-screen-punt that I was literally winning bets by predicting the exact play that we did. Sure, the playcalling got better as the season went on... But not by much.

Now we can't really judge him so far, but i'm going to go ahead and say that getting Harbaugh was the best thing that happened to this team for years now. He actually knows what he's talking about, knows where he's going and knows what he needs to get there. I don't think you could say that about the last few coaches, at all.

Player wise, our offensive line has some problems, mainly Chilo. It's bad when Anthony Davis is a 20 year old rook and outperforming you. We had trouble at center before the season even started, but I really think Baas stepped up. I disliked the hell out of him before last season, never seemed like he tried at all. He came into his own in that position, we really need to get him back. The pickups of Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati were great, in my opinion. Anthony Davis is going to do much better with proper coaching and not being stuck on an island out there, having to do two peoples jobs. Joe Staley... I love Joe, his personality and what he does on the line, but he's injury prone. He needs to stay healthy for once.

Our corners were pretty awful last season too. I was wishing we had kept Bly on. The dumb moments that we had (the interception to fumble in the Falcons game), the terrible coverage, it was just all around bad. Really need to improve that position.

QB wise, i'm stuck on this one. Alex Smith is someone I really like as a person, and that makes me really want to like him as a player. He shows signs of great things randomly, usually after being booed, and then goes and plays like complete crap. The worst part is that I can't tell if it's terrible coaching or just him being a terrible QB. I guess we'll find out after this season. I really really dig the Kaepernick pickup, that dude is going to be amazing.

all in all, we were a hair away from the playoffs last season even with the crappy coaching, I think Jim is going to take this team far. I won't be expecting playoffs his first season of course, especially with the lockout ruining almost everything football related so far, but I do expect to feel a difference when I watch this team. No more, "What the hell is the coach thinking." and all of that. And we best beat the Raiders in preseason. It may just be preseason and doesn't count towards the season record, but any Bay Area fan knows that it totally does count. And the Dallas game. If we win the Dallas game i'll be SO damn happy.

As has been mentioned the coaching really does improve the talent on the roster, Vic Fangio will really turn the D into an aggressive sacking machine.

From a strictly talent standpoint, which is what I think the OP was aiming at, I think we have improved, Kendall Hunter will see significant playing time this year to keep Gore fresh and has many similarities of another Ray Rice. And RBs tend to transition to the NFL game the smoothest due to the highly instinctual aspect of the position. Aldon Smith, who is raw, will most certainly see playing time this year, and all over the field. He is not just an edge rusher but also a great inside rusher. Will he be a sack leader as a rookie? Probably not but he will make everyone else around him better, including P Willy, because he will demand attention wherever he is.

As for the other picks, most of them will not see time for awhile and many will likely not make the team, I think Ronald Johnson may see some time as a slot receiver and will be competing with Williams for the 3rd or 4th WR spot.

And one thing to remember is that last year's draft class will be much improved this year. Anthony Davis I predict will be worlds better and will likely have better help at G next to him instead of the human revolving door in Chilo. Iupati we all know will be an absolute force, and now that we don't have a coaching staff that all but puts the play on the bigscreen for the defense to see, the defense won't know what coming like they did every play last year.

If he's talking from a strictly player standpoint, then I think this thread should have probably been made once preseason started. A little bit early to tell since we haven't been able to hit up the free agency yet.

I have to say that this is one of the better threads I've seen in the Zone in quite awhile....there have been some very thoughtful, reasonable, and insightful comments thus far. Nice job guys.

The original question was "Have we improved at all from last year?" I would say definitely. Last year, the coaching staff did not seem to have a clue about how to take a player and put him in a position to succeed. It seems like they didn't have any kind of coherent plan. There was confusion on offense, defense and special teams.

If nothing else, I think we will see big changes in that this year. Rather than the Niners looking confused, I will bet that we will see more often the opposing teams showing confusion at the schemes the 49ers show them. For the first time in nearly 10 years, the team has a very creative, very intelligent, and very shrewd coaching staff. That alone is an enormous improvement.

From a personnel standpoint, the team will benefit from a year of experience for Davis, Iupati, Bowman, and even Mays. When you add Aldon, Hunter, Culliver, and the 2 new guards they got in the draft into the mix, and I think you will see some surprising starters, and a fairly big change in the overall roster.

Fangio will find ways to get the most out of his guys on D. Hardball and Roman will come up with creative game plans on O and we happy....

Cheers!

The coaching is far and away better and that's where it all starts. I do believe that we improved in the draft, especially with the Aldon Smith and Kendall Hunter picks. Remember we havent had a free agency period yet. For all we know, we could be targeting a big free agent or two.

In this division we can win 9 games and go to the playoffs

coaching wise yes absolutely. however we need consistent offensive performance and a defense that can consistently cover the pass

Originally posted by Rubberneck36:
Yes, because we have a coach who knows how to gameplan, teach players, and coach. So even before FA and the draft, we got better.

I feel this is the biggest thing. Really feel that our ability to develop all our young players will determine how good we will be.

If we come out with a great offensive game plan and a aggressive defense we can do some damage. I state this without knowing how these rookies will develop and that they can be the icing on the cake.

Damn I hope I am right

Sure, the team is better with exciting new players and coaches. But, if the pre-season is constricted, there won't be time to incorporate this talent for awhile. We are very likely to see last year's team trot out there to start things off.

And they won't have had much time to learn the new system. It would not be surprising if the team got off to a rough and disappointing start.

What we will see is a competency and gradual improvement as the season goes on. Likely the team will finish well with many of the new guys playing key roles and really preparing for a good future.

Playoffs, quite possible, but the future is what we will be seeing and that is most important.