Resign Isaac Sopoaga???

Originally posted by GEEK:

Originally posted by cciowa:

Originally posted by ElephantHaley:
I vote no and replace him with Abrayo again for $2mill a season and draft a dude. Soap is washed up

can we stop with the ex niners coming back? they are x niners for a reason

Is Cortez available to kick again for us?

well he was damn good for about 8 games that year. but based upon the game sunday, if we can upgrade soap then yes do it. a retool is badly needed on the line and in the secondary and then next year the coach can not be afraid to use bowman and willis to bring pressure,. the way those two were underused is pathetic in my opinion

Soap is a strong and dependable player, not a super star. Honestly most players are not super stars he does his job without the fanfare and spotlight. IMO we need to resign him.

I'd resign him for high back-up money. If he returns, 2013 should be his last season as the starter on our defensive line.

Originally posted by almondJoy:
Soap is a strong and dependable player, not a super star. Honestly most players are not super stars he does his job without the fanfare and spotlight. IMO we need to resign him.

Dependably mediocre.



Seriously, what is it with this place when it comes to calling a spade, a spade? He's just not a very good NT, he belongs as a backup DE.

One of the ESPN people has the Niners selecting Johnathan Hankins in the first round. He's a 6'5", 360 lb. defensive tackle. If that's their plan, I'm afraid we've seen the last of Isaac Sopoaga as a Niner, a player I've really enjoyed over the years. It would be Ricky Jean and Hankins in the middle. Sopoaga will absolutely get picked up by another team.

Originally posted by GNielsen:
One of the ESPN people has the Niners selecting Johnathan Hankins in the first round. He's a 6'5", 360 lb. defensive tackle. If that's their plan, I'm afraid we've seen the last of Isaac Sopoaga as a Niner, a player I've really enjoyed over the years. It would be Ricky Jean and Hankins in the middle. Sopoaga will absolutely get picked up by another team.

I wonder if Ian Williams fits into future plans at all.

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:

Originally posted by GNielsen:
One of the ESPN people has the Niners selecting Johnathan Hankins in the first round. He's a 6'5", 360 lb. defensive tackle. If that's their plan, I'm afraid we've seen the last of Isaac Sopoaga as a Niner, a player I've really enjoyed over the years. It would be Ricky Jean and Hankins in the middle. Sopoaga will absolutely get picked up by another team.

I wonder if Ian Williams fits into future plans at all.

Right. There's another potential NT right there. He's got the body for it.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by almondJoy:
Soap is a strong and dependable player, not a super star. Honestly most players are not super stars he does his job without the fanfare and spotlight. IMO we need to resign him.

Dependably mediocre.



Seriously, what is it with this place when it comes to calling a spade, a spade? He's just not a very good NT, he belongs as a backup DE.

Phoenix just stop already, you act like Sopoaga hasn't contributed to this defense. Sopoaga does his job plain and simple, he doesn't do a vince wilfork job, but not many NT's can. Sopoaga is asked to stop the run, control the gaps and/or occupy blockers. Not many NT''s can consistently push the pocket, not even Wilfork, they would gas out before the half. I don't know where some of you people get this imaginary thought that a NT will push the pocket on every play and wreak havoc on every play, or that NT's are suppose to rack up a good amount of sack numbers. One things forsure, I can tell the difference when Sopoaga is in and when hes not, teams simply run up the middle with no problem when Sopoaga is not in. I swear we go through this every year about Sopoaga, and the following year he still continues to start, there's a reason past HC and our present one han't replaced him yet.

I forgot my answer to Sopoaga. Yes, I'd re-sign him and still draft one in the 1st or 2nd round to maybe take over in 2-3 years, but still make a good rotation at NT than RJF would. Jonathan Hankins or Kawann Short are my picks to replace Sopoag one day.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by Disp:

You're missing the point. All other NT's do the same thing, and he was one of the worst rated in the league at doing it.

This.....ding ding, one again, people's weird emotional attachment to players prevents them from seeing the reality of the situation. Those rankings identify the problems with the defense that people fully accept in terms of Whitner and Culliver but yet some want to make excuses for an NT that isn't even performing up to average standards for his position.


All NT's have the job of taking up blockers, Soap does it more poorly than most, being stopped by a single blocker a lot of the time. Justin Smith is the guy on the 49ers defense who takes up multiple blockers, and when he was injured, its no surprise that the pass rush went away and the front four fell apart.

This^^^

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2013/02/11/2013-team-needs-san-francisco-49ers/

"Unfortunately, in those limited snaps Sopoaga's play earned him a -12.0 overall grade, landing him 82nd on our list of 85 interior defensive linemen. Sopoaga was non-existent rushing the passer, generating only three QB disruptions in 129 rushes. He wasn't much better against the run, as his -7.4 grade ranked 77th out of 85 tackles, and he tallied a mediocre 6.4 Run Stop Percentage."

Basically ProfootballFocus is saying he worse than basically every team's 2'nd string NT. That's crazy with how much talent is around him. Again, you would think his numbers would be artificially inflated because of how good Justin, Aldon, and McDonald are and how much pressure they take off of him.

Originally posted by Kolohe:
Phoenix just stop already, you act like Sopoaga hasn't contributed to this defense. Sopoaga does his job plain and simple, he doesn't do a vince wilfork job, but not many NT's can. Sopoaga is asked to stop the run, control the gaps and/or occupy blockers.

Yes he is, and he manages to fail miserably at it. The amount of times he got cleaned out of plays by a single blocker was unnerving. Justin Smith covered up for a lot of his deficiencies but when he got injured and there was literally nobody on the DL who could regularly draw multiple blockers, this defense fell apart as we all saw.

Not many NT''s can consistently push the pocket, not even Wilfork, they would gas out before the half. I don't know where some of you people get this imaginary thought that a NT will push the pocket on every play and wreak havoc on every play, or that NT's are suppose to rack up a good amount of sack numbers.

Playing about 1/3 of the snaps is truly exhausting, how does he do it? Nobody is claiming that an NT is supposed to get a high number of sacks, they're simply stating that this team can do significantly better than a guy who was scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to NFL NT's.

One things forsure, I can tell the difference when Sopoaga is in and when hes not, teams simply run up the middle with no problem when Sopoaga is not in.

So what you're telling me is that teams run up the middle when there's not an NT in there and the defense is playing in the nickel formation? That's just crazy talk.
It really helps having two All-NFL inside linebackers to cover up for the mediocre NT getting blown off the ball on the regular.

I swear we go through this every year about Sopoaga, and the following year he still continues to start, there's a reason past HC and our present one han't replaced him yet

He's played NT since last season. Last season he busted his ass and was still merely average, this year he's been terrible. This sounds like the same rhetoric people were pushing when Nate Clements and Manny Lawson were basically not invited back. Soap was suitable for a team that had a lot of other holes to fill, now he just happens to be one of, if not the biggest holes, don't expect him back.

I hate this thread......people are talking about my favorite player leaving my favorite team.....

NT is a hard position to judge. Soap is definitely not the game-wrecker that Wilfork or Ngata can be, but those guys are rare. He can't disrupt the pocket or make plays down the line, but he does eat up two blockers and funnels the action to our All-Pro ILB duo. That's his primary responsibility, and he does it well enough. My main issue with him is his salary and age. It's just about time to look for an upgrade.

If we want a massive, athletic NT that will collapse the pocket, penetrate into the backfield, and stuff the run all at the same time than by all means, draft one in the 1st round. In the mean time Soap has done a fine job. We've been top 3 against the run with him as a starter so something must be going right, even if his only responsibility is to allow Willis and Bowman to make the play.

If the price is right...

No point in paying full time starter money to a guy that will only play 30-40 percent of the snaps... i'd rather have RJF in their during passing downs and Sopoaga in there on running downs.