Originally posted by thl408:
A recent interview with Lynch. I couldn't find a text version so I'll quote the audio interview a little bit:
In the Lynch interview, Lynch said: "Whitner said, 'There's not a whole lot of secondaries who can play as many coverages as the 49ers do. And it's Whitner who is directing a lot of that traffic and a lot of those different nuances that they jump into after the ball is snapped."
I know I'm quoting Lynch, who is quoting Whitner, but if Lynch is accurately reporting what Whitner said, it gives me some player interview evidence that the 49ers do indeed play a very complicated coverage system. If anyone remembers some of the analysis threads during the regular season, it was touched upon that the 49ers utilize a lot of pattern matching in their defensive coverages. A couple plays illustrating pattern matching was broken down (I know one was in the TB game), but I am positive that it happens quite often. The key is how Lynch mentioned "after the ball is snapped", which strongly suggests pattern matching is taking place.
Point is, replacing Whitner is more than just replacing his post snap abilities. If Whitner is replaced, Reid has to step up his mental game big time in terms of calling out coverages pre-snap. It is always the safety who calls these pre-snap coverage adjustments since they have the best view of the field.
Lynch audio interview (BR report. It gets good at the 1:20 mark)
agreed. i like Reid. but he's not ready to be the main guy in the secondary yet.