2012 vs. 2015 Rosters - Are we REALLY in much trouble at all personnel-wise?

Crap. My tabs didn't work. Everything compressed together.

Your outlook above is the way I choose to look at it as well. No sense being negative when we just don't know. We may prove to be worse, but until then....I like what you're selling!

Nice post. I think we're still a talented team, the situation is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, but I definitely give the edge to the 2012 roster for now.

This year's team is better at WR and safety. Also a lot of young players who could develop into something special and possibly be better than the departures, but that has to be proven before I can say we upgraded.

2012 roster has the edge at RB, OL, DL, LB. Gore was playing at a high level. OL was the best in the league that year , hands down.. Cowboy and RayMac played at a very high level. LB core all playing at the top of their games.

I'm most excited to see these younger players develop and become something special. If the coaching staff does a good job, we could ultimately have a better team than 2012.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Nice post. I think we're still a talented team, the situation is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, but I definitely give the edge to the 2012 roster for now.

This year's team is better at WR and safety. Also a lot of young players who could develop into something special and possibly be better than the departures, but that has to be proven before I can say we upgraded.

2012 roster has the edge at RB, OL, DL, LB. Gore was playing at a high level. OL was the best in the league that year , hands down.. Cowboy and RayMac played at a very high level. LB core all playing at the top of their games.

I'm most excited to see these younger players develop and become something special. If the coaching staff does a good job, we could ultimately have a better team than 2012.

I agree with you. Maybe I'm a little on the over-optimistic side. I guess I'm trying to counteract the doomsday scenarios that so many in the media are portraying. This really could be a team that relies heavy on the "ball bouncing their way". We get those bounces (like we did regularly in 2012 and 2013 and basically got none last year), then we might be in business. Turnovers and penalties are going to be absolutely key this year. Those two things alone could be the difference between a 11-5 season and a 5-11 season.

Problem is a lot of those guys that are the same have regressed. Also, missing a few components like Willis and Smith. Lastly and most importantly Kap and the pistol/read option took the league by storm that year and defenses figured it out after that year so we can't count on Kap getting 100-200 yards a game rushing. That's ok I thought he was a lot more dangerous when we let him scramble anyways. I think the reason we went to the sb that year besides kap's running was the OL. They were dominant especially in the run game. They will have to get back to that if we want to go far in the playoffs. These past few years too many sacks, missed blitz pickups, and not opening holes. (injuries as well didnt help)

2012 Offensive 2015 Projected
RB1 - Gore RB1 - Hyde (Hyde was arguably the best RB in the draft last year and was specifically picked as Gore's replacement)
RT - Davis RT - ?? (Only true hole that I see that needs to be determined in TC)

2012 Defense 2015 Projected
RDE - Smith RDE - Dockett (Big loss with Justin, but Dockett is a seasoned vet and Smith was no longer in 2012 form

LDE - McDonald LDE - Carradine/Dial (RayMac simply had to go and there is really not much drop here in my opinion)
ILB - Willis ILB - Wilhoite (You can't replace HOF talent, but Wilhoite was on the PC in 2012 and was a waiting replacement)
CB - Rogers CB - Brock (Would you really say you would rather have Rogers than a healthy Brock?)
CB - Brown CB - Wright/Johnson/Acker/Reaser (Excited to see who wins this battle. Again, is this a drop off?

I think any realistic person would have to say these 5 positions are going to have significant drop off. I'm optimistic about Thomas, but he's not going to be as good as Iupati from day 1 either.

RayMac was one of the better 3-4 DEs in football. Don't let the off-field stuff fool you; the man was really, really good.

Brock sucks. I'd obviously rather have a 2012 version of Carlos Rogers than him.

I always thought Brown was overrated, but when you have complete unknowns replacing him, I think it's fair to say that's a downgrade (at least for now).

It's not looking good. Especially with how the rest of the NFC West is looking.

I feel on paper we were better defensively in 2012, but that defense on paper didnt show up in the playoffs. Our CB situation is influx noe and we gotta replace a hof ilb. Our edge rushers are prob better now, but our dline is very unproven this year.

Offensively i think we're def better at the skill positions now than in 2012. The fact we had LMJ carrying the ball in the SB and fumbling away a probable TD drive still irks me. Our oline this year is a ? though. We lost AD and MI so 4/5 of our line is gonna be in new spots probably (3/5 if Kilgore goes back to C). Our offensive line was the biggest reason for our crap offfensive year last year, but hopefully coaching and scheme can help that.

Overall the team isnt as bad when you look at objectively as its made to seem. People wanna focus on the 4 guys we lost and forget theres 50 some other players on the team. Its been a long time since you could play the Niners and could expect an easy win so expecting 4-6 wins seems silly to me. Our roster is unproven more than it is bad.

The answer is your question is: Most likely we are in trouble personnel-wise. Three years ago, we had numerous guys who were Pro-Bowlers. Outside of Bowman, and maybe Stanley, I don't see a lot of guys.

Can some of the young guys play at a high level, and fill-in the gaps on where we lost valuable talent. Sure. Is it likely that a large cluster will? Call me a skeptic. We just haven't seen it yet.

Lot of holes that will need to be filled over the next few years. I see this team right now as a 6-10 team at best.

One things for sure, I think we would ALL take this current group of recievers over the bunch in 2012!

Originally posted by Gore_21:
Problem is a lot of those guys that are the same have regressed. Also, missing a few components like Willis and Smith. Lastly and most importantly Kap and the pistol/read option took the league by storm that year and defenses figured it out after that year so we can't count on Kap getting 100-200 yards a game rushing. That's ok I thought he was a lot more dangerous when we let him scramble anyways. I think the reason we went to the sb that year besides kap's running was the OL. They were dominant especially in the run game. They will have to get back to that if we want to go far in the playoffs. These past few years too many sacks, missed blitz pickups, and not opening holes. (injuries as well didnt help)

How often did Kap run for 100 yards in 2012? A couple of games? He had many more games where he really didn't run at all. The Green Bay game is what everyone remembers but I remember an accurate, decisive QB who delivered a lot from the pocket. That's why I still have confidence in Kap. He's done it before.

One thing I would like to know is when Harbaugh's staff came in a lot of the media said you could see the difference between his staff and guys like Nolan and Singletary's, going as far as saying they had guys that couldn't coach at the high school level. That was early on in Harbaugh's first year before the season had started. It would be interesting to know how Tomsula's staff compares to Harbaugh's first year. We have the talent to win now and compete for a SB. The question is will the coaching staff put the players in a position to succeed. I would love to know if the staff is just as good as Harbaugh's was at this point. I know they are doing things differently but that doesn't mean better even if it's reading that way.

Originally posted by IHATELOWELLCOHN:
One thing I would like to know is when Harbaugh's staff came in a lot of the media said you could see the difference between his staff and guys like Nolan and Singletary's, going as far as saying they had guys that couldn't coach at the high school level. That was early on in Harbaugh's first year before the season had started. It would be interesting to know how Tomsula's staff compares to Harbaugh's first year. We have the talent to win now and compete for a SB. The question is will the coaching staff put the players in a position to succeed. I would love to know if the staff is just as good as Harbaugh's was at this point. I know they are doing things differently but that doesn't mean better even if it's reading that way.

The only thing that Ive heard about this staff is they are all about tempo.

for the last time, alot of the players, many of whom are no longer here were not the same last year as they were in 2012. we did not make major changes to a super bowl team. we made much needed changes in people and coaches to a team that was worse than their 8-8 record indicates,, when i say that i mean most of our wins were harder than they needed to be, giants for one.

Originally posted by cciowa:
for the last time, alot of the players, many of whom are no longer here were not the same last year as they were in 2012. we did not make major changes to a super bowl team. we made much needed changes in people and coaches to a team that was worse than their 8-8 record indicates,, when i say that i mean most of our wins were harder than they needed to be, giants for one.

Injuries were a big factor last year. They need to avoid major injuries this year. A few guys who missed all of last year with injuries, and some guys who didn't play a lot because of injuries. Some unproven backups. Need the OL to stay healthy and play together the entire year.