Originally posted by Marvin49:
6) Pass Rush: The 49ers in 1981 were good but it was the trade for Fred Dean that put them over the top.]
As an official "old timer, I must object. You are glossing over the early contributions of Dwaine "Tiny" Board. That man was a sack machine for the early 49er teams, but stats were not kept during those early years. The NFL didn't keep track of sacks until 1982, and stats like QB Pressures wouldn't be kept until a few years later. Truth be told, Tiny was an unblockabke monster on that '81 team. Tiny was our "pass rush specialist," a term that would not be coined and copied by other teams until Fred Dean came along.
I do, however, give Shanny and Lynch credit for using the same route that Bill Walsh followed when it came to Tiny. Walsh scoured the cut lists for the NFL teams with top defenses, and Tiny was among the final cuts Chuck Noll made in Pittsburgh in 1979. Hey, the choice was either Tiny, or Mean Joe Greene. And Noll wasn't about to cut Greene, even though he was clearly on the down side of his career and not nearly as effective as he was in his prime.
But it was much easier in 1979 to find guys like Tiny. Shanny and Lynch faced much steeper odds in trying to do what Walsh did. I will give them credit for trying. I hope they will keep trying. That "find" may or may not be out there, just waiting for his chance.
For those of you who were born after the days when Tiny struck fear into the hearts of opposing teams, he would win four Super Bowl rings with the 49ers. Three came as a player. The fourth was as a coach.