The 49ers are halfway through their season. Today, I’ll give midseason awards for the best offensive and defensive players.
Best offensive player: LG Mike Iupati.
Iupati arguably is the best guard in the NFL. He’s definitely the best offensive linemen on the best offensive line in the NFL.
Two weeks ago, Iupati ruined Seahawks DT Brandon Mebane – a top-5 defensive tackle. Iupati planted Mebane on his back all night, made him a complete non-factor.
The heart of the 49ers offense is the power run game behind Iupati. The 49ers are averaging 7.1 yards per carry when they run behind him, according to Pro Football Focus. Iupati is a premier run blocker who has the strength to maul defenders in front of him and the quickness to pull.
He’s a good pass blocker, too. He has given up no sacks and just six pressures through eight games.
He’s still just 25 years old, and it seems he’s getting exponentially better every week.
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That’s laughable.
So…..you disagree?
The 49ers have easily the best rushing attack in the NFL. It’s the single most important aspect of their game. The key to that aspect is the big boys up front, and in particular, Iupati (although they’re all playing well).
Hard to argue with that Grant. VD can make a strong case for himself also, like attracting multi defensive players and his blocking. No stats for that stuff but should not be overlooked.
undercenter
Recently on KNBR, Roman was talking about VD. And how he blocked a 320lb or so DL. That allowed the OL (Davis I think) to go to the next level to block the LB. He left the 320lb guy for VD to block.
How did it work out? We ran against a very tough front 7 for big yards and won the game because of that.
That is something that doesn’t show up on stat sheets, and a reason why I don’t much care for stats to grade players.
Gore, Gore and then Gore. No questions asked.
Bold choice. I like the non-traditional thinking.
You made reference to this earlier in the week. Interesting call.
Good pick Grant, give the guys who make it all possible some love. Iupati is an absolute road grader.
Don’t mean to split hair or get into an argument of semantics but do you mean Best Offensive Player or Most Valuable Player?
I wont argue that a lineman should deserve the MVP but the best offensive player is going to be one of our skill players; VD, FG or possibly MC.
Gotcha on the splitting hairs, but I think it’s opposite of that. Iupati is the best at his positon, he dominates top 5 DL. Gore, while great isn’t the ‘best’ at his. I would say FG could be the team MVP though, I’d bet the players on the team would pick Gore as MVP, so far.
I would MUCH rather argue who the ‘best’ player on the team is anyday, compared to discussing you know who.
Zzzz…
I’d give it to the whole OL. That’s the Harbaugh way…
respectfully disagree. Gore was a great RB long before Iupati showed up. while Gore’s YPC are up to 5.5 this year, he was a great back, and the absolute core of the offense, when he was averaging only 4.2/4.3 ypc behind lesser lines. teams stacked the box and dared the Niners to throw, which they did poorly. Hunter is a good back too, but there’s no way he could get the 5 yards on first down at the start of the game if everyone knows he’s coming, which are the conditions Gore has had to operate all thru his career (not coincidentally the bulk of which have been the Alex years). and that’s even before trotting out the widely held view in the NFL that guards are definitionally less important than tackles, which is a discussion for another day
Grant I’m glad you picked MI, looking through the runner ups yesterday I was left thinking who else could it be. Then thought of the best unit on offense this season. The O-line. And who was the leader of that unit. MI was the best draft pick we had since PW IMO. And I can’t think of another player who has played better in every game so far.
A+ for giving the trench guy his due. He would also be my pick.
I am not too proud to admit that I learned a shipload about blitz pick up just from reading this article. Ben Muth is FO’s offensive line expert, a former Stanford lineman who played for Harbaugh, a good writer and almost as talented as Jack at using the coaches’ film. I highly recommend reading the article. It is not a waste of time.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/word-muth/2012/word-muth-beaten-young-chiefs
Thank you for putting an unheralded position up. You have rarely see the hard work of all trenches be heralded the way mike got. Usually a QB, RB, TE, or WR that get this reward. Finally we picked somebody that makes all these guys look good. Truthfully if we had a bad OL we wouldn’t have a good RB, QB, TE, and WR.