Be realistic.
The 49ers probably won’t win the Super Bowl next season — they may not even make the playoffs. They’re rebuilding. The current regime has taken two years to get its feet on the ground, and has made incremental improvements along the way, even if the win-loss record doesn’t reflect them.
When John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh came to the 49ers in 2017, they inherited the worst run defense in franchise history. It gave up 2,654 rushing yards in 2016 under Chip Kelly and defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil, two of the worst coaches ever to work for the 49ers.
The next season under Saleh, the 49ers drastically improved their run defense. It gave up 1,861 rushing yards in 2017, and allowed just 3.8 yards per carry — seventh best in the NFL.
In 2018, the 49ers made another incremental improvement. They enhanced their run offense, and averaged 4.5 yards per carry — the most they’ve averaged since 2014 when Jim Harbaugh was the head coach. Impressive.
The 49ers still have a number of areas to improve, even if Jimmy Garoppolo and Jerick McKinnon return to full strength next season. I believe the 49ers can make strides in the following areas, and here’s why:
Grant, a compendious effort. You could also add a 7th area the 49ers should improve in is health, and fortune. The 49ers were one of the most snakebitten teams in 2018. I would take issue with your prophecy that Beathard will be the 3rd quarterback. I’ll go to bat for him, and predict he takes his job back from Mullens….
CJ may take his old job back, but he’ll lose it again either to Mullens or whoever takes Mullens’ place. He was and still is a mistake that needs to be put behind us.
CJ has more talent, Mullens has more Lay’s. Should prove to be one of the several interesting competitions in this years training camp….
CJB is limited. he holds onto the ball too long and gets bludgeoned. The Niners should trade Bobby Beathard’s grandson to Washington for a 5th round pick.
to be a good team 1st be on the same page for 1 and 2 u half to have all good coaches for all eares 3. The CEO needs to stay out of the way let the head coach run the team like Jim haurbau. Ok he was winning and CEO didnt like that why no idea but ya some time it’s best to go over the cap to get to the big game but it pays off at the end with a big trophy zone take the cap hit trust I know what I’m talking about if I was the head coach of 49ers I dont like to lose so I do what it takes to win always ive coached and I lost 1 game ok and I have taken a break for a bit I know all the head coaches that has worked for the 49ers and yes ur right the worst coach u hired was chip Kelly idiate ok but trust me when I say take that hit go over the salary cap get the top players in the NFL veterans ok the very best that’s how u win get the 49ers back on top again u wonte regret it I gaudrentee that but as for Jimmy I dont know lot of capital u spent and I can only hope he.s worth the bet or ur screwd hope not he needs to be a Mobil QB to do his job like did that one Tim winning 5 strait make sure he has the best protection out there but realy take the cap hit it will be well worth it the former owner did that and won the super game ok now 5 times
Trust me I wouldn’t ever steer my favorate team the wrong way i know some times we all listen to the wrong people and if u can get Steve young to coach 1 yr I gaurentee u Jimmy would be an excellent QB like a new Steve young he deffenatly knows this game and be an excellent coach for Jimmy G .ok just if u half to spend more capital then do it but the chances are on getting mr.young well pretty slim but if could get him and I know 3 things I’m good at offence & deffence special teams 1 thing I’ve deffenately have noticed on CB is that a lot of ur cb.s are playing like 10 to 15 yards away from there opponent ok says 1 thing they are giving way to much respect to or they aren’t fast enough or they aren’t good enough to do there job i mean they need to hit them right off the line with in that 5. Yard mark ok but to respect that’s why ur losing games get good CB.s not rookies there it I’d for u
Also 1 more thing ya Sherman should move to either safety or strong safety and the CB.s there job is also when they are on the field they need to play the QB. Ok that way interception is very poss
Excellent work Grant.
Barring major injuries especially at key positions should get us to 8-9 wins.
I see a slow start as some players like McKinnon and Jimmy G, will need a few games to get back to snuff.
The biggest improvement will come on the defensive side as you clearly broke down.
Grant:
* From your lips to God’s ear
How should they improve? Maybe the better question is- How can they improve?
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10 ways the Niners can improve.
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1. With a better pass rush. JL needs to sign a decent pass rusher and draft one, too. He failed to do both last season.
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2. Niners need to improve the secondary with better DB coaching. Joe Woods will turn around the Defensive back field. He is also a former DC, so he should help Saleh a lot. Halfley was clueless. A better pass rush will help. They should look hard at decent FAs, and draft a single high safety. Maybe the Niners should seriously consider moving Sherman to safety. Hope they trade away Witherspoon.
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3. Defensive takeaways? Saleh should stop talking about playing with violence, it just lead to injuries. He should coach the players to attack the ball, to create turnovers. He needs to coach the CBs to turn their heads to track the ball.
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4. Offensive giveaways. Fortunately, JG will be coming back, so he will have better ball security. They should coach the RBs to stop struggling for every inch, so the defenders can gang tackle them to cause a fumble. Once the ball carrier gains his yards, he should stay low so he cannot be held up and get the ball stripped away.
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5. Second and 10 production, just needs a change in the mindset. Instead of big chunks of yardage, they should stress getting positive production every play. Force them to defend the short stuff, then take shots down field. Maybe let the second down be a run play that either goes left, right or up the middle. It will test the defense and establish a running game.
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6. Third and short, and third and long. Niners need to designate plays that are called when it is either third and short, or third and long, so they can run up to the line and fire off the play. This will prevent the defense from substituting, and maybe catch them with 12 men on the field. They should then practice those plays over and over, so they can do them in their sleep, and it is second nature to them.
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7. Red zone issues. JL needs to sign a tall, grizzled, battle hardened veteran WR, and also draft Keelan Doss. They can high point the ball and be major threats to score. JL should re-sign Frank Gore, and sign a couple UDFA- RBs. Hopefully, McKinnon coming back will help.
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8. Reducing the unforced errors. The Niners need better preparations, and instill better discipline. JG’s leadership should help, but the coaching also needs to improve.
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9. Staying healthy. They hired a hockey guy, maybe they should look at martial arts trainers, too.
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10. How can KS improve? The overall offensive improvement can be facilitated by having KS hire an OC. An OC will allow KS to concentrate on finishing the game.
You basically just regurgitated everything in the article and are trying to pass it off as independent thought.
No, I went from how should they improve, to how can they improve. Yes, I followed his five themes, but elaborated on those topics. Then I added 5 more areas that need improvement.
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Reading is fundamental.
Oh yeah we are rebuilding. How many years in a row is that now? The 49ers rebuild longer than any team in sports
True, but this rebuild actually had a plan. It’s not a “reload”. These men came in and told us a plan. Now if it fails, the Nextel regime won’t be rebuilding, unless it’s an utter failure, they will be reloading. But In my opinion, I don’t think it’s going to fail.
This wasn’t a manufactured rebuild. It was a, ‘from the ground up’ rebuild. Big difference.
Niners are rebuilding from 3 straight NFCC Games and a SB appearance. The Browns, Jets and Lions have been consistently rebuilding for years.
There is a huge difference between rebuilding and gutting a team’s depth while claiming that we are reloading.
We are going 2 win da Super Bowl next season? So please do not hate. Niner-nation 4 life.
Grant,
When you write of bad 49er coaches Kelly and O’Neil pale in comparison to Ken Meyer, Pete McCulley and Fred O’Connor.
Actually, that defense in 1978 ranked 17th in the league. The 2016 defense ranked 32.
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I would say Joe Thomas was worse than Baalke, but not by much.
Seb
I will never be considered a Joe Thomas fan, but I think that you should read his post-firing articles as to what went wrong with his plan…. He brought in OJ Simpson, who still had Juice (bad Pun), He brought in Jim Plunkett who went on to win the SB for Oakland, and a number of seasoned (worn out) vets and very little else to work with…. If one should want to examine the history of the 49er, I think that you would find that historically, we have had more good teams than almost every team on the planet….and coach miscues and personnel screw-ups have cost us several potential championships ..(.Remember Y.A. ) ? Consider our million dollar backfield and how many division crowns they won…?
Sorry for the rag-on…but I don’t like unkind, untrue critique….
Oregon,
Thomas traded for O.J. but Lou Spadia picked up Plunkett. In 76 if the 49ers had any kind of place kicker at all Plunkett would have led the team to the playoffs.
Ore, I did say that Thomas was worse than Baalke.
This was another good write-up Grant.
Two more things they must improve.. well one of kind of luck.
Health. I can’t recall ever seeing a season with so many injuries to key players and positions.
The other huge problem are the penalties.
Time and time again like the season before. The 49ers look like world beaters between the 20’s and all of a sudden here come the penalties. I can’t count how many times penalties in the redzone pushed them back and forced a FG attempt.
And one particular call that drove me nuts was the illegal procedure calls.
That’s strictly on Shanahan.
A lot of holding calls also, a lot having to do with pass calls, when running/passing calls should have been more balanced.
Morris would have been excellent 4 years ago, he didn’t have the “hog” skills for the redzone ru game anymore. They must sign a lower back this offseason.
Other than that I like the assessments you posted up.