There’s a lot more than football on the mind of Mike Martz this week, as he and his family are going through a difficult time.
His 38-year-old nephew, Steve Martz, was shot in the torso Sunday morning in Northern Mexico as he was riding his motorcycle with friends in preparation of a SCORE race, which will be held in
He was transported to a hospital in
“He was in critical care for a day or so, and then they airlifted him into
Martz’s nephew lives in the
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OK, now on to more trivial matters . . .
When asked how the 49ers’ offense will look different with Shaun Hill at quarterback, Martz was pretty darn honest. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I don’t know enough about Shaun, yet. There’s a lot of pieces around Shaun that we’re trying to get settled, too. There are a lot of factors involved. I don’t know how to answer that. I’m not sure, yet. Let him get in the flow of the game and give him some things and see how he does with it, and then we’ll go from there, really.”
Martz said he didn’t think Hill’s relative lesser arm strength is that big of a deal. “A lot of guys I’ve coached in the past don’t have remarkable arms, but accuracy and timing and anticipation and seeing things are way more important than any of that,” Martz said.
“And J.T. is going to do really well. He just kind of hit the wall a little bit. . . . He just needs to step back and regroup and get his breath back. He’ll be an outstanding player.”
When asked if it’s difficult to get O’Sullivan out of the lineup, Martz said, “I hate to see him go through this, but I’m excited for the opportunity for Shaun. To say I’m closer to J.T. than Shaun would not be accurate. That’s not the case at all. Anytime you have somebody go through something like that, you have to feel for them. It’s been hard on him. He’s going to be a good player, but he has to fight through this, and we have to help him with it. He’ll end up doing really well in his career. He’ll be back. When that is, who knows? In the immediate future, Shaun has a great opportunity.”
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Martz talked a lot about the moving parts around the quarterback. Jason Hill (as written about in the previous post) will step into the role of the No. 3 wideout for injured Arnaz Battle.
It also appears as if training-camp sensation Dominique Zeigler might get promoted to the 53-man roster. Zeigler, an undrafted player from Baylor, is currently in his second season on the 49ers’ practice squad.
“He’s still on the practice squad,” Martz said. “We’re anticipating with Arnaz down the possibility of brining him up. But that decision hasn’t been made, yet.”
Zeigler led the 49ers with 15 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown in the exhibition season, He said he’s heard the rumblings that he might get promoted, but he said he will not call his family until he’s on the plane to
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A new banner hangs just outside the 49ers’ locker room. This is the spot that was home to a sign that read “Win the West” with lines through helmets of the other three teams in the NFC West. Mike Nolan got rid of the banner this year, as he adopted a new one-week-at-a-time philosophy.
The new banner is a lot more wordy. This is how it reads:
49ers formula for success
1. Total ball security
2. Execute
3. Dominate in the trenches
4. Create great field position
5. Finish
Sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?
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Here’s Part 2 of the series from Dynasty to Dysfunction at RealClearSports.com.
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Nate Clements, along with volunteers from the community, will help build an entire playground for
