49ers-Seahawks: Niners Nation speaks

There’s naysayers, like Football Outsiders, but mostly, it’s just easy to buy into the hype. It’s easy to feel good about the team we’ve got. Look at the roster turnover with the Seahawks. I do understand that there are still many key players sticking around but there’s, what, 27 new players on the roster? It’s hard to tell if they’ll be good. The Cardinals have lost an awful lot of leverage with fate, and the Rams are honestly scaring me more than either the Cards or the Hawks, based solely on the future.

I wouldn’t say thinking the division is our’s is really “arrogant,” so much. Confidence and arrogance are two entirely different things. If a phrase like “We’ll stomp the Seahawks, the division is ours,” comes up – well – that’s just divisional rival talk right there.

Lastly, I don’t think 49ers fans were the first to think the division was their’s. Even the most intense of naysayers have seen significant turnover after all of the media hype in our general direction.

They are the most talented….

The line was cohesive throughout the preseason. The most shuffling occurred at center, where Eric Heitmann was injured. Still, it was pretty definitively David Baas as the starter. The rookies won the starting jobs early on, and played the majority of all games. They’d go in for a half, sit a few plays out, then mix back in and out. The run blocking has looked solid and the pass blocking has looked vastly improved over last year.

Troy Smith.

Special teams punting is great. Kicking is a slight worry with Nedney’s age. Returning looks to be a strength on both units. Coverage was good in preseason, but some of the core guys (ie Robinson) were cut, so the verdict is out on that front.

Ninjames answered the first one pretty well. The rookies won their jobs the first week of training camp in part b/c they’re first round picks, and in part because the opposition talent wasn’t all that great. Throw in David Baas moving over to center and it opened up both positions pretty well. Baas has been at center since the first week and seems to be grasping things fairly well at this point. It’s going to have its hiccups and I look forward to seeing how they handle the noise on Sunday at Qwest given the near legendary status of the crowd noise.

Troy Smith is better now in terms of being an emergency QB. I think Nate Davis is more talented than Smith and if Davis could get his work ethic and the mental stuff together, I don’t think there’s any doubt he’d be better than Troy Smith long term. For purposes of this season, I think Smith is a better emergency QB.

Lot of changes on special teams (outside of punter and kicker). The team traded for Ted Ginn to be the kick returner and 3rd WR. Ginn hasn’t had many opportunities to return but he’s certainly got the speed. The punt returner week 1 will likely be Phillip Adams, with Kyle Williams competing for the job once he’s 100%. They’ve lost guys like Scott McKillop (injury) and Michael Robinson (now a Seahawk) and both were key on special teams units so it will be interesting to see how the unit responds with all the changes.

He’s looked very good in training camp though. The biggest positive is that he is working harder than just about everyone, putting in extra time, bugging coaches with questions ect. Very coachable. I imagine they’ll work him in here and there but won’t start him for a while. Davis and Iuipati have looked good, particularly Iuipati. They struggled a little in the first preseason game but improved dramatically as they got more playing time and Iuipati is a beast with run blocking. Davis has trouble with speed rushers but seems to be getting better. The big question of course is how many false start penalties they’ll have at quest due to the noise.

There’s too much talent in front of him right now.

Maybe next season when Michael Lewis and Dashon Goldson are both free agents.

to establish the tone for the season. I think it’s the same as last year in that if we play as good as we have shown we can play, if we really execute and don’t make stupid mistakes…it could get ugly. That is, of course, the thing that every team tries to do…play their game and not shoot themselves in the foot.

We have a 4 game stretch that includes 3 road games and the home game is Monday night against New Orleans. So any win early on that we can get is definitely a huge plus.

that’s a given. He’s learning. He has been beat by speed rushes on the outside though he’s improving. I suspect a back will chip to help him on passing downs. Alex has been doing very well on sensing pressure and stepping up, still making a good play. So here’s hoping that continues.

I don’t think Red has the qualities to really take advantage of Davis’ scouted weaknesses, but this is his first real pro action, and the only other DE with Red’s size is Haloti Ngata. So maybe it will be a rude awakening, but otherwise I expect the true story of how each guy will perform in 2010 will be answered in the subsequent 15 games.

Then god help Davis.

Average RB overall, yes.

and next man up at QB. This team isn’t built around a QB, rather he’s just a part of the thing.

That’s a tough call at this point. Smith is signed through this season so it’s possible he could be gone even if he’s successful (although I think he’d re-sign). But if he struggles, I could see the team going after a veteran initially to compete with David Carr (signed to a 2-year deal) and either hope for progress from Nate Davis or draft another QB next April.

But I partially agree with Tre9er in that this is a team that doesn’t need a super start QB. Obviously someone has to be able to throw the ball, but with the talent at receiver, the strong running game and an improving defense, the QB doesn’t have to carry the day.

we have 10 tradeable draft picks next year.

When did he regress the first time?

we’re better

O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D

I remember last year, when all I heard from the Hawks fans was taunting about our 1st round bust named Vernon Davis… I think you all know how that turned out. I’m pretty sure Alex Smith will be the answer to those question marks you have there…

I would actually say the 49ers defense could be as good or better than the Jets defense. Obviously I’m not 100% convinced of this, but I feel the 49ers defense could be excellent this year.

I also don’t think Alex Smith needs to be a great QB for this team to be solid and a potential playoff run does not depend entirely on Smith. Offensively, it depends on whether the offensive line can mesh, whether Frank Gore can avoid getting too nicked up (and if he does whether Westbrook/Dixon can provide some punch), whether Crabtree takes the next step in his development, and whether Vernon Davis can provide consistency to go with his clear talent. That’s several “whethers” but I think several of those will be answered positively.

And I think the 49ers defense is better than the Jets.
49ers have more talent.

Willis is from Tennessee. He likes a good Memphis Rub…

Seems very recovered from that injury last year. Of course, things can change in a split second.

I’d say the right side is weakest in pass protection but the whole line is stout in the run game. Still I think the line is much better than it was at just about any point in 2009.

we have Smith-Power!

Justin Smith, Alex Smith, Reggie Smith, Troy Smith

Smith showed a lot of comfort in the shotgun thanks to his days in the spread offense at Utah. Gore seems to think he runs better with a fullback in front of him out of the I-formation. I don’t know if it’s overblown but I’d suspect the team will mix in some shotgun while sticking mostly with more “traditional” offensive formations (I, single-back, etc).

The Jimmy Raye offense has had its ups and downs. It will be interesting to see how the team operates in year 2 of the offense. This is the first OC to stick around more than one year so 49ers fans are really hopefully it leads to good results.

Long term, many think QB coach Mike Johnson is the eventual successor since Jimmy Raye isn’t exactly a young pup anymore. If Smith plays well in the system and the 49ers have success on the field, it would seem like the team would want to stick with what works. And if Mike Johnson is in fact the heir apparent to Jimmy Raye, one would hopefully see less of a transition problem for Smith and the rest of the offense.

At this point, while some folks are down on Raye’s offense, I’m going to withhold judgment at this point.

but I’d add that Smith played out of the ’Gun more last year because it was familiar to him, like riding a bike. We needed him to be comfortable and bring us back from deficits and keep us in games at times and the ’Gun was what he knew. Gore is a good runner, it was the O-Line that held him back, not completely whether it was the ’gun or pro-formations.

Alex has had another year to practice snaps from under center and we’ve seen mostly pro-sets in preseason other than 3rd down.

He’s got good plays, but his selections seem to come at the wrong time. He seems to be most uncreative when we really need a 1st down (4-minute drill) and early on in games. I hope that Johnson can start getting more input into play calling, maybe Raye can stay on as a consultant but MJ can start calling the plays.

i can’t stand such boring play calling. it makes the games so much less exciting.

if it worked well then i would live with it, but our offense wasn’t very good last year.