By the way, Mariuchi was only fired because we got a new owner in York. York is a penny-pinching jackass who fired Mooch. Mooch was the glue that held the entire team together. Mooch is gone, Mora is gone to Atlanta not too long after, and Terrell Owens becomes a rebel with the arrival of Erickson. Dave, I bet if I argued the team was going in a bad direction when we had Erickson you would defend your stance and Erickson then too, wouldn’t you? I bet you would, and you would say time is what will get through to me. WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING GOING WRONG YOU TRY TO FIX IT! Things could have been so much better than they are. It is not about playoff berths as you suggest I think, but about Superbowls. My original argument said we need big name players (veterans) on the team so that even if they are not enough to clench a superbowl title, their knowledge is passed down to their predecessors. My argument, if you even remember, was that building through and only through Mike Nolan’s draft is wrong.

By the way, since you pretend to know about previous 49er superbowl teams you should know that many big name players were captured in offseasons in the creation of those superbowl teams. (I will give you the easiest one, Deion Sanders.) Then again, arguing with you seems pointless as it goes in one ear and out the other. You are in denial of the team standing. You are one of those people who think it is like 6 years down the line before we get a superbowl shot. I want to make the team a contender now. I am sure you will write it off a success if we get even 6 wins this year and will praise Nolan up and down. It is not about patience, but about improvement. What you can a quick fix is what I call a step in the right direction. What you call progress (what we have no, and not what could have been) is what I call an acceptance of Mike Nolan’s philosophies. I will agree with you on one thing though. The only thing that will prove thruth is time. Maybe this will teach fans to demand the best of their teams.

Peace

You think all these quick fixes, and changing coach after coach and overpaying for players left and right will help the team in the long run. Out of all the teams that have won Superbowls in the last half a dozen years or more have basically built through the draft and built on a solid group of players that were drafted.

The reason why we got rid of Mariucci was because he couldn’t take us any farther as a team. The year after we ran into salary cap problems and that run at a championship was over (albeit we didn’t get very far).

There’s no such thing as a quick fix in the NFL. It’s a team game, you can’t just get 1 player and be a legitimate contender all of a sudden. You need to have key players around them and a team that works together and believes in one philosphy.

You say you have all the patience in the world, but you really don’t have any. You make it seem like this is the last year that the NFL will be around. You’re forgetting that right now in the NFL teams put together a few good years and make a run at a SB. Then they start over and build again. It’s called parity, and its a very different NFL from the one where our Niners won 5 rings.

I could sit here and talk to you all day about what all the recent championship teams have in common, and how we’re actually making good moves, but the only thing that you notice is playoff berths (and even then you’ll have something to complain about), and big name signings. That doesn’t win the NFL.

The only thing that will really get through to you is time.

Good day.

Then you said something way at the top there that made me fall out of my seat. You said Nolan had 2 great drafts. Umm, are you serious? I will say this last draft was great, but the draft from last year…..where we took Alex Smith at #1…..that was good too? You are deluding yourself. Sure, we have Smith now and I hope somehow a miracle happens and he is one fourth as good as Montana or Young were. But you called that a good draft? If we never got Smith, we could have had a run at Daunte Culpepper and had a superbowl shot THIS YEAR. We could have had a shot at Drew Breese or Brian Griese. Hell, if Drent Dilfer were acquired as well as other players with the money we would have saved in not drafting Smith we would have a Superbowl shot now as well! We could have had a shot at so much more talent this last offseason. We have Smith to a 5 year deal commanding more money than anyone else on the team!

Did you really see the video? I watched that video and most of Rice’s game growing up so I know what he is talking about. Even Rice said the team went in a direction he did not like before he left. Know who else said that? Steve Young said it before he retired.

What would I suggest and what is the point? If I were making the shots, Nolan gets fired after this year. His drafting is ok but his coaching (especially with regards to clock management) is horrendous. I say we bring in Mike Martz or even bring back Mariuchi, who should never have been fired, and build a team around whatever QB performs best at the end of this year. If this season is a bust, and we do not pick up HUGE name players after this season is over, then I would have watched this team crumble into oblivion. I have all the patience in the world, but I can not take another losing season. Instead of defending a disaster, Dave, take a step back and do some analyzing of the situation.

I never said we had a big name veteran at every position. You never originally said that either. Sure I’d like to see a big name vet at every position, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to pass their knowledge on.

You’re just assuming that because a player is good he can teach the younger players how to be good. Sometimes you’ll have a player who isn’t as talented, and has had to work harder to make in the league, stay more disciplined, and spend more time practicing, but they learned more from this. They can still pass that knowledge. I’d rather have a hard working veteran as opposed to a really good veteran for that reason.

So far the 2 drafts under Nolan have been pretty good. Most people would say that the Niners even had a great draft this year. I’m guessing you don’t like the draft approach, because that takes patience.

How can you complain about any of our offseason moves, or any of the trades Nolan has made. The only one player that we would have liked to keep that we didnt was JP. His interests were clearly for money, and he got a huge contract from Seattle. We could not have matched that contract with out costing our young team down the line. That contract will eventually hurt the salary cap of the Seahawks, but they are in their championship window right now, and must/should do everything possible in order to make the best of that run.

1.) We didn’t resign Ahmed Plummer : he garnered next to no interest and ended up retiring.
2.) We traded Lloyd for a 3rd and a 4th pick, which most people think was a steal for us.
3.) Andre Carter was a player who never lived up to his expectations, was overpaid by Washington and wasn’t really worth holding onto.
4.) For what we paid for Antonio Bryant, he’s a steal. The guy was probably the most underrated WR on the FA market. We tried to sign David Givens, or atleast have him come by for a visit, but he ended up signing with one of the first teams that he visited in the Titans
5.) We traded Jamie Winborn for a draft pick. He was injured with in 1-2 weeks of being traded
6.) We traded Tim Rattay for a draft pick, he’s now struggling to beat out some rookie QB in Tampa Bay for the backup QB position.
7.) We traded Cody Picket for a draft pick. He didn’t want to take the time go refine his skills in NFL Europe.
8.) We traded Rashaun Woods for Sammy Davis. Woods was cut by the Chargers, failed a physical with the Broncos, and now is getting some interest with the Vikings after Koren Robinson got a bit too drunk again.
9.) Potentially our worst trade under Nolan was John Engleberger for Willie Middlebrooks. Middlebrooks turned out to be useless and Engleberger is still a servicable backup in Denver.
10.) We traded Rumph for Taylor Jacobs. The jury is still out on that trade, but it’s pretty hard to imagine that Rumph will become anything great, and that Jacobs won’t be able to surpass that in someway.
11.) We traded Barlow for a Draft pick to the Jets. Barlow showed us his true colors in the attitude he displayed towards Nolan in the days after the trade. He then went on to fumble his second carry as a Jet.
12.) We traded Ken Dorsey for Dilfer. Dilfer will easily be able to contribute more to this team as a veteran QB in mentoring Smith. Dorsey had some potential to be a good back up QB, but that’s about it.

Can you honestly tell me that you disagree with these moves?

Aside from seeing JP sign with Seattle and possibly the Engleberger for Middlebrooks deal, I don’t know what you are in disagreement about. And it’s hard to see JP stay especially considering he was looking for huge $$. When a player gets to that stage, he’s playing for the $$ and not to win.

I saw the Rice video.

I never said the first string played the entire Chicago game. I said that the entire first string was healthy/intact.

boy, the offense has really shown us why they were ranked dead last in almost every category by sports analysts.

Dave you were also wrong about the Chicago Bears game. The first offense and first defense did not play the whole game. The first offense played the first half only (Alex Smith went out at halftime) and the first defense played into the early first few minutes of the 3rd quarter.

Clearly, Smith hasn’t gotten that downfield vision yet and he’s gonna have to get that if he’s ever going to be successful. I think the rookie receivers still aren’t running all their routes right, either. Smith has to have confidence that his guys will be where they’re supposed to be when he throws to a spot.

A few other things. Eric Johnson hardly played. In the real season he’ll be in on a lot of two-tight end sets, and he’ll offer a reliable short option. Gore is running well, and I expect the running game will only get better when the whole first-string line plays. Robinson is going to play a bigger part in the offense as the season goes on. In short, I’ve got questions about Alex Smith, but the rest of the offense should be much better than last year, and Smith should improve too.

The defense, though, is looking really bad. The tackling is awful and people look out of place. Sammy Davis should rent, not buy. I’m hoping that they’re holding back on schemes until the games count. And Spencer should be back by opening day.

Rouen could very well get the punting job. He looked great last night, and punting could be a very big part of the Niners’ game this year.

We’re still gelling as a team. We have alot of new additions this off season, both on the field and in the playbook (with Turner becoming OC). We also have had some injuries on both sides of the ball.

One of the reasons why we did so well against the Bears is probably because of the fact that we had our entire starting offense and defense playing that game. Since then we’ve had some injuries. Our first string offense and defense are pretty good when we are playing our game, but when we’re playing out of sync and dealing with our lack of depth, then yes we will struggle to get first downs and stop teams on defense.

I think if anything else, we’ll see alot of progress from the niners this year between now and years end. It might not be the prettiest thing. It’s like watching a little kid learn how to walk. He probably will fall on his ass alot at first, but when he finally gets there, after all the time you’ve spent watching him try, it just means that much more.

As MJ said… veteran leadership means alot:
Smith will learn alot from Dilfer.

When the offseason rolled around, one QB I really wanted us to get was Dilfer. I think having him around will pay many dividends in the years to come.

We also have similar situations on the rest of the team.

Vernon Davis and Eric Johnson.
The offensive line and Larry Allen.
The d-line & Bryant Young.
The linebackers & Smith/Ulbrich.
The secondary & Harris / Parrish.

The only 2 places on the team we really dont have atleast some type of veteran leadership is amongst the wide recievers and running backs. It’s too bad we don’t have atleast one veteran WR & one vet. RB.

Sure it’ll be painful watching the kids learn how to walk, but when they finally get there, it’ll be the sweetest thing.