2024 Off-Season

[49er4life1979]

Reading an article by clown Grant Cohn suggesting we trade for CB L'Jarius Sneed whom the Chiefs just Franchised and are offering in a trade which would likely be two first round picks. Nothing against Sneed, he's a very fine player, but hardly any player is worth two first rounders. With that being said, the one player I would go after is Danielle Hunter to shore up that DE spot opposite Bosa. WIth the draft I focus on OT, G, and CB.

[CrimsonCrew]

Reading an article by clown Grant Cohn suggesting we trade for CB L'Jarius Sneed whom the Chiefs just Franchised and are offering in a trade which would likely be two first round picks. Nothing against Sneed, he's a very fine player, but hardly any player is worth two first rounders. With that being said, the one player I would go after is Danielle Hunter to shore up that DE spot opposite Bosa. WIth the draft I focus on OT, G, and CB.

Yeah, saw that article. That would be a colossal mistake IMO. Sneed is really good, but CB play is fairly volatile from year-to-year. And we have two good starting corners. Certainly we need depth, including a starting-caliber third guy, but we shouldn't need an elite player for that. Not to mention we have absolutely no cap space for a signing like that. Denzel Ward is getting $20 million a year, and he signed that contract two years ago. Sneed could easily command more than that. I'd much rather keep Aiyuk than give up more high picks.

[CrimsonCrew]

Reading an article by clown Grant Cohn suggesting we trade for CB L'Jarius Sneed whom the Chiefs just Franchised and are offering in a trade which would likely be two first round picks. Nothing against Sneed, he's a very fine player, but hardly any player is worth two first rounders. With that being said, the one player I would go after is Danielle Hunter to shore up that DE spot opposite Bosa. WIth the draft I focus on OT, G, and CB.

Yeah, saw that article. That would be a colossal mistake IMO. Sneed is really good, but CB play is fairly volatile from year-to-year. And we have two good starting corners. Certainly we need depth, including a starting-caliber third guy, but we shouldn't need an elite player for that. Not to mention we have absolutely no cap space for a signing like that. Denzel Ward is getting $20 million a year, and he signed that contract two years ago. Sneed could easily command more than that. I'd much rather keep Aiyuk than give up more high picks.

Additionally, Ward is entering the final year of his deal. Sign Sneed and we almost certainly lose him. And Sneed isn't even a markedly younger player. He turned 27 in January, and Ward turns 28 in May (which obviously means they are both 27 right now). I would rather stick with the guy who is already a great fit on our squad than replace him with an unknown.

[49er4life1979]

Reading an article by clown Grant Cohn suggesting we trade for CB L'Jarius Sneed whom the Chiefs just Franchised and are offering in a trade which would likely be two first round picks. Nothing against Sneed, he's a very fine player, but hardly any player is worth two first rounders. With that being said, the one player I would go after is Danielle Hunter to shore up that DE spot opposite Bosa. WIth the draft I focus on OT, G, and CB.

Yeah, saw that article. That would be a colossal mistake IMO. Sneed is really good, but CB play is fairly volatile from year-to-year. And we have two good starting corners. Certainly we need depth, including a starting-caliber third guy, but we shouldn't need an elite player for that. Not to mention we have absolutely no cap space for a signing like that. Denzel Ward is getting $20 million a year, and he signed that contract two years ago. Sneed could easily command more than that. I'd much rather keep Aiyuk than give up more high picks.

Additionally, Ward is entering the final year of his deal. Sign Sneed and we almost certainly lose him. And Sneed isn't even a markedly younger player. He turned 27 in January, and Ward turns 28 in May (which obviously means they are both 27 right now). I would rather stick with the guy who is already a great fit on our squad than replace him with an unknown.

For sure. Overall I really like our secondary. Lenoir is entertaining final year of his rookie deal and is eligible for an extension. Hopefully they do that and add a couple years. I am excited to see our safety tandem next year with Brown and Huf. And of course Mooney is there too. Listening to Lynch, he's excited about Luter going forward. I had higher expectations for Womack but I guess he will always be a special teamer. And nobody is expecting much out of Thomas obviously. Definitely agree with Lynch that corner is a position you pretty much add too every year.

[CrimsonCrew]

Cowboys exercised their option for Lance and will keep him another year at around $5 million. When I first read that, I thought it was saying they exercised his fifth-year option, which would have been ludicrous. But one more year at $5 million isn't awful to see if a once-promising young QB can put it together.

[49er4life1979]

Niners promote Nick Sorenson to DC and bring in Brandon Staley to the staff in a not yet specified role.

[thesack12]

Not sure how I feel about the Nick Sorenson promotion. On one hand the 49ers have a good track record of recognizing talent within their own building and have reaped success with in house promoting. On the other hand, I feel like a lot of those other guys were a more prominent, visual, and stood out despite holding lower level positions. To be fair most of the more well known guys that hold lower coaching positions were former fairly prominent players, so they have some built in recognition and prominence. Sorenson had a pretty long career but was almost exclusively a special teams guy. Honestly, until reading up on him a bit, I never knew he had a career as an NFL player.

Sorenson has been on the 9ers staff for the last 2 seasons. Seems like his name rarely got mentioned, and I actually had to look up what his job title was. Maybe its just me not being aware, but I feel like I'm pretty plugged into the 49ers scene and follow it a lot more closely than what would be considered "casual." We all hear/know about assistant coaches like Griese, Kocurek, Foerster, Holland, Fleury, the Kubiaks, Bullocks etc but Sorenson seemed to be relatively anonymous for some reason.

All that being said, Sorenson does come in with an interesting resume. He was Michael Vick's predecessor as VA Tech's QB. So he does have a knowledge base of the offensive side of the football, even being able to look at things from a QB's perspective. Which could valuable. After Vick came in, Nick converted over to becoming a full time DB. He's a long time Pete Carroll assistant, and coached Seattle's DB's during the "Legion of Boom" era. Also, his 10 years as a core special teams player helped him get a Special teams coordinator job for the Jaguars. So his experience is quite diversified, with first hand experience and knowledge in all 3 phases of the game.

As for Sorenson's success specifically while with the 49ers the last 2 season. He spent his time coaching the secondary/passing game coordinator. The DB's as a collective group really have seemed to play quite well. Ward turned himself into an all pro, Lenoir has become a pretty solid #2, Gipson came in and had arguably the best 2 year stretch of his long career, Hufanga had a HUGE 1st half of 2022, Brown stepped in as a rookie and did an admirable job replacing Huf. So it would certainly appear that Sorenson is having positive effect. However we don't really know how much of that success is attributed to Sorenson, DeMeco was a GREAT DC in 2022 and Wilks is a well known DB specialist. So we'll see.

I thought I read somewhere that the 49ers were wanting a DC who had some LB centric qualities and visions for their scheme. While that could be something that Sorensons' overall vision incorporates, Sorenson's primary bread and butter would appear to be with the DB's. Although it is worth noting, that as the defensive passing game coordinator he was working with the LB's with dropping back into coverage. Then again, maybe I didn't actually read anything on "LB centric" LB desires.

In conclusion its an interesting hire. One that is rather risky considering Sorenson has zero experience calling plays and the 49ers are squarely in Win a Super Bowl or bust status currently. However, the organization generally has a great eye for coaching talent and has had success promoting from within.

As for the Brandon Staley hire, I wanted no part of him as DC. But in the role/title they gave him, he could help. At the very least, he might challenge Kyle to break some of his ultra conservative tendencies.

[Harry Palmer]

Sorensen was apparently heavily involved in the SB defensive plan and had been leading meetings for a while, so possibly grooming? Otoh the search didn’t seem like going through the motions, definitely get the sense they really wanted Vrabel. I agree that we haven’t heard anything that lines him up with Saleh/Ryans in terms of personality, maybe more of a technician like Wilks, but better scheme fit?

The Staley thing is weird and I have no idea how this works out. If he’s a hedge on Sorenson’s lack of play calling I’m not sure that’s a good look for the players. If he’s the guy to get Kyle to be more analytical…I guess I approve. Clearly he’s a bright football mind, but his personality…I guess the plan is to assume that Kyle has a pretty good track record on this stuff…his ‘bad’ hire got us within a play of a ring…but it does feel weird. Maybe if/when they clarify roles, but I’d feel better about how they feel about Sorensen if they didn’t also hire another guy who interviewed for the job. I think. At some point I’m going to conclude Kyle cultivates drama on purpose, ‘creative tension’ maybe?

[Jikkle]

Staley's hire reminds me of the Chris Foerster hire a few years back.

People forget that when Foerster was brought on board the staff he was just brought on as some vague game-planning assistant and later became the offensive line coach and run game coordinator when those positions needed to be filled.

I'd imagine the Staley hire is similar in that he'll add to the brain trust for now but if Sorensen knocks it out of the park he becomes a head coach somewhere and you have Staley already familiar with the players and what Kyle wants to do on defense and ready to step in. Similarly if Sorensen fails the same applies. And if Staley gets another DC job somewhere else then kudos for him.

[Pattersonca65]

Staley's hire reminds me of the Chris Foerster hire a few years back.

People forget that when Foerster was brought on board the staff he was just brought on as some vague game-planning assistant and later became the offensive line coach and run game coordinator when those positions needed to be filled.

I'd imagine the Staley hire is similar in that he'll add to the brain trust for now but if Sorensen knocks it out of the park he becomes a head coach somewhere and you have Staley already familiar with the players and what Kyle wants to do on defense and ready to step in. Similarly if Sorensen fails the same applies. And if Staley gets another DC job somewhere else then kudos for him.

Foerster was the offensive line coach during the Tomsula period.

[Pattersonca65]

I really don't have much of an opinion either way on the promotional candidates. Hard to tell which person versus another is going to be successful. Just gotta hope whoever the 49ers promote whether internally or externally is ready to jump into the roll and it does not turn into another Jim Hostler. I generally don't hold a successful DC for failing as a HC. Some just don't make the transition into that role which requires alot different skills. Some of the positional coach candidates have been touted for the DBs they have developed. Nothing wrong with that. It is a good thing but to me that means these candidates are good positional coaches. Not sure how much that really translates into becoming a good coordinator which requires developing a defensive strategy and game planning.

[CrimsonCrew]

PFF on Niners' top FAs:

https://www.49ers.com/news/seven-49ers-pff-top-200-players-free-agency-chase-young-oren-burks-javon-kinlaw

Ferrell ranks lowest at 167. That's a bit of a shock. He certainly wasn't elite, but he showed he's a very solid base DE. I'd be absolutely thrilled to get him back on a cheap contract to complement our young measurables guys (still would want to draft someone else or add another FA at the position). Feliciano is 154, which is an indication he might be pretty cheap, too. And I'd strongly consider bringing Kinlaw back for the right (low) price. Not sure he'd want to return - in fact, it's pretty likely he doesn't - but he really stepped up his play down the stretch and was arguably our best DL against the run through the playoffs. If he would sign a fairly cheap prove-it deal, I'm all for that.

Reading between the lines, Gregory is outside the top 200. Depending on the outcome with Ferrell and assuming we lose Young, I might consider him on a cheap deal. He's nothing special, but he was adequate in eating up some snaps without a huge drop-off.

[CrimsonCrew]

Whole ranking here:

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2024-free-agent-rankings-free-agency

Quite a lot of guards available. 12 of the 200, and 11 of the first 123. That's a place I'd seriously look at, though maybe retaining Feliciano is the right move. Guards are usually relatively inexpensive, but RG was a problem for us until Feliciano shored it up, and again when he went down. I'd still like to think Burford can figure it out, but he was awful this year, and absolutely blew one of the biggest plays in the SB.

[wco81]

49ers guards were getting pushed back in the playoffs games.

Can they really continue with that? It might be okay in the regular season but the top defenses will attack every weakness.

[GS Warriors 1]

Growing rumors that Darnold may be headed elsewhere for a battle. It'll be interesting to see who they bring in and I'm still not counting out a rookie being the #3.

[CrimsonCrew]

Players at or near the top of their position cost in the league. Niners who are the highest-paid at their position: McCaffrey and Bosa. Among the top 3: Warner and Kittle. Conspicuous absences: Williams and Samuel, who are both well within the top-10. And this doesn't include FB, where Juice is still #1.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34096853/highest-paid-nfl-players-tracking-most-money-guaranteed-per-year-every-position

[CrimsonCrew]

Interesting mock for us:

https://www.profootballnetwork.com/joe-broback-2024-nfl-mock-draft-march-8/

All the OTs off the board, so we trade back with Minnesota for picks 42, 179, and their second-rounder next year. To me, that's an ideal scenario if the top tackles are all gone. I'm not going to go through the entire draft to see who is still available, but I think there's a pretty good chance there won't be a clear BPA when we pick, and our most obvious and glaring need is OT. There isn't a clear DE to take in this draft, either, which is probably our second biggest need (arguably our biggest).

If we can move back eleven spots while picking up what could be a pick in the 30s next year (based on a team starting a rookie QB in a tough division), that would be awesome. Even if we strike out at trial this season, that would give us ammunition to be aggressive at the position next year. And there are few center and OT prospects that I feel better about taking a shot on in the second than at 31. Same with WR, though I don't see that as a likely pick at that spot.

[49er4life1979]

Just read that the 49ers signed Colton Mckivitz to a 1 year extension worth 7 million. For the love of God why!! They could have insisted extended Lenoir by 2 or 3 years. Wtf!

[Pattersonca65]

Just read that the 49ers signed Colton Mckivitz to a 1 year extension worth 7 million. For the love of God why!! They could have insisted extended Lenoir by 2 or 3 years. Wtf!

Because the 49ers don't really have a better option at tackle at the moment. They are paying the price for not finding something better during the draft.

[Pattersonca65]

49ers awarded five compensatory picks


https://www.ninersnation.com/2024/3/8/24094759/mike-mcglinchey-javon-hargrave-samson-ebukam-jimmy-garoppolo-demeco-ryans-ran-carthon-nfl-draft