2024 Off-Season

[Jikkle]

Update on Latu in that he's apparently there, but not healthy. That's worrisome. I didn't think he really had an injury last year, but they were effectively making something up to keep him around. So what's up now? Dude needs to get onto the field.

Drake Jackson also still recovering from meniscus surgery is a concern. Dude needs to get stronger, but presumably he can't do much lower-body stuff with the injury. He'd better have dramatically improved his bench, at least....

While it's still early to throw the bust label out I just don't know how much Latu would contribute even if he was healthy.

Drake being hurt is a concern though because he was drafted as someone raw that was going to need some development physically and technically but being hurt is just killing that development.

Seems like we just have bad injury luck when it comes to the guys who need all the reps they can get to develop. Injuries pretty much torpedoed Kinlaw's chance to become something though he was an injury concern coming out so that one was sorta self-inflicted.

[Samurai]

Update on Latu in that he's apparently there, but not healthy. That's worrisome. I didn't think he really had an injury last year, but they were effectively making something up to keep him around. So what's up now? Dude needs to get onto the field.

Drake Jackson also still recovering from meniscus surgery is a concern. Dude needs to get stronger, but presumably he can't do much lower-body stuff with the injury. He'd better have dramatically improved his bench, at least....

The schedule waits for no one. When the season starts and if Latu and Drake aren't in shape because they cannot/will not get their reps in practice, then dump them in favor of the guys who can and will practice and be available when we need them. I can see being patient with a guy like Superman because he is the Man of Steel. No patience for men of toilet paper.

[CrimsonCrew]

Some news on Robert Beal that I had missed. He's put on 12-15 pounds of good weight over the summer. That would put him around 260. He's almost 6'4" with long arms, so he's got the from to support that. He's got a great shot at being our fourth DE, so hopefully he can really capitalize on it and take some of the sting out of the Drake Jackson pick.

[Harry Palmer]

Didn’t see resigning Jennings coming, especially after the draft. Wonder if/what this means re: Aiyuk, ie, is RP not drafted to replace anyone, but rather add a new wrinkle, or does this mean that JJ resigning is a sign of how negotiations with BA are/aren’t going?

[arich35]

Didn’t see resigning Jennings coming, especially after the draft. Wonder if/what this means re: Aiyuk, ie, is RP not drafted to replace anyone, but rather add a new wrinkle, or does this mean that JJ resigning is a sign of how negotiations with BA are/aren’t going?

I still think their plan is to get rid of Deebo after this year

[CrimsonCrew]

Yeah, pretty shocked by this one. I like Jennings, but he barely contributed to the passing game until the playoffs. In 13 regular season games, he had four with no catches, 7 with one or fewer, and 11 with two or fewer. For those who aren't stellar at math, that's two regular season games in which he caught three or more passes. He did step up in the playoffs, and he's a great blocker, but given the additions we made at WR in the draft, I didn't think he was going to be around past this season.

Tend to agree that the plan is likely still to move on from Deebo after this year, but I guess we'll see.

[CrimsonCrew]

Kind of interesting note from Lombardi about Drake Nugent. Apparently his dad Terry Nugent was the QB at Colorado state when Chris Foerster was the center ('80 and '81, possibly '82) and then a coach (Foerster went straight from playing into coaching as a grad assistant in '82 and then the OL coach in '83). Can't hurt to have your coach in your corner.

[CrimsonCrew]

Man, that Waddle extension is brutal. $28 million/year, but maybe more importantly an incredible $76 million guaranteed. Niners dilly-dallying with Aiyuk is going to cost them a bunch of money. Or force them to let him walk.

[Pattersonca65]

Didn’t see resigning Jennings coming, especially after the draft. Wonder if/what this means re: Aiyuk, ie, is RP not drafted to replace anyone, but rather add a new wrinkle, or does this mean that JJ resigning is a sign of how negotiations with BA are/aren’t going?

I tend to agree with the others that they are hoping he works out and they can move on from Deebo after next season. BA is the No 1 on this team and it just doesn't appear RP is a true no 1 receiver but could be a good No.2 behind BA

[CrimsonCrew]

Huge contract extension to Justin Jefferson. Feels like we could have saved a boatload of money if we'd gotten Aiyuk done early in the offseason....

[CrimsonCrew]

Niners reported to be signing Logan Thomas. Interesting move. We don't really have a second TE, so I can certainly see it. Thomas has been a tantalizing guy. Seems like he's been pretty close a couple times to be an impact TE, but it's never really clicked. But last year was clearly his second-best, with almost 500 yards and 4 TDs. I honestly don't have a great sense of his blocking ability, though as a converted QB, I'm assuming it's not his strength. He turns 33 in a month, so an older guy with minimal upside. Ideally our young guys would beat him out, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Should be Latu's role, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point.

[Samurai]

Niners reported to be signing Logan Thomas. Interesting move. We don't really have a second TE, so I can certainly see it. Thomas has been a tantalizing guy. Seems like he's been pretty close a couple times to be an impact TE, but it's never really clicked. But last year was clearly his second-best, with almost 500 yards and 4 TDs. I honestly don't have a great sense of his blocking ability, though as a converted QB, I'm assuming it's not his strength. He turns 33 in a month, so an older guy with minimal upside. Ideally our young guys would beat him out, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Should be Latu's role, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point.

Thomas is clearly more highly regarded as a receiver than as a blocker. But that's fine since it is clearly unrealistic to expect our back-up TE to be excellent at both receiving and blocking like Kittle is. In fact, Thomas has really been used more as a slot receiver than as a pure TE; last season 80% of his routes came out of the slot or out wide instead of as an in-line TE. At first glance, its a bit of a head scratcher to me why we'd sign that type of guy right after extending Jauan Jennings.

[CrimsonCrew]

Maybe they think he can play in-line more than he has. I don't have a huge problem adding another good receiver. Prior to this move, if Kittle missed time, we would have been absolutely f-ed at the TE position. Now Thomas gives us another legit receiving option at the position. We've got an embarrassment of riches at the skill positions at this point.

I'm very curious to see if Kyle actually opens up the offense a little more. Obviously depth is important, particularly in the event of injury, but you don't need five good WRs if you never put more than three on the field - and rarely do that. But this offseason suggests we want to have more receivers on the field at once. We drafted two WRs relatively high, kept all our guys, and have now added a second legit receiving TE. Seems like we may be moving toward more open formations. I don't hate that, so long as the dropback scheme improves. Shanahan has a tendency to get his QB killed when there aren't extra blockers, motion, and/or play action to slow down the pass rush.

[CrimsonCrew]

I was curious about WR snaps last year, so I crunched some numbers. We ran 1,066 offensive snaps last year (according to Pro Football Reference). Our WRs received 2,424 snaps. Assuming we had at least two WRs on the field for virtually every offensive snap (might have had a handful of short yardage plays with none or one, but likely offset by the handful of four-WR formations), that's only 290 plays (27%) with three WRs. To get value out of the Pearsall pick and the Jennings contract, we'll have to do put more WRs on the field.

[Pattersonca65]

Niners reported to be signing Logan Thomas. Interesting move. We don't really have a second TE, so I can certainly see it. Thomas has been a tantalizing guy. Seems like he's been pretty close a couple times to be an impact TE, but it's never really clicked. But last year was clearly his second-best, with almost 500 yards and 4 TDs. I honestly don't have a great sense of his blocking ability, though as a converted QB, I'm assuming it's not his strength. He turns 33 in a month, so an older guy with minimal upside. Ideally our young guys would beat him out, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Should be Latu's role, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point.

He was a good receiving tight end but I also remember him being hurt quite often

[Samurai]

Maybe they think he can play in-line more than he has. I don't have a huge problem adding another good receiver. Prior to this move, if Kittle missed time, we would have been absolutely f-ed at the TE position. Now Thomas gives us another legit receiving option at the position. We've got an embarrassment of riches at the skill positions at this point.

This is likely the primary reason for trading for Thomas. Kittle has always dealt with injuries and as he ages that can't be expected to suddenly change. But as always, in order to throw passes to Thomas, Kittle, BA, Deebo, Jennings, etc. all depends on whether Purdy will have time to throw. Doesn't matter how many receivers we invite to the party if our OL can't protect our QB.

[CrimsonCrew]

Ran across this article in my searching for some receiving stats. Top-5 receiving groups in the league going into the season:

https://www.nfl.com/news/new-trend-alert-for-nfl-offenses-ranking-top-five-pass-catching-groups

He ranks them as follows:

1. Dolphins
2. Eagles
3. Texans
4. Bears
5. Seahawks

If we're talking WRs only, that's a fair argument though you could certainly quibble with aspects of it. But all pass-catchers? How are the Niners not in there? In addition two arguably two top-10 WRs (admittedly Deebo isn't the pure receiver a lot of these other guys are), they have undoubtedly the best pass-catching RB and arguably the best pass-catching TE (and certainly top-2). To say nothing of a highly drafted third WR. The Dolphins and Seahawks have effectively nothing at receiving RB or TE, and the Texans are pretty weak at receiving RB (Mixon probably an upgrade, but how much at this point?).

No reason to get bent out of shape over offseason rankings, but I was pretty shocked the Niners didn't make that list.

[CrimsonCrew]

Niners reported to be signing Logan Thomas. Interesting move. We don't really have a second TE, so I can certainly see it. Thomas has been a tantalizing guy. Seems like he's been pretty close a couple times to be an impact TE, but it's never really clicked. But last year was clearly his second-best, with almost 500 yards and 4 TDs. I honestly don't have a great sense of his blocking ability, though as a converted QB, I'm assuming it's not his strength. He turns 33 in a month, so an older guy with minimal upside. Ideally our young guys would beat him out, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Should be Latu's role, but that seems pretty unlikely at this point.

He was a good receiving tight end but I also remember him being hurt quite often

That was my impression, too, but it doesn't really hold up - at least in terms of actually missing games. I think the reason we view him that way is because he had a breakout season in 2020 (72 receptions for 670 yards and 6 TDs), but then was hurt after a strong start (on pace for very similar numbers) in 2021. He hurt his hamstring in September and then tore his ACL in December (on a borderline dirty play, apparently).

He made it back for week one in 2022 and played 14 games. He did miss three in October. Then he played 16 last year. So he's apparently been mostly healthy. Again, entirely possible he's played through nagging injuries that have limited his performance.

[CrimsonCrew]

Maybe they think he can play in-line more than he has. I don't have a huge problem adding another good receiver. Prior to this move, if Kittle missed time, we would have been absolutely f-ed at the TE position. Now Thomas gives us another legit receiving option at the position. We've got an embarrassment of riches at the skill positions at this point.

This is likely the primary reason for trading for Thomas. Kittle has always dealt with injuries and as he ages that can't be expected to suddenly change. But as always, in order to throw passes to Thomas, Kittle, BA, Deebo, Jennings, etc. all depends on whether Purdy will have time to throw. Doesn't matter how many receivers we invite to the party if our OL can't protect our QB.

It can mitigate it somewhat. If guys are open quickly and Brock can throw to his first read, it probably doesn't matter what the pass rush is doing (unless our guys just neglect to block the DT....). That said, I agree the OL needs to play better this year, especially in the playoffs. The interior depth should be markedly improved, at least.

[CrimsonCrew]

Niners extended McCaffrey. Two-years, $19 million average. Tough to really weigh in given that we don't have details. I'm not fundamentally opposed to it. McCaffrey is worth way more than his paycheck, and he's a unique player at the position who has given his heart and soul to this team for the past two years. But he's going to be 28 in three days. I'm not sure extending a running back to his age 32 season is necessarily wise. It will all depend on the structure. If we can get out of it relatively easily in two or three years, I'm fine with it. If not, it could bite us in the ass.

Hopefully we ease back on his workload a bit, especially in the regular season. Though As I understand it, he is the reason he plays so much by insisting on getting back in.