2022 Offseason thread

[CrimsonCrew]

Tough to see Cleveland as a trade destination for Jimmy at this point. Their first six games include Carolina, the Jets, and Atlanta, so they should be in strong contention to at least go .500 even with Brissett at QB. Other games against Pittsburgh and NE, which aren't gimmes, but are very winnable.

[CrimsonCrew]

I've been hearing some discussions of what to do with Jimmy, with some media personalities - including Steve Young - recommending that the Niners cut him right away. I think that would be foolish. We need to cut him, especially in light of the Deebo extension, but why would we do it now? To throw him a bone? It may be somewhat callous, but why would we trade him until we're going to have to pay him? Another QB could get hurt. Or Trey could get hurt. How dumb would it be if we cut him, Seattle signed him, and then Trey tore his Achilles on a non-contact play?

[CrimsonCrew]

Re: the OL, it's early yet to freak out, with young players starting. But if center is an issue, it's going to be frustrating. They should have taken Creed Humphrey over Banks last year, and he's already a pro bowl center. Probably could have been the same at guard.

I've discussed how they didn't really have superior options in the draft. There's an argument that West is as good a prospect as anyone they would have drafted from the third round on. But if Brendel can't hold up, we needed to address the position in FA.

I don't know about freaking out or panicking, but the O-line was always going to be a massive concern for this team.

McGlinchey coming back helps to a certain extent, but honestly he's not all that good and has always been a liability in pass protection.

Trent Williams is incredible, but he's another year older and showed signs of slowing down late last season. Granted a lot of that was a product of getting dinged up, but constantly being knicked up becomes more of a concern as you get deeper into your 30's as Trent is.

Losing Laken Tomlinson was a big blow, and the replacement options are late round rookies and a sophomore who racked up game day inactives as a rookie despite several injuries along the line.

At center they seem to be relying on a guy that hasn't played a snap in like 3 seasons and never has been a more than a depth guy in his entire career.

Its not a hopeless situation, but it damn sure isn't an inspiring one either. Its pretty safe to say that opposing teams are going to gameplan around attacking that weak right side, and right up the middle until Brendel or someone else proves they can hold their own.

Sure. I don't mean to downplay the concerns along the OL. It's easily the biggest question on this team, and could be the thing - other than Trey struggling - that holds them back this season. They're taking a pretty huge risk in letting Tomlinson walk and Mack retire without more aggressively addressing the interior OL in FA or the draft. They've added a lot of pieces over the past couple years, but most of those are later-round draft picks who can't be expected to come in early and contribute.

The approach to the center position has been odd to say the least. They clearly knew that Mack was strongly leaning toward retirement, yet they did nothing at all to address that position or guard in FA. On the contrary, they let the second-best OL on the team walk. If Brendel pans out, then it makes sense. But it's concerning that he's struggled to date. That said, so much of OL team play is experience playing together, and at this point we don't have that at all. Hopefully the return of Trent and McGlinchey - even though I agree McGlinchey has left plenty to be desired to date - will stabilize things to an extent. And padded one-on-ones should offer some clues as to whether it's an individual performance thing or a chemistry thing.

If Brendel and Banks don't pan out, then we've got a huge problem. And the fact that Kilgore has been relegated to "cause for concern #3" on this OL is not a great sign, even though it appears Burford may have the edge on him for now.

[arich35]

Still can't believe we didn't upgrade the OL. The offense will be interesting this year, I think it will struggle for the first few games at the very least.

Alex Mack’s retirement is really hurting the unit. The right side of the Oline is struggling mightily right now. Jaylon Moore and Spencer Burford are too young and inexperienced.

On the bright side, our secondary will dominate opponents this year. That’s if the unit remains healthy. That’s a big if.

I think they were really planning on Mack playing at least 2 years of his contract and him retiring hurt threw off their plans because they probably wanted to develop a guy this season to take over the spot next season like they did with Banks who at least seems like he's holding up fine.

The fact they are already giving Brunskil 1st team reps at Center isn't boding too well for Brendal or the position in general. Hopefully at least Moore or Burford can man the RG spot and I'm holding out hope once the pads come on one of them will start to come out on top and at least be serviceable.

Before the draft it really sounded like they expected Mack to end up retiring

[Jikkle]

Alex Mack’s retirement is really hurting the unit. The right side of the Oline is struggling mightily right now. Jaylon Moore and Spencer Burford are too young and inexperienced.

On the bright side, our secondary will dominate opponents this year. That’s if the unit remains healthy. That’s a big if.

I think they were really planning on Mack playing at least 2 years of his contract and him retiring hurt threw off their plans because they probably wanted to develop a guy this season to take over the spot next season like they did with Banks who at least seems like he's holding up fine.

The fact they are already giving Brunskil 1st team reps at Center isn't boding too well for Brendal or the position in general. Hopefully at least Moore or Burford can man the RG spot and I'm holding out hope once the pads come on one of them will start to come out on top and at least be serviceable.

Before the draft it really sounded like they expected Mack to end up retiring

Before the draft yes but when they originally signed him I think they envisioned him playing for at least two seasons before he considered retirement.

[wco81]

Supposedly rushing incentives for Debo.

[Jikkle]

Haven't really seen any reports that accuracy has been a massive issue for him.

Doesn't mean he's been pinpoint accurate but it doesn't seem he hasn't been unusually inaccurate either and most I've read is just the typical stuff you would expect from a young guy entering his 1st year as a starter.

Given the amount of mechanical work he needed I thought it was unlikely he was going to be able to clean it all up in one offseason and it'll like take another offseason or two before he hits the ceiling he can go mechanically.

My guess is that Lance will be way better at hitting outside the numbers and explosive plays but probably not quite as good hitting the middle as Jimmy was.

I rezd reoorts he has made great tgrows but when he has been off at times he has been really off with some poor passes

Last I heard Trey is 26/50 so far in camp.

Which obviously isn't good, but some have been drops. And as mentioned earlier there are some other factors in play like primarily playing behind mostly backup O-lineman so far and not having Deebo out there yet.

Regardless accuracy has always been one of, if not the main, concern with Trey. So its not surprising he's been struggling so far after being installed as QB1. Especially since he's still so inexperienced and has not faced very much stiff competition since high school.

Of course we'd all prefer the reports of Trey (and everybody else) be glowing, especially since that is all we have so far. But he has plenty of time to settle in and get more comfortable and start to play better, before things actually start to matter. He just needs to keep working on/improving his ball placement.

Looking around at the training camp reports for the other 2nd year QBs you'll find that Trey's practice reports aren't hugely different than his contemporaries. I mean even Mac Jones had a practice the other day where he was 6-12 and had a practice where he finished 1-7 on his last 7 throws and he's easily considered the most accurate of the bunch.

So the point isn't that Lance doesn't have issues he needs to work on because he does it's just his issues aren't anything exceptional or unusual at this time of training camp.

[Jikkle]

Supposedly rushing incentives for Debo.

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So if anyone is worried they can't use him like they did last season that doesn't seem to be the case.

However I don't expect him to run the ball as much as he did last season as I thought the amount of carries he has more to due with desperation than a planned usage of him.

[CrimsonCrew]

Frustrating aspect of the Deebo signing dominating headlines today is that it seems like most of the beat writers were watching the skill players instead of the linemen in one-on-ones. I really wanted to get a good review of how the OL was holding up in those situations.

I would have hoped that publications with two beat writers (Athletic, NBC Bay Area) would have put one person on skill players and one on the big uglies.

[Jikkle]

Frustrating aspect of the Deebo signing dominating headlines today is that it seems like most of the beat writers were watching the skill players instead of the linemen in one-on-ones. I really wanted to get a good review of how the OL was holding up in those situations.

I would have hoped that publications with two beat writers (Athletic, NBC Bay Area) would have put one person on skill players and one on the big uglies.

Only tidbits I came across where these:

Read on Twitter

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[Jikkle]

Read on Twitter

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More offensive line tweets I came across.

[Jikkle]

Read on Twitter

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Seems Drake is having a good camp so far and if he could just be a pass rush specialist this season that would be huge.

It's really looking like the defense is going to be even better than last season which bodes well for our chances this upcoming season.

[CrimsonCrew]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Seems Drake is having a good camp so far and if he could just be a pass rush specialist this season that would be huge.

It's really looking like the defense is going to be even better than last season which bodes well for our chances this upcoming season.

Yeah, at this point, the nickel corner spot is the primary area of concern on the defense. Dennard is apparently getting a lot of first-team reps, and I'm not crazy about that. Otherwise, they look really good at almost every spot. Secondary concerns would be the run D up the middle without DJ Jones and coverage on the back end with Hufanga. Hufanga has been looking good, apparently, but just doesn't have the coverage range and acumen to be truly strong in that area. That said, Moore has been receiving strong reviews in camp and has much more range, so it wouldn't be a shock to see them rotate those guys situationally a little bit.

[CrimsonCrew]

Cohn reports that Burford, Poe, and Skule all looked good in one-on-ones. Burford may be locking down that job, which would be great. Not we need Banks to really step up, too.

[Jikkle]

I don't believe we'll really have a feel for what state the offense is in until they do the joint practices with the Vikings.

The dilemma is that the defense is loaded with talent and experienced that it would be an issue if a young inexperienced 1st time starting QB and an offensive line with a brand-new interior was dominating them. Basically the offense should be more on the losing end of the battles with the defense than the winning end.

So far the reports the training camp reports I've seen are starting to hit that sweet spot you want where you have a lot of positives on both sides of the ball with the defense having the edge in that regard.

[CrimsonCrew]

League is appealing the Watson suspension. Good news for us. At least some indication that a full year is on the table. Outside of the Browns, it's tough to see us trading Jimmy unless he accepts a pay cut. I can't see the team agreeing to eat too much of his salary, unless there's a first round pick on the table. We should have three third-rounders next year, and we need that cash to extend Bosa. I'd love to compile more picks, but not willing to effectively pay millions in salary cap space for it.

[Pattersonca65]

I've been hearing some discussions of what to do with Jimmy, with some media personalities - including Steve Young - recommending that the Niners cut him right away. I think that would be foolish. We need to cut him, especially in light of the Deebo extension, but why would we do it now? To throw him a bone? It may be somewhat callous, but why would we trade him until we're going to have to pay him? Another QB could get hurt. Or Trey could get hurt. How dumb would it be if we cut him, Seattle signed him, and then Trey tore his Achilles on a non-contact play?

LOL, before the Raiders signed him, Jerry Rice was pushing the 49ers to sign Antonio Brown. Great players don't always have good football sense when it comes to personnel decisions

[CrimsonCrew]

Jordan Matthews tore is ACL. That might be it for his NFL journey. Hate to say it, but if we had to lose a guy at this point, I'm relieved it was him and not someone else.

[CrimsonCrew]

I've been hearing some discussions of what to do with Jimmy, with some media personalities - including Steve Young - recommending that the Niners cut him right away. I think that would be foolish. We need to cut him, especially in light of the Deebo extension, but why would we do it now? To throw him a bone? It may be somewhat callous, but why would we trade him until we're going to have to pay him? Another QB could get hurt. Or Trey could get hurt. How dumb would it be if we cut him, Seattle signed him, and then Trey tore his Achilles on a non-contact play?

LOL, before the Raiders signed him, Jerry Rice was pushing the 49ers to sign Antonio Brown. Great players don't always have good football sense when it comes to personnel decisions

Sure. Though Young is thoughtful and generally someone whose opinion I value on stuff like this. Love Jerry, but I don't listen to him for his thoughts on players, etc.

I was thinking about it, and Jimmy also has a pretty strong incentive not to ask for his release. If we just cut him now, he'd be lucky to get $10 million to play this season. If we can work out a trade, at least in theory he'll get much more than that. Granted the opportunity to challenge for a starting spot somewhere might be worth $15+ million to a guy who has made as much as Jimmy has to date.

[Dodub]

I’ve been following the training camp stuff pretty compulsively on Twitter and the level of coverage on there has been phenomenal. This Rohan kid is outstanding.

As for camp, it’s about what I expected. The Defense typically dominates especially early, but it appears that the offense is starting to figure things out a bit. I expected Trey to have some ups and downs, which is good because he’s got a lot of learning to do before the season starts.

I’m not super worried about our IOL situation quite yet. I’m comfortable letting the young guards figure things out in camp as well as the preseason. What I’m really hoping is that we pick a starting center, I’m rooting for Brunskill, but we will see. The sooner that happens the better so that those 3 on the IOL can really hammer down their chemistry. It’s going to take a few weeks for them to gel. I’m hoping that the IOL plays at least a half in the first preseason game so that they can really figure things out in real game action.