wco81 wrote:This is a good reality check on the season.
After last week, I think the 49ers got too full of themselves.
But they really didn't shore up their weaknesses from last year. They were no better than the 3rd best team and there was really no reason to believe they'd be better than the Chiefs or the Eagles.
We all knew the Achilles Heel was the OL, especially the right side, and the secondary.
Unfortunately, the strengths of top teams like the Chiefs and the Eagles are well-suited to exploit these weaknesses, because they're among the leaders in pass rush win rate.
And a distressing pattern is that the 49ers best young players who signed big contracts may have peaked already. Will Deebo again be the player he was before he was extended? Will Kittle ever be a monster in the passing game again? And of course Bosa signs a record contract and it remains to be seen if he can sustain DPOY levels of play but it's going to be difficult because its such a high bar.
It's a long season, so anything can happen. Maybe other top teams suffer key injuries. Browns lost one of the top RBs in the league and their starting QB but it didn't matter, they beat the 49ers. Yes bad officiating and bad breaks but it shouldn't have been this close.
Also, a 3rd round pick on a kicker may be something they come to regret. I know they couldn't pay Gould but it's a big price they paid for this guy.
The offensive line will cost us a chance to win a SB unless we somehow avoid the Eagles and Chiefs but mainly the Eagles because I feel they perfectly match up against us on both sides of the ball.
I understand the philosophy of not investing a ton of capital in the offensive line because offensive line play in general isn't great league wide and way behind defensive line play but you still have to have to be at least average to slightly above average along the line and it's simply not except for Trent.
Never understood why we so heavily focus on the defensive line and rightly so but spend absolutely nothing on the offensive line. Again I get not spending top dollar in FA to land guys because you just end up spending top dollar for a guy like McGlinchey but at least spend some higher draft capital on offensive linemen until you get it right.
It's hard to say if Deebo or Kittle have peaked or if it's just that aren't the primary focus of the offense like they were when they had their big years. With Kittle's big year he was basically the only talented receiver so he got most of the targets but now because the offensive line is so piss poor he has to stay in and block. With Deebo's big year he basically became RB1 and got an insane amount of touches but with CMC in the fold he's not really needed for those touches. So I think rather than peaked it's more the fact there is 4 major options on offense so nobody is really a focal point on offense.