2024 49ers Season

[CrimsonCrew]

Starting a new thread for all discussion of the Niners this season. Figured we could limit the "NFL" counterpart to discussion of other teams.

[CrimsonCrew]

McCaffrey may be out longer than expected (which is to say at all). Don't love it, but Mason played well. We shouldn't need CMC to knock off the Vikings. I would like him back for the Rams, but honestly, I might rather run right at their DL with Mason in that one, anyway.

Interesting tidbit in Shanahan's post-game press conference when asked about McCaffrey:

Q: With the next two games on artificial surfaces, will that play a factor into what you do with Christian? Particularly, the last time you played on artificial surfaces?

SHANAHAN: “Not totally. I don't think that was because of Dre Greenlaw. The game, I thought it had to do more with the practice week."

Assuming most people are picking up on it, but just in case, what he's referring to there is Greenlaw's Achilles tear in the SB, which he's attributing to the **** practice field the NFL stuck us with prior to the game. For those that missed it, the surface was WAY too soft for regulation, but the league wouldn't make the Chiefs share their practice facilities. That injury, combined with the persistent refusal to call holding on the Chiefs' OL, just enrages me. Whether or not it was deliberate, it was the league putting their thumb heavily on the scale and contributing to handing that game to the Chiefs.

I've said before and I'll say again that even with those issues, we still could and should have won this one. We had self-inflicted wounds in pivotal moments. But we were fighting uphill due to losing a pivotal defensive player in part because of league sloppiness and due to the Chiefs being allowed to mitigate their biggest offensive weakness through blatant disregard of the rules.

[thesack12]

Of course the crap practice field was a factor in the overall productivity of practice and on the guys' psyche having to worry about and deal with that.

That said, I get why Kyle is still salty about it (and rightfully so) still I don't think you can really attribute that to Greenlaw's injury. He hurt himself jumping up and down in celebration on the sideline on an entirely different field no less. Of course Kyle knows a lot more than I do, so maybe I'm missing something in the equation.

But yeah, there are an immense amount of things in that game where if they just went slightly differently then the 49ers would be defending Super Bowl champs. And a lot of those things, we only needed one of them to break the other way to get a different outcome to the game. To that point, I still have not fully recovered from that game. Honestly the last 3 Super Bowl appearances were all extremely painful as the 9ers were in position to win all 3 of those games. Still HOLDING A LEAD IN OVERTIME and still not bringing home the Lombardi is an extremely hard pill to swallow, which easily makes it the most difficult one of the three to get over.

[Big J]

Kinda weird that Kyle is still talking about last years Super Bowl. Games over, we lost. Just take the L and move on to this year. Why open back up old wounds?

[WentzerWuver]

Kinda weird that Kyle is still talking about last years Super Bowl. Games over, we lost. Just take the L and move on to this year. Why open back up old wounds?

While you keep bringing up old wounds on Trey Lance not being giving a chance to win here unlike Purdy.

[CrimsonCrew]

Kinda weird that Kyle is still talking about last years Super Bowl. Games over, we lost. Just take the L and move on to this year. Why open back up old wounds?

He was asked about previous injuries on turf. I think the question was in reference to the couple injuries that occurred in the meadowlands a couple years ago (Bosa and maybe Mostert?), but reasonable for him to address the most recent injury.

[CrimsonCrew]

Of course the crap practice field was a factor in the overall productivity of practice and on the guys' psyche having to worry about and deal with that.

That said, I get why Kyle is still salty about it (and rightfully so) still I don't think you can really attribute that to Greenlaw's injury. He hurt himself jumping up and down in celebration on the sideline on an entirely different field no less. Of course Kyle knows a lot more than I do, so maybe I'm missing something in the equation.

But yeah, there are an immense amount of things in that game where if they just went slightly differently then the 49ers would be defending Super Bowl champs. And a lot of those things, we only needed one of them to break the other way to get a different outcome to the game. To that point, I still have not fully recovered from that game. Honestly the last 3 Super Bowl appearances were all extremely painful as the 9ers were in position to win all 3 of those games. Still HOLDING A LEAD IN OVERTIME and still not bringing home the Lombardi is an extremely hard pill to swallow, which easily makes it the most difficult one of the three to get over.

Re: the practice field, my feeling was that the soft surface might exacerbate soft tissue issues. And that's exactly what we saw. Greenlaw had a nagging heel injury, practiced on the substandard field, and then blew out his Achilles doing an innocuous movement.

I have always felt the practice field was a leading cause of that injury. And that injury turned the tide of the game. Greenlaw was playing out of his mind to that point.

[Jikkle]

Banks and Jennings ended up being day to day so I'm guessing they'll play against the Vikings or at worst just miss that one game and be ready for the Rams.

They say CMC is day-to-day but hard to really trust the team on that one. It is likely the same injury from camp that would mean he's probably had it a few weeks already so he might actually be mostly healthy at this point.

I'd still wager on them sitting CMC against the Vikes though. Short week on the road with a 10 am game against an average opponent you probably don't force CMC out there unless you are confident he's 100%.

You'd much rather him healthy against the Rams the following week and overall you need him for the playoffs so you don't want to push him out there and him injury to the point he misses significant time.

Also it's not like the team absolutely has to have CMC to win games in the regular season especially against middle-of-the-road opponents. The team needs CMC to give them the edge against the playoff-caliber teams.

[Harry Palmer]

Rapp apparently said he’s hearing CMC to the IR is in play. I did think if there was any bad CMC news we’d release it in the immediate wake of Jordan’s big game buzz. Next couple weeks being on turf probably means he’s missing those anyways, and Kyle’s pretty binary with running backs so you want him as far from risk as you can get before turning him over to the head coach, but…yeah, it’s worrying. As everyone and their dog (those who survive immigrant kitchens) has said, Achilles injuries do seem to pretty much always get a lot worse before they get better. Some are speculating it was always that and calf was just to manage concerns, but in my experience you often get adjacent injuries because the original causes you to use your body differently, putting unusual strain on areas normally not as active.

[CrimsonCrew]

CMC didn't go to IR today, but he still can any time before we play. If he does, it will be irritating he didn't go to IR before last week's game. But ultimately, he's got to be healthy in the playoffs. We should be able to win the next four games without him. I just can't believe in Minnesota, especially if Addison is out. The Rams are dealing with a bunch of injuries on offense, and their defense isn't what it was. Pats and Cards shouldn't pose a serious threat. But I want him back for the Hawks, and definitely for the Chiefs and Cowboys.

[Pattersonca65]

CMC didn't go to IR today, but he still can any time before we play. If he does, it will be irritating he didn't go to IR before last week's game. But ultimately, he's got to be healthy in the playoffs. We should be able to win the next four games without him. I just can't believe in Minnesota, especially if Addison is out. The Rams are dealing with a bunch of injuries on offense, and their defense isn't what it was. Pats and Cards shouldn't pose a serious threat. But I want him back for the Hawks, and definitely for the Chiefs and Cowboys.

If you ever experienced Tendinitis you have to rest it and take nsaids to ger the inflammation down.and pain to.go away. Otherwise it just lingers. Ive dealt with forearm tendinitis for years from weights trying to work through it

[CrimsonCrew]

One thing to keep in mind this week is that it's a short week (get used to that disparate rest differential), we have to travel, and it's an early start. We should still be able to handle Minnesota, but we can't start sluggish and let them hang around.

[Harry Palmer]

Also Sam Darnold beating us would just be too cosmically ironic to not happen, in a way. Who did Kyle compare him to again? And hearing him talk about him yesterday, I don’t think it’s just fluff, I think he really has a football crush on the guy. Just not as much as with Brock.

[CrimsonCrew]

Also Sam Darnold beating us would just be too cosmically ironic to not happen, in a way. Who did Kyle compare him to again? And hearing him talk about him yesterday, I don’t think it’s just fluff, I think he really has a football crush on the guy. Just not as much as with Brock.

Got to get pressure on Darnold. That's the key to this game. If he can sit back in a clean pocket, he's a good QB. He's got a great arm, decent vision. But if you can fluster him, he falls apart.

[Harry Palmer]

Also Sam Darnold beating us would just be too cosmically ironic to not happen, in a way. Who did Kyle compare him to again? And hearing him talk about him yesterday, I don’t think it’s just fluff, I think he really has a football crush on the guy. Just not as much as with Brock.

Got to get pressure on Darnold. That's the key to this game. If he can sit back in a clean pocket, he's a good QB. He's got a great arm, decent vision. But if you can fluster him, he falls apart.

Yeah, agreed. He really does throw a nice ball when his feet are quiet.

Hey, was just thinking about the Niners OL draft philosophy, do you (or anyone else here) know if this was a thing for his dad too? If not, if they win a SB overtly undervaluing the OL in general, that might be pretty game changing. Dunno if there is a more baked in ethos in NFL than ‘football is won in the trenches’, especially on offence.

[CrimsonCrew]

Also Sam Darnold beating us would just be too cosmically ironic to not happen, in a way. Who did Kyle compare him to again? And hearing him talk about him yesterday, I don’t think it’s just fluff, I think he really has a football crush on the guy. Just not as much as with Brock.

Got to get pressure on Darnold. That's the key to this game. If he can sit back in a clean pocket, he's a good QB. He's got a great arm, decent vision. But if you can fluster him, he falls apart.

Yeah, agreed. He really does throw a nice ball when his feet are quiet.

Hey, was just thinking about the Niners OL draft philosophy, do you (or anyone else here) know if this was a thing for his dad too? If not, if they win a SB overtly undervaluing the OL in general, that might be pretty game changing. Dunno if there is a more baked in ethos in NFL than ‘football is won in the trenches’, especially on offence.

The Shanahan system was always predicated on smaller, more mobile OL who could generally be found later in the draft. So although I don't have a clear recollection, I would tend to say that yes, this applied to Mike, too. A quick review of Denver draft history shows that they did not take a lot of OL early in the draft, but they did take three OTs in the first round (including in his first year and his final year). He had Tom Nalen anchoring the OL at center almost Shanahan's entire tenure in Denver, so they didn't really need to draft at that pot. Matt Lepsis held down one of the OT spots for almost a decade (started on the right then moved to the left).

More athletic OL have become much more popular league-wide over the past few years, largely as Shanahan's offense has proliferated. It's hard to find athletic OTs later in the draft, but they're still out there and we should have been drafting and grooming some of them.

On the OL topic, McKivitz really did grade quite well this week, not just through PFF but others who break down film. He had like two bad losses (kind of the McGlinchey thing where he doesn't lose often, but when he does it's ugly), but otherwise was strong in the run and pass game. It could be that having Puni next to him instead of Burford is helping him, though he played next to Feliciano for much of the year.

If/when Feliciano gets healthy, I'd love to put him in at center over Brendel. Brendel is probably our weakest link on offense at this point. If we could upgrade him, the OL would look a lot better. Especially if Banks can get healthy and McKivitz continues to play well.

[Pattersonca65]

Also Sam Darnold beating us would just be too cosmically ironic to not happen, in a way. Who did Kyle compare him to again? And hearing him talk about him yesterday, I don’t think it’s just fluff, I think he really has a football crush on the guy. Just not as much as with Brock.

Got to get pressure on Darnold. That's the key to this game. If he can sit back in a clean pocket, he's a good QB. He's got a great arm, decent vision. But if you can fluster him, he falls apart.

Yeah, agreed. He really does throw a nice ball when his feet are quiet.

Hey, was just thinking about the Niners OL draft philosophy, do you (or anyone else here) know if this was a thing for his dad too? If not, if they win a SB overtly undervaluing the OL in general, that might be pretty game changing. Dunno if there is a more baked in ethos in NFL than ‘football is won in the trenches’, especially on offence.

Lighter and athletic lineman was definitely a preference of Mike Shanahan. Mike's reasons for these type of lineman is shared by Kyle. I would say to a certain extent this philosophy goes back to Bill Walsh. If you go back to Walsh's early years as 49er coach, he generally utilized smaller athletic lineman and his line was generally lighter than what the league overall was fielding. Jesse Sapolo, Guy McIntire, and Dan Audick are prime examples of this. He did have a couple of exemptions like Bubba Paris but there is a whole another story about him with the 49ers, lol

[RIPskaterdude]

Also Sam Darnold beating us would just be too cosmically ironic to not happen, in a way. Who did Kyle compare him to again? And hearing him talk about him yesterday, I don’t think it’s just fluff, I think he really has a football crush on the guy. Just not as much as with Brock.

If Colt McCoy can do it....

[49er4life1979]

Got to get pressure on Darnold. That's the key to this game. If he can sit back in a clean pocket, he's a good QB. He's got a great arm, decent vision. But if you can fluster him, he falls apart.

Yeah, agreed. He really does throw a nice ball when his feet are quiet.

Hey, was just thinking about the Niners OL draft philosophy, do you (or anyone else here) know if this was a thing for his dad too? If not, if they win a SB overtly undervaluing the OL in general, that might be pretty game changing. Dunno if there is a more baked in ethos in NFL than ‘football is won in the trenches’, especially on offence.

The Shanahan system was always predicated on smaller, more mobile OL who could generally be found later in the draft. So although I don't have a clear recollection, I would tend to say that yes, this applied to Mike, too. A quick review of Denver draft history shows that they did not take a lot of OL early in the draft, but they did take three OTs in the first round (including in his first year and his final year). He had Tom Nalen anchoring the OL at center almost Shanahan's entire tenure in Denver, so they didn't really need to draft at that pot. Matt Lepsis held down one of the OT spots for almost a decade (started on the right then moved to the left).

More athletic OL have become much more popular league-wide over the past few years, largely as Shanahan's offense has proliferated. It's hard to find athletic OTs later in the draft, but they're still out there and we should have been drafting and grooming some of them.

On the OL topic, McKivitz really did grade quite well this week, not just through PFF but others who break down film. He had like two bad losses (kind of the McGlinchey thing where he doesn't lose often, but when he does it's ugly), but otherwise was strong in the run and pass game. It could be that having Puni next to him instead of Burford is helping him, though he played next to Feliciano for much of the year.

If/when Feliciano gets healthy, I'd love to put him in at center over Brendel. Brendel is probably our weakest link on offense at this point. If we could upgrade him, the OL would look a lot better. Especially if Banks can get healthy and McKivitz continues to play well.

Speaking of the OL, Burford said he he felt much more comfortable at LG his more natural position. And according to observers, he looked solid. With Banks injured and slated for free agency after the season that is certainly good to know.

[Harry Palmer]

CMC officially ruled out for this game too.