CHRIS BORLAND

49er4life1979 · Post #1 » by **49er4life1979** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:05 am

Another monster game, 17 tackles, 11 solo and a fumble recovery....At what point does Patrick Willis and his salary become expendable? I hate to say it, and Willis is still only 29 and playing great, but you have to ask....On another note, glad to have seen Dial get a sack, 2 tackles and 1 QB hit. Hopefully we see more of him doing that.

RedneckNiner · Post #2 » by **RedneckNiner** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:14 am

Slow your Roll Wiollis is not expendable.

49er4life1979 · Post #3 » by **49er4life1979** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:20 am

RedneckNiner wrote:Slow your Roll Wiollis is not expendable.

You know how Baalke operates. I know we have Willis until Spring 2017 but with the way Borland is playing...

shouldakepowens · Post #4 » by **shouldakepowens** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:48 am

Let's see how bowman looks first

49rangER · Post #5 » by **49rangER** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 7:35 pm

Nobody is taking over for willis just yet. But it is nice to see Borland play so well.

(previously h0ckeysk83r)

49er4life1979 · Post #6 » by **49er4life1979** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 12:40 am

49rangER wrote:Nobody is taking over for willis just yet. But it is nice to see Borland play so well.

(previously h0ckeysk83r)

But is Borland playing too well to be taken off the field?

imac_21 · Post #7 » by **imac_21** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 3:36 am

49er4life1979 wrote:
RedneckNiner wrote:Slow your Roll Wiollis is not expendable.

You know how Baalke operates. I know we have Willis until Spring 2017 but with the way Borland is playing...

Does he have a history of trading veterans to make room for young players? I mean, there was Alex Smith and. . . .

Justin Smith? Nope.
Frank Gore? Nope.
Ahmad Brooks? Nope.

I'm not seeing it.

imac_21 · Post #8 » by **imac_21** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 3:37 am

49er4life1979 wrote:
49rangER wrote:Nobody is taking over for willis just yet. But it is nice to see Borland play so well.

(previously h0ckeysk83r)

But is Borland playing too well to be taken off the field?

Does he deserve to play over Wilhoite? Maybe.

Does he deserve to play over Willis and Bowman? Absolutely not.

Let's also remember that it was Borland that dropped the coverage on the TD StL scored. He let the TE cross the field right in front of him and didn't react.

NinerSickness · Post #9 » by **NinerSickness** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 4:33 am

This is a good problem to have. Ideally it would be nice to be able to trade a gluttony of wealth at one position to make a weaker position (CB for example) stronger, but I don't see it happening. If anything, Borland would be the one for whom teams might want to trade rather than the vet's because he's cheaper. But even that's a far-fetched scenario.

Trades are fun to propose in order to look back years later to see if it would've helped or hindered (as you know from my history of proposing them), but they're extremely rare.

Post #10 » by **CalamityX12** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 2:19 pm

Has Willis performed poorly pre-injury? no....

ChrisPozz · Post #11 » by **ChrisPozz** » Tue Nov 11, 2014 8:05 pm

NinerSickness wrote:This is a good problem to have. Ideally it would be nice to be able to trade a gluttony of wealth at one position to make a weaker position (CB for example) stronger, but I don't see it happening. If anything, Borland would be the one for whom teams might want to trade rather than the vet's because he's cheaper. But even that's a far-fetched scenario.

Trades are fun to propose in order to look back years later to see if it would've helped or hindered (as you know from my history of proposing them), but they're extremely rare.

Especially for corners, especially this year. It was supposedly next to impossible to get one this year with "about 18 teams" calling around looking to get a CB at the deadline, according to, I believe, Jay Glazer it was.

Jikkle · Post #12 » by **Jikkle** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:34 pm

http://www.nfl.com/videos/san-francisco-49ers/0ap3000000426991/Mayock-s-Slant-Borland-making-plays

arich35 · Post #13 » by **arich35** » Wed Nov 12, 2014 9:20 pm

Looks like Borland will be in the starting line up for the rest of the season.

49er4life1979 · Post #14 » by **49er4life1979** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 5:45 pm

imac_21 wrote:
49er4life1979 wrote:
RedneckNiner wrote:Slow your Roll Wiollis is not expendable.

You know how Baalke operates. I know we have Willis until Spring 2017 but with the way Borland is playing...

Does he have a history of trading veterans to make room for young players? I mean, there was Alex Smith and. . . .

Justin Smith? Nope.
Frank Gore? Nope.
Ahmad Brooks? Nope.

I'm not seeing it.

Ahmad Brooks was almost traded to Browns, but the Browns backed out last minute.

49er4life1979 · Post #15 » by **49er4life1979** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 5:47 pm

imac_21 wrote:
49er4life1979 wrote:
49rangER wrote:Nobody is taking over for willis just yet. But it is nice to see Borland play so well.

(previously h0ckeysk83r)

But is Borland playing too well to be taken off the field?

Does he deserve to play over Wilhoite? Maybe.

Does he deserve to play over Willis and Bowman? Absolutely not.

Let's also remember that it was Borland that dropped the coverage on the TD StL scored. He let the TE cross the field right in front of him and didn't react.

That mistake was in his very first game as starter. He did also have 18 tackles in that game and followed that up with 17 at New Orleans.

tallglassowater · Post #16 » by **tallglassowater** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:58 am

Is Borland the defensive rookie of the year right now? Not trying to overstate how he is playing, but the dude is standing out and making plays. Can't think of any other defensive rookies standing out right now.

ChrisPozz · Post #17 » by **ChrisPozz** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 3:09 am

tallglassowater wrote:Is Borland the defensive rookie of the year right now? Not trying to overstate how he is playing, but the dude is standing out and making plays. Can't think of any other defensive rookies standing out right now.

My guess is that at least Aaron Donald, C.J. Mosley, and Anthony Barr would finish ahead of him at this point based on who votes but recently he's making the type of plays the voters lean on when making their decision. If he can show some consistency now, make enough stand out plays down the stretch, and actually continue to play enough meaningful snaps if Bowman comes back (I'm doubting it happens), then sure he has an outside shot.

NinerSickness · Post #18 » by **NinerSickness** » Tue Nov 18, 2014 6:50 am

So how good is Borland honestly? Is he the next Zach Thomas (undersized, not-super-athletic ILB with amazing awareness & reaction time)?

Is he the next Gary Plummer? Very good but never great ILB?

Some people are calling him the next Urlacher, which is ridiculous. Borland is not the next Urlacher, Willis, Ray Lewis, Bowman and so on. I don't think he's as good as Luke Kuechly.

Is he the next Lavonte David? London Fletcher maybe? A healthy DeMeco Ryans? James Laurinaitis?

To whom would you compare him objectively in terms of value to a defense?

And if the Niners wanted to trade him for a draft pick next offseason how high of a pick would he garner? I'm not saying they should; I'm just trying to get some opinions as to how valuable the guy really is.

supreme81 · Post #19 » by **supreme81** » Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:40 am

I see a lot of Zach Thomas in Borland.

ChrisPozz · Post #20 » by **ChrisPozz** » Tue Nov 18, 2014 9:11 pm

Because of their build and make-up, people always says Zach Thomas and to a slightly lesser extent, London Fletcher, which I like a bit more, but for as much as I like Borland I don't think he'll ever come to be the type of player Thomas or Fletcher was as a coverage linebacker specifically. Both were pretty good to very good in their best days.

Right now I don't see Borland ever having that kind of range but I think he can be tougher against the run than Fletcher was, though. All the while providing many of the same things both those guys gave you off the field.

I had a lot to say about Borland before he was drafted and to this day his draft profile is one of the longest I've ever written on a player after watching him. For all the good I said about him then and continue to say about him I don't think I'd be comfortable saying that his maximum value to a defense will quite equal that to a Zach Thomas or a London Fletcher because I think Borland has just a few too many limitations, at least right now for sure, to give you what they could early on in their careers.

If there's a quantifiable level or two below those guys for a player that can be a big part of a defense and a core guy in the locker room who can get others to listen to and follow his lead in many ways, that's where I'd place Borland.