2022 Season Thread

[Samurai]

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I've been pretty critical of Banks in the past. But I have to admit that he's been damn solid so far this season.

I'm happy to be wrong with my opinions in situations like this.

This is very encouraging to read. Do we know how the other OL rank? Maybe some of the ones who have been maligned by us fans because of one or two obvious bad plays are actually doing better overall than I am giving them credit for.

[thesack12]

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I've been pretty critical of Banks in the past. But I have to admit that he's been damn solid so far this season.

I'm happy to be wrong with my opinions in situations like this.

This is very encouraging to read. Do we know how the other OL rank? Maybe some of the ones who have been maligned by us fans because of one or two obvious bad plays are actually doing better overall than I am giving them credit for.

I did find this nugget.

Which is obviously good overall. However, Brendel has to stop the bad snap induced fumbles.

He had one in the Seattle game, and one in the Denver game. Both of those bad snaps caused game flow/momentum changes.

The one in Seattle game at the opponents 2 yard line. It was recovered by SF, but the next play resulted in a blocked FG returned by Seattle for a TD.

The one in the Denver game happened at the 50 yard line, and was recovered by Denver. This completely flipped field position, and allowed the Broncos to pin SF super deep on the ensuing punt, which ended up resulting in Jimmy's idiotic safety.

You absolutely can't have game altering influence resulting from the most basic part of every football play, the snap.

Brendel is going to need to cut bad snaps out.

[arich35]

Ward broke his hand on the opening kickoff, what **** luck. He is have surgery and they will figure out if he can play with a cast on his hand.
Kyle said Bosa wouldn't be able to play today if there was a game. My guess is he will be sat out this week to be safe
Moseley obviously is out for the year
Working out kickers in case Gould can't go this week.

[Jikkle]

Fortunately Gipson is PFF #2 ranked S currently so you're arguably downgrading by putting Ward back in there.

Who would've thought that the Safety positon which was the biggest concern on defense might be one of it's strongest units with PFF ranking Gipson #2 and Hufunga #5.

C. Ward is sitting at #2 for CBs so right now his contract is looking like a steal despite the fact he wasn't cheap.

What a massive turnaround for a secondary we all just hoped didn't commit PI every play last season.

[Jikkle]

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It'd be huge if he's back to his 2020 level.

My concern is he's at his 2019 level though. Technically healthy but not at full strength.

[wco81]

They need to keep drafting CBs, in case these guys don't come back 100% from their ACL injuries.

Of course it would be better if their recent draftees were more reliable.

[CrimsonCrew]

Bosa back at practice. Honestly, I'd rather give him the week and bring him back fully healthy for KC and the Rams. Obviously you don't want to underestimate an opponent, but Atlanta is the run-heaviest team in the league, and only has two viable receiving threats. Defense should be able to shut them down even as short-handed as we currently are.

[CrimsonCrew]

Speaking of being short-handed on defense, remember when we passed on Tristan Wirfs to take Kinlaw? That has really hurt. Granted we might not have gone after Big Trent if we had taken Wirfs.

[wco81]

This looks like a 9-8 or maybe 10-7 season at best.

Probably no byes, have to go go on the road in the playoffs if they make it.

Playing vs. Eagles in Philly would be the worst, the cold weather, the long trip and a very athletic QB with a multiple running game.

[Samurai]

We should fire our training/strength and conditioning staff and rehire the people we had in the Harbaugh years. I don't recall our guys breaking down with the number of injuries when Harbaugh was coaching compared to the fragile players now. Unless we are only drafting players with glass bones and tissue paper for ligaments (which may very well be true in the case of Kinlaw; that man should never be allowed to walk around in public without extensive FRAGILE labels from head to toe), there must be something different that our training staff is doing compared to the fewer injuries we had then.

[CrimsonCrew]

The team was remarkably healthy during the Harbaugh years. Remarkably injured during the Shanahan years. Given the sample sizes at this point, it's hard to believe it's just dumb luck. There must be other factors influencing it, and it's hard for me to think that at least part of that is being so concerned about injuries at practice and during the preseason that they are holding guys back in ways that ultimately prove detrimental.

[Jikkle]

They need to take a deep dive this offseason and make changes one way or another. Because it's beyond the point of luck and they need to dive deep into everything to see if they can tweak their approach and fire guys if needed.

They did do one thing to address it last year by putting a focus on drafting guys who were healthy in college instead of falling in love with talented guys that fall due to injury. Because part of it is the team is loaded with guys that are talented but get nicked and injured a lot.

They just need to look at the training staff and Shanahan's approach to practice and see what they could do there.

Because maybe we'll never be among the healthiest teams in the league partly because of the physical brand of football played but we shouldn't be consistently towards the bottom every season either.

[wco81]

Wasn't Kinlaw injured coming into the league?

That was just a bad pick, admit it.

Problem is there isn't enough depth. That is what missed picks will do.

Someone like Bosa can't be replaced, not cheaply, when he's injured. But they should have better options at TE to be a receiving threat than the backups they have now because Kittle has been injured more than once and he tends to block a lot anyways.

Injuries to Verrett and then Mosley and now Ward wouldn't be so bad if the CBs they drafted in the last couple of drafts could contribute.

KC lost to the Bills yesterday because they put some rookie CBs on an island against Diggs and Davis on TDs over the top because they went cover zero against Allen a couple of times too often. I guess they're willing to put them out there against any WR and only got burned in week 6.

[Jikkle]

Historical AGL Ranks: Lower = Healthiest
2008 - 6th
2009 - 23rd
2010 - 4th
2011 - 8th (NFCCG)
2012 - 1st (Superbowl)
2013 - 23rd (NFCCG)
2014 - 26th
2015 - 26th
2016 - 24th
2017 - 23rd
2018 - 29th
2019 - 27th (Superbowl)
2020 - 32nd
2021 - 29th (NFCCG)

https://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/189063-injuries-8-year-analysis/

Found a thread that posted info from Football Outsiders and while we were healthier under Harbaugh we were healthy before he came and it started to fall apart after 2012 under his tenure and has continued to be bad since.

So makes me think that maybe it is the draft philosophy that's been a major issue. Because after 2012 is when the roster would've been filled more and more with Baalke's players who we all know loved his talented but injured type of players.

It also makes me wonder if Paarag and his analytics played a part in all of this as well. Because it wouldn't surprise me if analytics would look more at the value of the player and where you pick him without factoring in health as much. Kinda like with Kinlaw who from raw potential would've probably been a top 10 pick so him dropping to 14 would've been considered a steal in terms of the numbers.

[CrimsonCrew]

Wasn't Kinlaw injured coming into the league?

That was just a bad pick, admit it.

Problem is there isn't enough depth. That is what missed picks will do.

Someone like Bosa can't be replaced, not cheaply, when he's injured. But they should have better options at TE to be a receiving threat than the backups they have now because Kittle has been injured more than once and he tends to block a lot anyways.

Injuries to Verrett and then Mosley and now Ward wouldn't be so bad if the CBs they drafted in the last couple of drafts could contribute.

KC lost to the Bills yesterday because they put some rookie CBs on an island against Diggs and Davis on TDs over the top because they went cover zero against Allen a couple of times too often. I guess they're willing to put them out there against any WR and only got burned in week 6.

The Kinlaw pick was a bad one for a variety of reasons. He was raw, had injury issues, really hadn't played much. He dominated like one or two days of the Senior Bowl but then, wait for it, got injured and couldn't complete the week. Knee tendonitis, shockingly. And DT just isn't a high value position in today's NFL. Sure, an elite player at the position can make a huge difference, but only if he's on the field.

Kinlaw has awesome physical talent, but it's looking more and more likely that he'll never put it together for this team. Taking him over Tristan Wirfs (trading back and passing on Wirfs, anyway) is totally inexcusable. It arguably worked out as we then traded for Trent the next day, but Wirfs has been really good at a premium position. AJ Terrell and CeeDee Lamb went with two of the next three picks, and either would help this team (though Aiyuk has been good).

[CrimsonCrew]

Wasn't Kinlaw injured coming into the league?

That was just a bad pick, admit it.

Problem is there isn't enough depth. That is what missed picks will do.

Someone like Bosa can't be replaced, not cheaply, when he's injured. But they should have better options at TE to be a receiving threat than the backups they have now because Kittle has been injured more than once and he tends to block a lot anyways.

Injuries to Verrett and then Mosley and now Ward wouldn't be so bad if the CBs they drafted in the last couple of drafts could contribute.

KC lost to the Bills yesterday because they put some rookie CBs on an island against Diggs and Davis on TDs over the top because they went cover zero against Allen a couple of times too often. I guess they're willing to put them out there against any WR and only got burned in week 6.

Having said that about Kinlaw, I actually think the team depth is really good. This FO has been very questionable on the first two days of the draft. Round one has been particularly rough. Thomas and Foster were outright busts for pretty easy to anticipate reasons. Taking Thomas over Mahomes and Watson will go down as one of the worst draft calls in team history. Kinlaw is looking more and more like an outright bust. McGlinchey has to be considered a pretty major disappointment as he's just a terrible pass blocker. Bosa has been phenomenal, but that was a total no-brainer. And Aiyuk has been good, though probably underutilized. That's not a good hit rate.

Rounds two and three have also been shaky. Beathard and Joe Williams, Pettis, Hurd, Sermon, Ambry Thomas (jury still a little bit out, but not looking good). The only thing keeping this team in it has been their absolute domination of the late rounds with guys like Kittle, DJ Jones, DJ Reed though we cut him before he panned out, Greenlaw, Jennings, Hufanga, and Mitchell. That said, they've done a great job finding contributions to the defensive front seven in the late rounds, UDFA, or vet re-treads. As much trouble as the RB position has been, they keep finding talented players.

I think this team is about as deep as any team in the league, which is the only reason we've been able to compete despite all the injuries, but the offense is a recurring problem, and our offensive-minded head coach doesn't seem able to fix it.

[Pattersonca65]

Wasn't Kinlaw injured coming into the league?

That was just a bad pick, admit it.

Problem is there isn't enough depth. That is what missed picks will do.

Someone like Bosa can't be replaced, not cheaply, when he's injured. But they should have better options at TE to be a receiving threat than the backups they have now because Kittle has been injured more than once and he tends to block a lot anyways.

Injuries to Verrett and then Mosley and now Ward wouldn't be so bad if the CBs they drafted in the last couple of drafts could contribute.

KC lost to the Bills yesterday because they put some rookie CBs on an island against Diggs and Davis on TDs over the top because they went cover zero against Allen a couple of times too often. I guess they're willing to put them out there against any WR and only got burned in week 6.

Having said that about Kinlaw, I actually think the team depth is really good. This FO has been very questionable on the first two days of the draft. Round one has been particularly rough. Thomas and Foster were outright busts for pretty easy to anticipate reasons. Taking Thomas over Mahomes and Watson will go down as one of the worst draft calls in team history. Kinlaw is looking more and more like an outright bust. McGlinchey has to be considered a pretty major disappointment as he's just a terrible pass blocker. Bosa has been phenomenal, but that was a total no-brainer. And Aiyuk has been good, though probably underutilized. That's not a good hit rate.

Rounds two and three have also been shaky. Beathard and Joe Williams, Pettis, Hurd, Sermon, Ambry Thomas (jury still a little bit out, but not looking good). The only thing keeping this team in it has been their absolute domination of the late rounds with guys like Kittle, DJ Jones, DJ Reed though we cut him before he panned out, Greenlaw, Jennings, Hufanga, and Mitchell. That said, they've done a great job finding contributions to the defensive front seven in the late rounds, UDFA, or vet re-treads. As much trouble as the RB position has been, they keep finding talented players.

I think this team is about as deep as any team in the league, which is the only reason we've been able to compete despite all the injuries, but the offense is a recurring problem, and our offensive-minded head coach doesn't seem able to fix it.

Kinlaw is one the guys I was referring to in the injury discussion. Seems there were injury concerns with his knee coming out of college and he has never been quite right since the day he stepped on the field for the 49ers. Aiyuk might be somewhat utilized although there may be a reason for some of that. Last season he appeared to have issues with work ethic and focus. Seems he came around later in the season. Shanahan is too conservative at times.

[Jikkle]

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[CrimsonCrew]

He's been a very pleasant surprise. And although Burford has had his share of struggles, he's shown enough promise to build on. Seems like Brendel is the weakest link on the interior. That's a position we need to be looking to upgrade. Hopefully Zakelj can handle it in the near future. I'm still disappointed that Dohnovan West didn't pan out at all.

[thesack12]

He's been a very pleasant surprise. And although Burford has had his share of struggles, he's shown enough promise to build on. Seems like Brendel is the weakest link on the interior. That's a position we need to be looking to upgrade. Hopefully Zakelj can handle it in the near future. I'm still disappointed that Dohnovan West didn't pan out at all.

Yup, as I mentioned recently in another post I'm happy if I'll have to eat crow on Aaron Banks. I'll enthusiastically devour a big ole plate of it, if Banks proves to be a an annual stalwart on the O-line. The early returns are looking good.

Agreed on Brendel. His pass protection has actually been decent, but wow can that guy have a hugely negative effect on games. He's been responsible for at least 2 turnovers already, and is piling up penalties. Several of those penalties have called back big plays. Hell, dude had 3 separate penalties on one possession last Sunday, one of which negated a 39 yard play.

So yeah, center is going to need to be addressed. I also still don't want to extend McGlinchey, so RT is another position to figure out moving forward.