Niners lose Saleh to the Jets

The San Francisco 49ers will have a new defensive coordinator next season. 

Robert Saleh agreed to be the new head coach of the New York Jets today, ending a successful run for the 49ers. 

Saleh's defense was suspect early in his tenure, but he's proven the last two years that he's a leader of men. Last year, it was the 49ers defense that led the franchise to the Super Bowl. 

And this season, with so many dudes out with injuries including all-world DE Nick Bosa, the defense still ranked in the top 5-10 by multiple metrics. 

Saleh will be missed. Mike LaFleur, a 49ers offensive assistant who Saleh will take with him to be his OC in New York, also will someone who is hard to replace. 

DeMeco Ryans is reportedly who head coach Kyle Shanahan will promote to defensive coordinator. That should keep everything intact from a personnel and scheme side of things. Ryans is one of the best young up and coming coaches in the league and might be one of the guys next in line for a head coaching job at some point. 

Saleh taking the Jets jobs gives the 49ers a pair of third-round picks. One will be used this year and one next offseason. 

The 49ers didn't have a third-round pick because of the Trent Williams trade last offseason so it will be nice to have that level of a pick back. 

Shanahan may have to make another hire and may have to sweeten a few contracts to keep guys from bolting to work with Saleh in New York. He also has plenty of players in red and gold who are free agents that may want to follow Saleh to the Big Apple. 

I expect the 49ers to prioritize offensive tackle Trent Williams and fullback Kyle Juszczyk in free agency. But there are plenty of other guys who also need contracts. Who else will SF want to bring back and who won't they be able to afford? 

As a fan of the team, I hope they find a way to bring back Jeff Wilson Jr, Kerry Hyder, K'Waun Williams, Jason Verrett, Ahkello Witherspoon, Emmanuel Moseley, Daniel Brunskill and Ben Garland. I also wouldn't be mad if Kendrick Bourne and Jordan Reed were back. 

The elephant in the room continues to be the quarterback position. Jimmy Garoppolo is still under contract. But Nick Mullens, C.J. Beathard and Josh Rosen are all free agents. 

Will they keep Jimmy G and try to run it back hoping he's healthy? Could they find a trade partner for Jimmy G and draft a rookie at No. 12? Will they make a play for Deshaun Watson or Matthew Stafford in a trade? And which one of the three 2020 backups, if any, will be back? 

There are lots of questions. And maybe the 49ers don't have any answers yet. I just hope they are working hard on figuring it out. 

Niners end season promising but still lose

I blogged last week about how since the San Francisco 49ers would not have Brandon Aiyuk at wide receiver or Trent Williams at left tackle, among lots of other guys, they had basically no shot to win against division champion Seattle. 

That turned out to be true. But it took a big fourth-quarter comeback by the Seahawks. 

Seattle had 3 total yards in the third quarter as SF went up double digits entering the fourth. The final quarter was very different though as the Seahawks flipped the game to their advantage and won a close one on the road. 

I applaud the effort from the undermanned 49ers. They clearly missed their best players this season. With only rosters of 53 guys, no NFL team can win games consistently with half their roster being out a majority of the games. 

The fact that the Niners finished 6-10 to me is a great accomplishment. I never would have thought they'd get to six wins. And the funny thing is, I think if Kyle Shanahan starts C.J. Beathard over Nick Mullens sooner they may have gotten to 8-8 and into the playoffs. 

Mullens turned the ball over too much and gave them no chance to win games against Philadelphia, Washington and Dallas. That's three wins they might have had with Beathard at QB simply because Beathard showed the ability to just not hurt the team with bad interceptions or fumbles. 

Beathard did lose a fumble after a sack this past Sunday. And it came with the Niners trailing in the fourth quarter with less than 3 minutes to go. But it was the only turnover in the game and the Seahawks had all the momentum because of the comeback. 

Beathard was not outstanding in his starts at the end of the year. But he was 1-1 against .500 or better teams and he took care of the ball much better than Mullens. 

The defense under Robert Saleh was the biggest reason the team was 6-10. The offense had its moments but without a competent QB most of the year, the defense had to be extra good and they were. 

Led by Pro Bowler and future All Pro LB Fred Warner, the defense still ranked in the top 5-10 in most categories even without Nick Bosa and Richard Sherman for most of the year. And they weren't the only guys who missed time. 

Now, as they move into the offseason and try to reset from a season that was plagued by injuries, the question now is, what in-house guys do they re-sign, who do they cut to save salary cap dollars and what do they do at QB? 

They also likely have to replace Robert Saleh at defensive coordinator. 

The loss to Seattle and wins by Minnesota, New England and L.A. Chargers pushed the Niners into the 12th draft pick in this year's NFL Draft. 

Will there by any QBs left to take at that spot? Do they plan to trade up to get their guy? Where will go at DC and will they have to replace Adam Peters in the front office? 

These are things Shanahan and GM John Lynch will be focused on as we move into the offseason. 

Let the rumors fly.  

Niners' roster still one of the best in the NFL

I got the chance to watch the press conferences from George Kittle and Trent Williams heading into the San Francisco 49ers final game of the 2020 season against the Seattle Seahawks.

And what I want to talk about in this blog is injuries. The only reason the 49ers are 6-9 with one game to go is because of injuries. And you can't convince me otherwise. 

Last year, the 49ers went 13-3, were the No. 1 seed in the NFC, cruised to the Super Bowl with two easy playoff wins and had a 10-point lead with 7 minutes to go in said Super Bowl. 

This year, 28 guys go on the IR at some point in the season and the team is probably going to finish 6-10. 

"If we had the same team we opened camp with, I honestly think we'd be fighting for the No. 1 seed," Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams said in a press conference this week. "The proof is in the pudding. They did it last year when they were healthy."

The top talking points this season for the 49ers have been injuries, will Jimmy Garoppolo be back in 2021 and how many in-house free agents can San Francisco afford to keep this offseason?

We will get to those other topics as the offseason progresses. But if San Francisco was healthy, I don't think they lose more than 5 games. The 49ers have proven to be able to beat good teams this year when fully healthy.

Unfortunately, outside of the Week 1 game against Arizona when they blew a second-half lead, the most healthy they were in 2020 came in both games against the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams are likely a playoff team and the Niners swept them. 

This team is built around a strong defense and a solid running game. And outside of the injuries, having to play with a backup quarterback all season is the other big reason for the decline in wins. The backup QB, Nick Mullens, and even Jimmy G when he played, just didn't protect the football enough this season.

https://twitter.com/CamInman/status/1344777617971429382 

The NFC East was pretty bad this year. And the 49ers went 1-3 against that division mostly because they turned the ball over WAY too much against the Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins. 

When they don't turn it over, they have won games in 2020 because the defense despite being down a few dudes here and there all season, was still ranked in the top 10 and the running game was still stout when the QB wasn't tripping over himself. 

"It's been a roller coaster," Williams said. "We have a Super Bowl roster. It just sucks that we couldn't put those guys on the field enough to win more games. We certainly didn't fulfill our potential."

Kittle pointed out that while the team wasn't healthy for the most part, the positive takeaway is that so many young guys got thrown to the fire and those experiences should help the 49ers and add to their depth for 2021. 

"We will be a better in 2021," Kittle said. "One of my biggest takeaways, because of the injuries we had, is that we had guys were able to step up who otherwise wouldn't have gotten the chance in any other year."

The 2020 injuries to Nick Bosa, Richard Sherman, Kittle, Raheem Mostert and others allowed guys like Kerry Hyder Jr., Jason Verrett, Jordan Reed and Jeff Wilson Jr. to get valuable snaps this season. 

Verrett could be the Comeback Player of the Year in the NFL as he was outstanding as one of the few 49er defensive players who was healthy most of the year after missing most of the last two seasons with injuries. 

Bosa's replacement, Hyder Jr., leads the team in sacks. And Wilson Jr. has really broken out this season and he was only able to do so because Mostert and Tevin Coleman were both hurt this year. 

"It was hard to replace Nick Bosa and Richard Sherman and some of the other guys, but the guys behind them got a ton of reps so they are ready to go next year now, too," Kittle said. "Guys behind me when I missed my six weeks got reps, too. That's the positive from being so injured. The young guys were able to get valuable reps that can help us for next year."

Trent Williams' future

The 49ers will have a lot of decisions to make this offseason as they have several in-house players who will be due new contracts from someone.

The biggest must-sign this offseason is Williams as he proved this season to still be one of the best tackles in the game. 

Williams addressed his future somewhat in a recent press conference.

"I definitely don't want to be part of a rebuilding process," Williams said. "I am too long in the tooth for that. But I would put our roster up against any other roster. That's how I see it."