49ers - 2008

C Diddy

C Diddy

Starter
#1
#1
Well, since FA just started, I figure its time to start up a new 49ers thread. Notable reports are that the 49ers signed DeShaun Foster and kick returner/CB Allen Rossum. Guard Justin Smiley has signed with the Dolphins and Kwame Harris is in negotiations with Oakland. Derek Smith signed with the Chargers.

There are also reports that Bengals FA DE Justin Smith is in town.

Various sources:

sf49ers.com

espn.com
 
CalBears1

CalBears1

G-League
#4
#4
Here is an excerpt from Matt Maiocco's blog in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat regarding Justin Smith:

5:56 p.m.: Finally, a little news: Justin Smith is still in the Bay Area. He took a helicopter tour of the South Bay this afternoon with Mike Nolan. He will have dinner tonight with Nolan and, perhaps, a few coaches. I just spoke with Smith's agent, Jim Steiner, who confirmed the helicopter ride and dinner tonight. He said he was not sure who would be joining Smith and Nolan for dinner. Steiner said Smith is still "scheduled" to go to Minnesota tomorrow. But it's pretty clear the 49ers are going to pull out all the stops to sign Smith before he has a chance to leave the Bay Area.
 
CalBears1

CalBears1

G-League
#7
#7
I'm hyped that we got Justin Smith. He's a perfect fit for our 3-4 defense...Isaac Bruce is also a good addition. He is a solid veteran receiver that can teach the younger guys a thing or two. I know he's not a #1 receiver anymore because of his age, but he's still a big upgrade over what we currently have.

I also like the DeShaun Foster pick up. He still has some good years left in him, and it will be nice to be able to give Gore a breather every once and a while and not have a huge dropoff in doing so. He also should fit in nicely with Martz's system.
 
B

BMiller52

All-Star
#8
#8
Yeah Justin Smith is good, glad we were able to sign him. He's going to help our D a lot. I would've been unhappy if our main addition was just Bruce but Smith+Bruce is satisfactory for this offseason IMO.
 
VF21

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#9
#9
Maybe I'm still thinking with my Kings brain, so to speak, but I want to see youth and a future in the receivers, not another player who's on his way out.
 
Heuge

Heuge

Starter
#10
#10
Bruce as anything other then a Ram seems wrong. Decent number 3 receiver. Hopefully for the Niners sake, that is his role.
 
VF21

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#11
#11
Heuge said:
Bruce as anything other then a Ram seems wrong. Decent number 3 receiver. Hopefully for the Niners sake, that is his role.
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And my fear is that he won't be the #3, but will be forced into a much more active role.

And I guess I'm just no more fond of seeing Bruce in a 49er uniforms than I would be seeing Devean George wearing Kings purple.

:p
 
Glenn

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#14
#14
Does anyone have an impression that the 49ers are mishandling their receivers? If Bruce ends up being the best receiver, and I think it's possible, it gives a good idea how they blew last year's signings.
 
Spike

Spike

Subsidiary Intermediary
Staff member
#15
#15
What quality receivers are currently on the open market? Oft-injured Stallworth signed for 7 yrs in Cleveland, Moss doesn't seem like someone Nolan wants to deal with...I don't think options exist. If anything, they should look to the draft for a WR. Where's Larry Legend to give us the rookie rundown?
 
CalBears1

CalBears1

G-League
#16
#16
Wr's flourish in Martz's system, and you can never have too many receivers when Mike Martz is your offensive coordinator. I would not worry about Bruce taking too many receptions away from the younger guys. Threre will be plenty of receptions to be had by everyone.
 
nebs

nebs

Starter
#17
#17
You know it's a bad WR Free Agency year when Bernard Berrian and Donte' Stallworth are the big names.

I think our offense will be MUCH improved now that we have an actual OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR. I dig the Bruce signing as well since he knows the Martz system. Oh yeah and Martz is known for finding no names and turning them into players. I like the Foster pickup as well. Who knows, we may still pick up a Javon Walker who was just released from Denver.

On D we added Justin Smith plus we'll have Manny Lawson back and Willis with a season under his belt.

And there is still other moves to look into.
 
CalBears1

CalBears1

G-League
#18
#18
nebs said:
You know it's a bad WR Free Agency year when Bernard Berrian and Donte' Stallworth are the big names.

I think our offense will be MUCH improved now that we have an actual OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR. I dig the Bruce signing as well since he knows the Martz system. Oh yeah and Martz is known for finding no names and turning them into players. I like the Foster pickup as well. Who knows, we may still pick up a Javon Walker who was just released from Denver.

On D we added Justin Smith plus we'll have Manny Lawson back and Willis with a season under his belt.

And there is still other moves to look into.
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I totally agree with you. I am happy with all of the signings so far, and I do not think that they are done. I also think that they are still going to draft a receiver with their 1st round pick, and what better receiver for him to learn from than Isaac Bruce!

I still would love for them to bring Lance Briggs in, but we'll see what happens. He cannot sign with anyone until this damn tamperring thing is resolved which should be in a couple of days.
 
VF21

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#19
#19
CalBears1 said:
Wr's flourish in Martz's system, and you can never have too many receivers when Mike Martz is your offensive coordinator. I would not worry about Bruce taking too many receptions away from the younger guys. Threre will be plenty of receptions to be had by everyone.
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Yeah, instead of worrying about who'll be catching I suppose I should be wondering who'll be throwing.

;)
 
CalBears1

CalBears1

G-League
#20
#20
Ya, we'll see about the QB situation. In Martz's system, most passes are short routes. He likes to throw short routes, and crossing routes, and he likes wr's that can catch the short pass and then make something happen. He said that he does not need Wr's with 4.3 speed in his system, and that he prefers WR's that can capitalize on YAC yards.(Yards after the catch) If Smith cannot do anything in this system, there really is no hope.

On a side note, Lance Briggs just resigned with the bears for 6 years, $36Mill.
 
nebs

nebs

Starter
#21
#21
I have the feeling Shaun Hill will do better in the Martz system. Who knows though, I suppose they will figure that out in camp. Just a random thought by me.

Funny after all that Briggs stuff over the last year he ends up settling in Chicago for what seems like a relatively small contract. (from what he was thinking he would get)
 
tubiscus

tubiscus

Bench
#22
#22
VF21 said:
Yeah, instead of worrying about who'll be catching I suppose I should be wondering who'll be throwing.

;)
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Ok, I know you have more faith in Artest passing the Wonderlic than you do in Alex Smith, but while I like Shaun Hill, I think Smith will excel in Martz' offense, as it's very similar to the spread offense he did well with at Utah. It was pretty obvious to me that he was still hurt when he tried to play last fall. He has to win the job as it's wide open right now. I think he will, although I'd rather we'd signed David Carr than J.T. O'Sullivan. I also think our younger receivers can learn a little from playing with Isaac Bruce.....and if it pi$$es off Ram fans, it's a bonus!!
 
B

BMiller52

All-Star
#23
#23
CalBears1 said:
Ya, we'll see about the QB situation. In Martz's system, most passes are short routes. He likes to throw short routes, and crossing routes, and he likes wr's that can catch the short pass and then make something happen. He said that he does not need Wr's with 4.3 speed in his system, and that he prefers WR's that can capitalize on YAC yards.(Yards after the catch) If Smith cannot do anything in this system, there really is no hope.

On a side note, Lance Briggs just resigned with the bears for 6 years, $36Mill.
Click to expand...

No most of the passes are long passes. Bruce and Holt were fast AND they had to be very precise rout runners. Martz loves the smurf recievers as well. He had Shaun McDonald putting up big numbers last year, he had Holt+Bruce in STL(both like exactly 6'0''), he drafted Kevin Curtis IIRC when in STL, he had Mike Furrey in Detroit, Az Zahir Hakim was 1 of his key players in STL, etc. All those guys were 6'0'' and under. You described more of a WCO but in fact Martz uses the same language as the coryell O. When Darrel Jackson came here from Seattle, he had to learn a whole new set of terms and stuff because Seattle runs the WCO. Martz has his own system but it's similar to the coryell offense, except he transformed it into something else and it's basically the Martz offense. But it's not like a WCO at all really.
 
CalBears1

CalBears1

G-League
#24
#24
BMiller52 said:
No most of the passes are long passes. Bruce and Holt were fast AND they had to be very precise rout runners. Martz loves the smurf recievers as well. He had Shaun McDonald putting up big numbers last year, he had Holt+Bruce in STL(both like exactly 6'0''), he drafted Kevin Curtis IIRC when in STL, he had Mike Furrey in Detroit, Az Zahir Hakim was 1 of his key players in STL, etc. All those guys were 6'0'' and under. You described more of a WCO but in fact Martz uses the same language as the coryell O. When Darrel Jackson came here from Seattle, he had to learn a whole new set of terms and stuff because Seattle runs the WCO. Martz has his own system but it's similar to the coryell offense, except he transformed it into something else and it's basically the Martz offense. But it's not like a WCO at all really.
Click to expand...
Just going off of what ESPN was saying, and also the San Francisco Chronicle. Mike Martz was quoted as saying that he does not need WR's with 4.3 speed, but that he needs receivers that can catch the crossing route and rack up YAC yards.
 
VF21

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#25
#25
tubiscus said:
Ok, I know you have more faith in Artest passing the Wonderlic than you do in Alex Smith, but while I like Shaun Hill, I think Smith will excel in Martz' offense, as it's very similar to the spread offense he did well with at Utah. It was pretty obvious to me that he was still hurt when he tried to play last fall. He has to win the job as it's wide open right now. I think he will, although I'd rather we'd signed David Carr than J.T. O'Sullivan. I also think our younger receivers can learn a little from playing with Isaac Bruce.....and if it pi$$es off Ram fans, it's a bonus!!
Click to expand...
Hope springs eternal. I'm still waiting to be impressed by Alex Smith. If you think this just might be the time when this happens, I'll wait and see.
 
nebs

nebs

Starter
#26
#26
Well I must say I added all the new guys to Madden 08 and let Alex and Shaun battle it out for the starting spot in pre-season. Hill won the spot. That should end any speculation. :p
 
LoungeLizard

LoungeLizard

Starter
#27
#27
nebs said:
Well I must say I added all the new guys to Madden 08 and let Alex and Shaun battle it out for the starting spot in pre-season. Hill won the spot. That should end any speculation. :p
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Madden has spoken.

"The problem with using your last time-out is you don't have any more left."

-John Madden
 
C Diddy

C Diddy

Starter
#28
#28
I like what we've done so far. We've picked up some great pieces.

I am really high on Justin Smith. He should flourish in our system and really help our pass rush. Our LBs on the outside will love having a DE that opposing teams will have to double consistently.

I don't know what we will get out of Isaac Bruce. His best years are behind him for sure, but could he really do any worse then Darrell Jackson and Arnaz Battle? He is a smart veteran and will make the underneath catches consistently. Maybe this will free up the seam for Vernon.

DeShaun Foster will give us a little insurance in case Gore goes down and comes to us at a decent price.

I don't really care too much about Allen Rossum. I liked what Maurice Hicks did last year returning kicks and Rossum's better days are past. I think the coaching staff remembers the return he had against us in the Falcons game last year and wanted to bring him in. He also comes to us pretty cheaply.


I am somewhat sad that we lost Justin Smiley, I think he is growing into a decent lineman and his best years are still coming. I wish we could of retained Derek Smith also, but with the injury history and young talented linebackers we have it didn't make much sense to pay him what he is getting from the Chargers.


I hope that Larry Allen comes back for another year. I think he still can play at a high level.
 
allrightythen

allrightythen

Starter
#29
#29
I Like the moves so far. Seem to be solid pickups mostly in areas of need.

None of it matters though if they produce some sort of offense and then a pass rush on defense. Didn't really do anything yet to address the pass rush situation so we'll see.
 
SLAB

SLAB

Hall of Famer
#30
#30
I still can't get thrilled about anything 49ers related until we have a QB that can get our offense the ball.

When you look at it, (On paper) we have solid, albeit not great, receivers. A freak of nature at TE who has shown flashes. One of the best RBs in the game, who can also catch the ball. It's all a matter of QB play, IMO.

Our defense is good, and Im not worried about it...Its just a matter of the QB keeping them off the field more than the time they were on last year.

Fingers crossed for a breakout from Alex.
 
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