American Football (NFL, College, etc.)

Before the 2004 season, everyone was saying that the 49ers OL was Swiss cheese, any QB would get pounded behind that line.

It happened.

With Newberry back and healthy, it should be a better unit. Yeah, a good left tackle is one of the best friends of a right handed QB.
-PCM

PC

Yeah, this is one of those hold your breath and hope moments.

The O-Line was the weakest of a series of weak links in the Niners last year.

With Newberry back, you'll see an amazing difference in Smiley's play. His problem wasn't physical last year. He just didn't have any idea what he was doing.

It also means this new group of coaches understands that Kwame Harris isn't a left tackle. (I'd love to see him play Guard, but I'll take a move to RT and hope for the best.)

Man, fix the o-line and you transform the whole offense. Maybe the new guys understand that.

And the Niners have a new Offensive Left Tackle!

They paid through the nose to get him, but on the first day of free agency they went out and picked up the best veteran LT available. Very cool.

'Tis the season... so I thought I'd get this in here.

With every "expert" talking about the Niner's having the #1 pick in this year's draft, and arguing over who is the best QB, Aaron Rogers, or Alex Smith... I thought I'd bring up another name.

Stefan LaFors of Louisville.

Yup. He's only 6 ft. tall, and only weighs in at 200lbs. And he sure doesn't figure to be a first rounder.

But since the Niners are talking about moving back to the "WCO" (a name I hate) I thought I'd remind people that Coach Walsh always stressed Accuracy, Mobility when judging QB.

LaFors left Louisville with a 75% completion rate. Now that's accuracy.

He's faster than Garcia.

And the guy has something Garcia never had. A huge, NFL arm.

I don't think Rogers or Smith are worth the first pick in the draft. But if we could tag this kid with the first pick in the 3rd... I think we call this year's draft a success.

about a month away from the draft, and peter king of cnn writes that dallas is the most 'improved' team. is he serious??

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/peter_king/03/07/mmqb/index.html?cnn=yes

either he's a 9er fan in disguise, and he wants to give jj a big head so that he won't draft well, or......

How about them raiders as most improved? Added Moss, added Lamount Jordan, and resigned Porter and Woodson. Well although Woodson might be on his way to another team but it'd be nice to get some first rounders for him.

jholic

Yeah. This time of year, everybody's freakin' Kreskin.

I was just over at a football site where some guy announced the list of the ten official busts of the '05 draft.

Huh?

I thought it was annoying a few years ago when everyone with a keyboard became an "EXPERT".

But now that they think they can see into the future...

Ha, Geez, that's so true.

in other news, just heard that samari rolle signed with the ravens. man, i'd be confused if i were a raven fan. why the heck do we need defensive players? we have a pretty darn good defense as it is. uh, i think we need to work on that OFFENSE??

jholic

Why should the Ravens fans worry about their offense?

Brian Billick's an offensive genius. Just ask him.

Geezer wrote:Brian Billick's an offensive genius. Just ask him.

:lol: :lol:

jholic wrote:Ha, Geez, that's so true.

in other news, just heard that samari rolle signed with the ravens. man, i'd be confused if i were a raven fan. why the heck do we need defensive players? we have a pretty darn good defense as it is. uh, i think we need to work on that OFFENSE??

damn they just keep stacking that defense. I want to see a 2-0 win :hehe: :hehe:

Two bits of Niner news.

The Niner broadcasts have switched to KNBR radio. Not exciting, but what can I do... it's March.

The other is that it seems all the internet talk about the Niners signing WR David Boston was just that... internet talk.

Seems new Head Coach Mike Nolan isn't all that excited about signing a guy who hasn't played in over a year... can't pass a physical... has been busted on both dope and coke possession... has been suspended in the past for steroid use... and who was cut from his last two teams for missing meetings, and getting into fights with his coaches.

Gee. Nolan sounds pretty picky, don't you think?

Geezer wrote:Seems new Head Coach Mike Nolan isn't all that excited about signing a guy who hasn't played in over a year... can't pass a physical... has been busted on both dope and coke possession... has been suspended in the past for steroid use... and who was cut from his last two teams for missing meetings, and getting into fights with his coaches.

Sounds like Boston could play for the Oakland Raiders or the Portland Trail Blazers! :hehe: :rofl:
-PCM

in the past, he could've played for the cowboys. but now, we won't take you unless you're 70 and played for parcells before. :shakehead:

EDIT:
oh, forgot to mention that favre announced he's returning for another season.

so nfl draft's this weekend. who do you want your team to draft?

i'd like the 'boys to draft a new owner.

jholic wrote:so nfl draft's this weekend. who do you want your team to draft?

i'd like the 'boys to draft a new owner.

LOL, I don't think Jerry Jones would take kindly to that. :hehe:

But it would be a refreshing change.

Don't know. I don't see anyone being drafted that can help the Niners...if only Yao Ming was in the NFL draft...or not.

Switching gears . . . :hehe:

By the way, thanks ahochaude for helping to keep this thread alive. Bless ya, sir.

The NFL draft's this weekend . . . so you watch how T. Chang fares.

Aloha.

Impression15 wrote:Don't know. I don't see anyone being drafted that can help the Niners...if only Yao Ming was in the NFL draft...or not.

I don't see anyone being drafted who can fix the Niners. Who can return them instantly to elite team status.

But there are a lot of guys in this draft who can "help" the Niners.

Face it, when you're coming off a 2 & 14 season... it's not too hard to find guys who will be an improvement on what you had.

By the way. Expect the Niners to make a large jump back up in the standings next year.

People talk a lot about the stars. The QBs, RBs and WRs.

The fact is, the offense, any offense, starts with it's offensive line. And the Niners completely revamped their offensive line months before the draft.

2004: Kosier * Heitmann * Gutierrez * Smiley * Gragg

2005: Jennings * Smiley * Newberry * Heitmann * Harris

Huge difference.

I don't expect a championship season next year... but the team does figure to be an awful lot better.

I read (well, rather skimmed) the article in today's paper (Honolulu Advertiser Sports page) about Chang wanting to (how do I say?) "gong" sports predictors about the NFL draft. Hmmm, sounds interesting. Wonder if he'll make it to the big leagues. And if so, which team?