Hey everyone. So I know I've written a lot of posts on baseball and the Giants and I've largely ignored football. For those of you who don't know, I have always been a 49ers fan. But when I moved to Denver I kind of stopped watching football. The short version is that because of local TV agreements, a team in a local market can't have another game being televised at the same time. That meant if the Broncos were playing an afternoon game on CBS, there was no game on Fox. So I didn't get to watch my team play unless they were playing a prime time game (Sunday night or Monday night). And really between 2003 and 2016 (the years I lived in Denver), they were really only good for 3 years (2011-2013). I'm still a fan though I am a baseball guy first. That said, I wanted to write a quick blog on some of the additions that the 49ers have made at the beginning of the 2019 league year.
So at first glance it looks like the 49ers are really wanting to improve their defense. From 2011-2014 the 49ers didn't finish below 5th in the league in yards allowed and coincidentally those were the most recent years that the team has finished .500 or above. The leaders of those defenses were unquestionably Patrick Willis and Navorro Bowman at inside linebacker. The 49ers have the makings of a new pair of studs with 2nd year player Fred Warner, who finished 2018 with 85 tackles, and the newly acquired Kwon Alexander, who played in only 6 games with Tampa Bay in 2018 before suffering an ACL injury. Alexander has averaged 8.3 tackles per game over his 4 years in the league. The other big move at the linebacker position was a trade with Kansas City to acquire pass-rusher Dee Ford. Ford finished 2018 with 13 sacks which would have been the highest total by a 49ers player since Aldon Smith finished 2012 with 19.5. Pair this with the 12 sacks registered by DeForest Buckner in 2018 and the 49ers have the makings of a dominating front 7. The other significant move on the defensive side of the ball was signing cornerback Jason Verrett from the Los Angeles Chargers. Verrett missed all of 2018 with an Achilles tear and has a pretty extensive injury history, but he was a Pro Bowl player as recently as 2015 and 27 years old so there is still some upside if he can stay healthy. In 2015 Verrett finished with 3 interceptions and 12 passes defended.
Now we turn our attention to the offense and the 49ers signed a running back that head coach Kyle Shanahan is very familiar with from his time in Atlanta, Tevin Coleman. Coleman was the #2 back in Atlanta behind Devonta Freeman, but started 14 games in 2018 after Freeman was injured. Coleman rushed for 800 yards and added another 276 in receiving yards. Coleman has excellent receiving skills out of the backfield as does Jerick McKinnon who is returning from an ACL injury. Add Matt Breida to this list and the 49ers look to employ a 3-headed beast at the running back position in 2019.
These are some good signings, but it seems that the 49ers are ignoring a significant skill position and that is wide receiver. Think back to Shanahan's days in Atlanta and you have to look at Julio Jones who is a superstar at the position. The 49ers definitely don't have a Julio Jones on the roster and it really doesn't look like anyone fits that mold on the free agent market. Granted the 49ers still have tight end George Kittle who not only set the 49ers single season record for receptions by a tight end with 88 in 2018, but also set the NFL single season record for yards by a tight end with 1,377. The 49ers finished last in the league in 2018 in red zone touchdown percentage at only 41.18% and they will need to figure out how to improve that mark if they hope to compete in 2019.
But hold the phone!!!!! As I was writing this, the 49ers have signed wide receiver Jordan Matthews. Matthews' best year was 2015 with the Philadelphia Eagles where he put up 85 receptions, 997 yards and 8 touchdowns. His last 2 years have been less productive as he's had 300 yards or less in each, but he only started 10 out of 24 games during those 2 years. Matthews does his best work after the catch and fun fact, 22 of his 26 career touchdowns have come in the red zone.
So there you go everyone. A quick snapshot of the 49ers offseason, and baseball season is right around the corner so things are good. Here's hoping that quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo can continue to build on the promise he showed in 2017 after missing the final 13 games of 2018 with a knee injury. As always, I invite comments, thoughts and opinions. Have a good day and thanks for reading.
