Isn’t it funny how a team named after mid nineteenth century, California gold rush miners gets no luck at coming up big? Seriously, even when they traveled out west nearly 200 years ago with nothing but clothes, picks and a little bit of food, they were still able to find gold.
Slowly, and sorry to say sadly, the days of striking gold with division championships, consistent playoff appearances, and super bowl trophies are slowly fading as distant, historical memories of a once dominant San Francisco 49ers team. With no world titles since 1995 and no playoff appearances or a winning record since 2003; the idea of winning is a term that is preached consistently, but not concurrent with the organization.
After losing to the Rams 25-17 in week sixteen of the 2010 NFL season, the 49ers fired coach Mike Singletary and appeared focus on rebuilding for the fourth time since that last playoff hurrah in 2002. A familiar sound fills the sports news cycles after team President Jed York explains where the team is going and what they will be looking for in a new coach and general manager in the off season.
“Obviously we had expectations of being a playoff-caliber team this year. When that was not realized, I wanted to make sure we were setting ourselves up for the remainder of the season but more importantly for next season,” York explains in a follow-up to the Singletary firing, according to a Yahoo! Sports article. “I think it’s important to get somebody that’s the right fit for the 49ers.”
Can someone take the needle off the spinning, broken record please?
Although the words are different from before, the meaning is still the same in regards to what direction the 49ers are going. Each choice for head coach made since firing Steve Mariucci had the York “stamp of approval” as the new great mind to lead the team back into the promise land. Yet, Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan, and now Mike Singletary are all just fake messiahs that would only digress the team farther away from where they began.
So what is Niner nation supposed to believe now? York is saying he is going to find the general manager first and give that person supreme authority over the choice of head coach. The 29-year-old president is also going seek help from his uncle, and former 49ers President, Eddie DeBartalo Jr. and New England Patriots President Jonathan Kraft in whom to choose for the position. Ultimately, his assumption is that all this will help rotate the direction of the team going upward.
That’s a nice blueprint for York to have as he focuses ahead; the only problem is that there are still parts of the plan that need tinkering.
Losing out the last game and missing the playoffs could actually be a blessing in disguise for the niners. Had they gone ahead and won against the Rams and the Cardinals in week seventeen, they would have won the division en route to the post season. Yet, that happiness would only be fulfilling their fan base for the short term, as it would mask the bigger issues of the future. The franchise would benefit in the long run with high draft choices and a sense of changing the look of the team, rather than winning the NFC West and carrying the feeling of accomplishment that comes with winning.
Now that the path of the post-2010 season is going in the direction of rebuilding for the future, York needs to understand that the ability to become a winner and carrying that momentum consistently means improving on all levels. Obviously, the head coaching change reflects that concept, as does getting a new general manager to make the right decisions for the team; but it also means putting the team’s player personnel under the microscope. The biggest red flags will come from two locations, the inefficiency of the quarterback position and the lackluster level of talent in the secondary.
When Singletary was shown the door out of the 49ers organization, it also signifies that changes in player personnel will be in the near future. That most likely means good-bye to a Smith at quarterback, maybe even both Smiths. Alex Smith’s tenure with the team appears to be over and Troy Smith is definitely not the long term answer as the face of the franchise. So the third box on York’s to-do-list will be to get a new face for the franchise after getting the mastermind (general manager) and the leader (head coach).
The next item on the agenda will focus upon the pass defense. By far the Achilles heal of the defense, fans would groan in utter disgust with the ease as to which the opposing quarterbacks would carve up the 49ers secondary like a turkey on thanksgiving night. All of their corners are either shorter than or just at the six foot in height, with no ability to cover. With many of today’s NFL teams focusing their offense on innovation through the air, all football organizations must be able to not only attack vertically, but to defend vertically as well.
Regardless of what happens in the final game of the season and what choices the franchise makes with the roster in the near future, York will be making moves that will ultimately have him thinking like he’s on the last hand at the final table of the World Series Of Poker; he’s going to be all in for this one. With the recent wave of bad decisions and changes he wishes he could turn back time to redo, this upcoming off season will surely overwrite all of the historical, incorrect results he has made. His legacy will be forever etched in 49ers history with what he enters the 2011 NFL season with.
So maybe…just maybe…history can be on his side and the 49ers can strike gold once again.
