Negative on the Niners?
PHOTO: KYLE TERADA
Your Jock Blog author was accused of such saltiness today by a few of our loyal listeners.
How so? Perhaps because I dared muse that the absence of Brandon Aiyuk, the injuries to Ricky Pearsall, the memories of a gashed run defense from last January and the all-around blah of a Super Bowl hangover dared bring a few clouds to our normally sunny mornings on KNBR.
Fair? Unfair? An accurate assessment of a team that may get off to a slow start? Or just another nattering nabob of negativism, as the late Spiro Agnew was just explaining to producer Young Tony in our show-ending segment?
Before the familiar sight of 49ers and Raiders helmets give us a preseason dopamine hit tonight, let’s take a moment to assess.
What has gone well for the 49ers this summer? What I think is an honest list would go as follows:
- Brock Purdy has had an entire offseason of health and reps.
- Fred Warner and Nick Bosa are still on the team.
- Some of the rookies — in particular, OL Dom Puni and DBs Renardo Green and Malk Mustapha — have shown they can hang at NFL speed, at least thus far.
- Y’all got anything else? Christian McCaffrey’s wedding looked like fun?
What has *not* gone well for the 49ers? What I think is an honest list would go as follows:
- Brandon Aiyuk has become the Bay Area’s biggest headache since Yasiel Puig.
- Trent Williams pulled a surprise holdout, although most of us believe the Big Fella is so talented and solid that skipping camp may be doable. Still . . .
- First-round draft pick Ricky Pearsall has been MIA with lingering injuries to a hamstring and a shoulder.
4) Talanoa Hufanga may start the year on the Physically Unable to Perform List.
5) Dre Greenlaw’s Achilles remains a painful memory from last February in Las Vegas.
6) As fun as Christian McCaffrey’s wedding may have been, his calf strain has kept him off the field all month. Though he’s been a ridiculous workhorse since arriving in Santa Clara (16 starts last year), remember that McCaffrey only started 10 games combined in 2020 and 2021 in Carolina because of injuries.
There was also the weird stuff with Kyle Shanahan not calling plays in the first two preseason games. However, Shanahan explained that as he’s grown as a coach, he wants to give younger coaches a shot. I’ll buy that.
Let’s be clear. I am not giving up on the 2024 49ers season. They remain one of the NFC’s best, even with the surging Lions and Packers and always-nettlesome Eagles lurking. And I am not disregarding the Rams’ young defense, or the new coaching blood in Seattle. I am disregarding the Arizona Cardinals, for the record.
This is simply a vibe check, and the vibes are not super vibey.
Some of you just read the headline on a KNBR Insta or TikTok or Twitter and scroll past, sighing, “Murph’s cranky and wrong, and the Niners are gonna be great, on to the next Jock Blog.” I’m just asking you to consider looking at the team through a rational lens. I posted a JB back in late July before I left on vacation, with some warning signs about what I thought could be a “Bummer Summer”. And here we are, a month later, and the summer remains a bummer.
Good thing the team hasn’t played a game yet. I don’t even want to imagine the Jock Blog after a loss to the Jets.
Now, just give me those Raiders and Niners uniforms on my TV tonight, and I’ll feel better about the whole thing.