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N4L

N4L

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Everyone keeps talking about our secondary but I am actually more worried about our LBs.

We have a complete unknown in Kwon, then a bunch of unspectacular players. Everyone overvalues warner imo, he is solid but not special. He is very solid to above average in coverage with his length, but he is pretty average against the run and doesnt make splash plays. He had some very good games early but I dont really think he improved as the season went on. I understand he was a rookie and I am hoping he does take a step forward, because there was more room for improvement than the general fanbase wants to admit. He is a solid, NFL level starter though. Not a bad player by any stretch of the imagination. 

Outside of those two guys, I really dont see anything I like. Elijah lee is horrible and if he sees the field for meaningful snaps we are screwed. The guy was out of position, guessed a lot, missed tackles. even when he did make tackles, they were down the field after the other team got a first down. He has good speed and athleticism but is simply not a good LB. He is an ok special teams guy though. 

Malcom smith is malcom smith. This will be his final year here. What a terrible contract but he is by far the most veteran LB we have and will make the roster by default. 

Greenlaw didnt exactly get me excited with his tape from college. I will reserve judgement but I also am not expecting a lot. 

Thats it. Those 5 guys are all we have right now. I doubt Nczoacha makes the team as he hasnt shown anything (its actually kind of disrespectful that he has bowman's number tbh). I dont even know who else we have at LB. We are one injury away from having a giant friggen hole in the middle of our defense. (Hell, who am I kidding? the injury has already happened since kwon probably isnt ready yet)

I have no idea who is supposed to play SAM out of those guys either. Probably some combination of warner, malcom smith, dee ford and bosa/wide 9/nickle? 

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757-NINER

757-NINER

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4 hours ago, N4L said:

Everyone keeps talking about our secondary but I am actually more worried about our LBs.

We have a complete unknown in Kwon, then a bunch of unspectacular players. Everyone overvalues warner imo, he is solid but not special. He is very solid to above average in coverage with his length, but he is pretty average against the run and doesnt make splash plays. He had some very good games early but I dont really think he improved as the season went on. I understand he was a rookie and I am hoping he does take a step forward, because there was more room for improvement than the general fanbase wants to admit. He is a solid, NFL level starter though. Not a bad player by any stretch of the imagination. 

Outside of those two guys, I really dont see anything I like. Elijah lee is horrible and if he sees the field for meaningful snaps we are screwed. The guy was out of position, guessed a lot, missed tackles. even when he did make tackles, they were down the field after the other team got a first down. He has good speed and athleticism but is simply not a good LB. He is an ok special teams guy though. 

Malcom smith is malcom smith. This will be his final year here. What a terrible contract but he is by far the most veteran LB we have and will make the roster by default. 

Greenlaw didnt exactly get me excited with his tape from college. I will reserve judgement but I also am not expecting a lot. 

Thats it. Those 5 guys are all we have right now. I doubt Nczoacha makes the team as he hasnt shown anything (its actually kind of disrespectful that he has bowman's number tbh). I dont even know who else we have at LB. We are one injury away from having a giant friggen hole in the middle of our defense. (Hell, who am I kidding? the injury has already happened since kwon probably isnt ready yet)

I have no idea who is supposed to play SAM out of those guys either. Probably some combination of warner, malcom smith, dee ford and bosa/wide 9/nickle? 

Our LBs are fine. They're not gonna set the world on fire but they should be pretty solid. Kwon has his warts but he's a dynamic player when he's on. Above average in coverage and has made splash plays his entire career. If the front can keep him clean, he should be a impact player. Just has to shore up his tackling. Plus having him exclusively on the outside should maximize his skill set, as he played Mike in TB mostly and I never thought he was a great fit in the middle. 

Warner should be sooooo much better as a second year player. Started off with a bang against the Vikes. Came back down to earth afterwards but his game picked up the last 4 weeks of the season. He has everything you want in the middle. Good size, fluid athlete, smart, good tackler, and great in coverage. The more he plays, the more impact he will have. He may not be as instinctual as Foster but I can live with a guy who's where he's supposed to be, when he's supposed to be there and makes plays in the process. 

As far as the SAM, with the implement of the Wide 9, we're moving away from the prototype for this scheme being a hybrid type of 3-4 OLB/4-3 DE. It was a topic of discussion by the beat writers all during OTAs so the SAM will be a traditional 4-3 OLB going forward. That being said, the job probably goes to Smith or Lee at least intitally. I think Greenlaw will probably be Kwon's back-up in case his knee isn't fully recovered...just a hunch. I would pay attention to the rookie Al-Shaair. He may start camp on the PUP but he was a tackling machine in college until he torn his ACL last October. He recovered enough to do positional drills at his Pro-Day and if he's healthy he could be a surprise.

But I think we'll be fine. If the front four can live up to their capabilities, the LBs should feast. I like Kwon@WILL and Warner@Mike. That's two guys with good speed, who cover alot of ground in coverage. Whoever we put@Sam should be fine next to those two.

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y2lamanaki

y2lamanaki

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Great post, @757-NINER. I think that basically sums up what I think of our scenario, though my guess is Al-Shaair doesn't factor into the 2019 team. I'm not sure where he is in recovery, but I think there is enough relative depth in the linebackers that he can be brought along slowly and spend the full year on NFI. 

But, I don't have many problems with our linebacker group. I think coverage-wise they could be among the best, and the reality of today's NFL is that is most important. I feel very good there.

And while I think we will be mediocre against the run, I still have hope. The main thing I want to see in Warner's development is more explosiveness in attacking the runner. If he can stop allowing a few extra yards per carry by driving backs backwards, we'll be fine. 

EDIT

It should also be noted that the 2018 team finished 7th in yards/carry allowed, and all we did was improve the roster talent. The Wide 9 could hurt some, but there's not much reason in my view to expect a big leap backward in that regard.

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rudyZ

rudyZ

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On 2019-07-25 at 6:20 AM, y2lamanaki said:

They were fair - they mentioned Kittle and Warner as picks identified by coaches:

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/49ers/nfl-rumors-kyle-shanahan-john-lynch-have-demoralized-49ers-scouts

If scouts are demoralized by not being listened to, they should just suck it up. It's not their fault. They also won't shoulder the blame. When my boss takes decisions I disagree with, I just shrug it off and move on, and know it's not my fault if it doesn't work out. I get paid either way and I know I'm doing my job as best as I can. Oftentimes, scouts survive GMs. That should count for something. 

To me, the Thomas pick was purely a Lynch pick, a character over talent type of pick, an image pick. If the scouts, media or fans didn't agree, too bad, it happened. We'll judge Lynch for that, not the scouts.

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757-NINER

757-NINER

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1 hour ago, y2lamanaki said:

Great post, @757-NINER. I think that basically sums up what I think of our scenario, though my guess is Al-Shaair doesn't factor into the 2019 team. I'm not sure where he is in recovery, but I think there is enough relative depth in the linebackers that he can be brought along slowly and spend the full year on NFI. 

But, I don't have many problems with our linebacker group. I think coverage-wise they could be among the best, and the reality of today's NFL is that is most important. I feel very good there.

And while I think we will be mediocre against the run, I still have hope. The main thing I want to see in Warner's development is more explosiveness in attacking the runner. If he can stop allowing a few extra yards per carry by driving backs backwards, we'll be fine. 

EDIT

It should also be noted that the 2018 team finished 7th in yards/carry allowed, and all we did was improve the roster talent. The Wide 9 could hurt some, but there's not much reason in my view to expect a big leap backward in that regard.

 I would like to add that I am not a big fan of the Wide 9 so it remains to be seen how it fits our personnel. I think it will hurt us in defending the run if it is primarily what we run. I have no problem with it sprinkled in, here and there in nickel packages but as a every-down type of shceme I think it is very susceptible against better O-Lines and OCs. I know Schwartz revived in Philly with their SB run. Only time will tell whether or not it works for us.

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Justone2

Justone2

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4 hours ago, rudyZ said:

If scouts are demoralized by not being listened to, they should just suck it up. It's not their fault. They also won't shoulder the blame. When my boss takes decisions I disagree with, I just shrug it off and move on, and know it's not my fault if it doesn't work out. I get paid either way and I know I'm doing my job as best as I can. Oftentimes, scouts survive GMs. That should count for something. 

To me, the Thomas pick was purely a Lynch pick, a character over talent type of pick, an image pick. If the scouts, media or fans didn't agree, too bad, it happened. We'll judge Lynch for that, not the scouts.

To me reports coming out about scouts nog being happy about decisions says more about the scout than what actually happened. I always take reports like those with a huge grain of salt because simply when you leak those things it tells me a lot about the person. Does it mean that picks like the Williams one are highly suspect yeah ofcours because there is a reason the guy wasn't on our draft board but when a pick like that turns out right the same scout that was against it will be on the front line claiming it was such a good find. Give me the guy who does his job the best he can and in the end sometimes the higher ups will make a different decision on feedback from other parts which is what their job is and what they will be judged on. 

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