Mike Sando hosting a 49ers chat shortly

[Smalls]

I'm not ESPN's biggest fan, but appreciate the job he's done. At 1 pm EST (a few minutes from now), as part of ESPN launching their new NFL Nation stuff with 32 team sites/bloggers/etc, Sando is going to host a 49ers specific chat. I thought some might be interested.

 

[NinerSickness]

I'm sure you have to have a Facebook account to comment on their stupid ESPN bullshit chats, so that leaves me out. Never got one of those. I took the red pill and live in the real world (except when I'm talking about football).

 

[Jikkle]

2013 NFL season predictions - NFL Nation Blog - ESPN

So much for Sando being respectable.

The only way I see us going 10-6 if we get hit with the injury bug.

Overall I think the team is in better shape than it was last season so I don't see how you can predict such a drop off.

 

[Breaker99]

Seattle Sando

 

[Crimsoncrew]

I'm very interested to see what Seattle does this year. They've got a brutal road schedule, facing the division, Carolina, Houston, Indy, Atlanta, and the Giants in December. All the games outside the division are early starts. It's not too hard to imagine each of those out-of-division teams making the playoffs, and I think there's a chance they look past the Panthers because they face us the following week. Even last year they struggled on the road. Obviously they have the talent to be one of if not the best team in the league, but I want to see them show that they can maintain their level of play on the road before I hand them the division.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Seattle Sando

On paper it's a fair assessment. They were breathing down our necks last year - granted with the Smith brothers hampered late - and they made improvements this offseason while, at least on paper, we got a bit worse.

 

[Jikkle]

On paper it's a fair assessment. They were breathing down our necks last year - granted with the Smith brothers hampered late - and they made improvements this offseason while, at least on paper, we got a bit worse.

I think we're a bit better actually especially when Crabtree returns.

Offensive line might be better since guys like Iupati, Davis, and especially Boone haven't hit their ceilings yet.

WR corp outside of the Crabtree loss is better. Boldin is going to be far more useful than Moss and everybody is going to be more useful than Ginn and Jenkins.

RB I say we're roughly the same.

TE could go either way. Davis sounds like he might be more a productive pass catcher and we just don't know for sure what McDonald is going to bring to the table this year especially compared to what Walker brought last season.

DL I think we're better with Williams at NT and the depth overall has improved.

OLB we're better

ILB about the same

Secondary might be the one are you could say we got worse. Cox I believe will be better but we still haven't seen Nnamdi and Reid really get tested yet though. Brown and Rogers I expect will be par for the course.

Most importantly I expect Kaepernick to be much better with getting those early starts last season out of the way and having a full offseason as the number 1 guy. So I expect the offense to be much more creative this season than last.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Wanted to point out that while Sando wrote the Niners' prediction piece, Terry Blount did the Hawks.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

I think we're a bit better actually especially when Crabtree returns.

Offensive line might be better since guys like Iupati, Davis, and especially Boone haven't hit their ceilings yet.

WR corp outside of the Crabtree loss is better. Boldin is going to be far more useful than Moss and everybody is going to be more useful than Ginn and Jenkins.

RB I say we're roughly the same.

TE could go either way. Davis sounds like he might be more a productive pass catcher and we just don't know for sure what McDonald is going to bring to the table this year especially compared to what Walker brought last season.

DL I think we're better with Williams at NT and the depth overall has improved.

OLB we're better

ILB about the same

Secondary might be the one are you could say we got worse. Cox I believe will be better but we still haven't seen Nnamdi and Reid really get tested yet though. Brown and Rogers I expect will be par for the course.

Most importantly I expect Kaepernick to be much better with getting those early starts last season out of the way and having a full offseason as the number 1 guy. So I expect the offense to be much more creative this season than last.

I agree that if you take a close look at it we are better, and very well may be on the field. We have more experience and depth at most positions. Our QB also has more room to improve as he didn't get an offseason as the starter, and our coaches have an offseason to create an offense for him. That said, on paper we've suffered some big losses. The Crabtree injury hurts and is not fully offset by picking up Boldin, Manningham is still out, Reid is a downgrade from Goldson (granted he's looked good to date), and we lost two experienced DL. I think it's entirely possible that NT will actually be upgraded, OLB should be better with some rotating, and the OL has another year to gel. Just saying I can see the reasoning behind ranking the Hawks ahead.

 

[Jikkle]

I agree that if you take a close look at it we are better, and very well may be on the field. We have more experience and depth at most positions. Our QB also has more room to improve as he didn't get an offseason as the starter, and our coaches have an offseason to create an offense for him. That said, on paper we've suffered some big losses. The Crabtree injury hurts and is not fully offset by picking up Boldin, Manningham is still out, Reid is a downgrade from Goldson (granted he's looked good to date), and we lost two experienced DL. I think it's entirely possible that NT will actually be upgraded, OLB should be better with some rotating, and the OL has another year to gel. Just saying I can see the reasoning behind ranking the Hawks ahead.

I don't have a problem with the Hawks being ahead I just take issue with the 10-6 prediction.

If they said the Hawks were going 13-3 and the 9ers 12-4 I wouldn't take issue with that at all.

While I personally believe we'll win the division I can fully buy and understand an argument for the Seahawks to do so as well.

 

[EaseUrStorm]

Don't want to rain on the parade, but don't think 10-6 is a major stretch primarily because there's a big bulls eye pinned on us. Teams should be much more capable defending the read-option, Crabtree is out, Gore is wearing down, and the division is getting really tough. Things will depend a lot on how we come out of the gate. Even with Kaep playing really good, I think this year will be tough because everyone's trying to knock us down.

A 13 game win this year would be really impressive, but 10 wins would be more realistic with that big target on us. We just need to get into the playoffs though and then no one will want that matchup.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Does anyone have a link to the actual chat? I can't find it.

 

[Smalls]

Live chat: Your San Francisco 49ers questions - ESPN

 

[Breaker99]

I think we're a bit better actually especially when Crabtree returns.

Offensive line might be better since guys like Iupati, Davis, and especially Boone haven't hit their ceilings yet.

WR corp outside of the Crabtree loss is better. Boldin is going to be far more useful than Moss and everybody is going to be more useful than Ginn and Jenkins.

RB I say we're roughly the same.

TE could go either way. Davis sounds like he might be more a productive pass catcher and we just don't know for sure what McDonald is going to bring to the table this year especially compared to what Walker brought last season.

DL I think we're better with Williams at NT and the depth overall has improved.

OLB we're better

ILB about the same

Secondary might be the one are you could say we got worse. Cox I believe will be better but we still haven't seen Nnamdi and Reid really get tested yet though. Brown and Rogers I expect will be par for the course.

Most importantly I expect Kaepernick to be much better with getting those early starts last season out of the way and having a full offseason as the number 1 guy. So I expect the offense to be much more creative this season than last.

Does anyone else think that Goldson was over rated? He didn't do anthing for us until we got a great defensive line together and drafted Aldon Smith and became a dominate pass rushing team. Look at his stats. His first four years were entirely forgettable. I am not saying he didn't also improve, or that he wasn't a punishing hitter, but people acting like we lost some major talent have way too high opinion of Goldson.

Although the loss of culliver will be hard to overcome, Nnamdi looks good so far, and Terrell Brown is probably the most under rated CB in the league (he has 29 passes defensed and 6 INT"s in the past two years), although he certainly benefited from our pass rush as well. At any rate, I seriously think this secondary could be considerably better than it was last year.

 

[Jikkle]

Don't want to rain on the parade, but don't think 10-6 is a major stretch primarily because there's a big bulls eye pinned on us. Teams should be much more capable defending the read-option, Crabtree is out, Gore is wearing down, and the division is getting really tough. Things will depend a lot on how we come out of the gate. Even with Kaep playing really good, I think this year will be tough because everyone's trying to knock us down.

A 13 game win this year would be really impressive, but 10 wins would be more realistic with that big target on us. We just need to get into the playoffs though and then no one will want that matchup.

The "target" argument and the whole "won't catch anyone by surprise" argument are highly overrated in sports.

The Patriots have had a target on their backs for a decade and they still pump out 11+ seasons on a yearly basis.

Along with the Colts when they had Peyton Manning.

The great teams impose their will on the lesser teams no matter how badly those teams want to beat them.

We easily have one of the best rosters in sports so I'm still expecting 12 to 13 wins this season (barring a case of the injury bug)

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Does anyone else think that Goldson was over rated? He didn't do anthing for us until we got a great defensive line together and drafted Aldon Smith and became a dominate pass rushing team. Look at his stats. His first four years were entirely forgettable. I am not saying he didn't also improve, or that he wasn't a punishing hitter, but people acting like we lost some major talent have way too high opinion of Goldson.

Although the loss of culliver will be hard to overcome, Nnamdi looks good so far, and Terrell Brown is probably the most under rated CB in the league (he has 29 passes defensed and 6 INT"s in the past two years), although he certainly benefited from our pass rush as well. At any rate, I seriously think this secondary could be considerably better than it was last year.

Yes, I would agree that Goldson was somewhat overrated. I think he developed into a very good player, but I don't think he was necessarily an elite player. He can deliver a big hit, and he has a pretty good nose for the ball, but I don't think he has great instincts for FS, or the speed to consistently break on the ball. It seemed like a lot of his picks came on deflections or blatant overthrows.

He did have some huge plays, though. I don't know that I'll ever forget when he lit up Hernandez in the Pats game - Hernandez played scared the rest of the game.

 

[Jikkle]

He did have some huge plays, though. I don't know that I'll ever forget when he lit up Hernandez in the Pats game - Hernandez played scared the rest of the game.

On the flip side I'll never forget him letting Julio Jones run right by him to get a TD in the NFC Championship game.

But I agree he's on the overrated side but still a good S. He had quite a few nice breakups that saved some big plays but overall he wasn't great in coverage which sucked for us because Whitner was even worse in coverage.

My hope for Reid is he can be better in coverage and eventually we replace Whitner and pair Reid up with a true coverage S and let Reid be that enforcer big hitter type with some coverage ability.

 

[dredinis21]

On the flip side I'll never forget him letting Julio Jones run right by him to get a TD in the NFC Championship game.

But I agree he's on the overrated side but still a good S. He had quite a few nice breakups that saved some big plays but overall he wasn't great in coverage which sucked for us because Whitner was even worse in coverage.

My hope for Reid is he can be better in coverage and eventually we replace Whitner and pair Reid up with a true coverage S and let Reid be that enforcer big hitter type with some coverage ability.

He seemed to have a nose for the ball, a true ballhawk with hitting power. His overall coverage skills weren't the best, but damn did he have a knack for getting to the receiver at the same time as the ball.

 

[Breaker99]

Some good ones...

 

[MHSL82]

2013 NFL season predictions - NFL Nation Blog - ESPN

So much for Sando being respectable.

The only way I see us going 10-6 if we get hit with the injury bug.

Overall I think the team is in better shape than it was last season so I don't see how you can predict such a drop off.

I don't see it so much as a big drop off but rather precluding improvement. 11-4-1 to 10-6 is just turning a tie and a win to losses. But I expect us to do the reverse - change a loss and a tie to wins (13-3) - just from us getting better. Latter half of the schedule could help that or improve that, but I won't predict it.