49ers eroding? Or not?

Darnell Dockett: We will still win

Josh Alper

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/07/darnell-dockett-we-will-still-win/

The 49ers lost another player last week when right tackle Anthony Davis said that he would “be back in a year or so” after allowing his brain and body time to heal while sitting out the 2015 season.

Davis joined linebackers Patrick Willis and Chris Borland and defensive end Justin Smith in stepping away from football entirely while players like cornerback Chris Culliver, running back Frank Gore and guard Mike Iupati will be playing elsewhere after leaving the team as free agents. All of those departures came after coach Jim Harbaugh, offensive coordinator Greg Roman and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio left the team and the end result for many is a feeling that the 49ers will be taking a step backward in 2015.

It’s not everyone’s feeling, however. Defensive end Darnell Dockett joined the team this offseason and has faith that all will work out.

“Don’t ask me about who’s retired and what’s going on with football this and that,” Dockett wrote on Twitter. “We will still WIN! Just watch! The story in the end will be that much better!!!!”

Dockett’s right about how good a story it would be if the 49ers do succeed on the field come the fall, but narrative appeal rarely determines winners and losers in the NFL. The 49ers are going to need several new pieces, including Dockett, of their on-the-fly overhaul to make a big impact immediately and finding the happy ending to that story has stymied many teams in the past.

The 49ers’ Turmoil Could Open the Rams’ Path to the NFC West

Anthony Stalter

http://www.101sports.com/2015/06/09/the-49ers-turmoil-could-open-the-rams-path-to-the-nfc-west/

Is that the sound of a door opening?

With drastic changes on every front for the San Francisco 49ers, the path to the NFC West crown is looking just a bit easier to travel.

Of course, the Rams have had their changes, replacing three starters along the offensive line, trading their one-time starting quarterback, and selecting a running back coming off an ACL injury as the face of their draft.

But, considering what the 49ers have dealt with this offseason, the on-field uncertainty for St. Louis pales in comparison.

Off-field uncertainty (read: relocation) is a topic for another day.

In one offseason the Niners have changed their head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator. They’ve also seen Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Anthony Davis and Chris Borland announce their retirements.

Davis says he’ll return in a year or two, but he’ll nonetheless be absent along San Francisco’s offensive line in 2015.

Also, Mike Iupati, Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree and Chris Culliver will be playing somewhere besides Levi’s Stadium next year.

That’s a lot of turnover for one season.

With that level of change, it’s too much to envision the Niners improving on their 8-8 record from a year ago. Granted, they still have quarterback Colin Kaepernick. SanFran also drafted Gore’s replacement in Carlos Hyde last year, and added Reggie Bush, Torrey Smith, Darnell Dockett and first-round selection Arik Armstead to soften the blow of their offseason losses. With the signing of Torrey Smith, they even upgraded over what they previously had.

The fact remains that San Francisco faces the challenge of having to replace several core pieces in one offseason.

Recent Super Bowl winners Seattle, New England, Green Bay, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh emphasized how important it is to hit on draft picks. Successful NFL teams build their foundations through the draft, not free agency. General managers can’t be perfect when it comes to adding talent via the draft, but they’d better be consistent when it comes to scouting talent.

It’s no coincidence that the 49ers had a string of success after drafting Gore, Willis, Iupati, Kaepernick, Crabtree, Anthony Davis, NaVorro Bowman, Aldon Smith, Vernon Davis and Joe Staley between 2005 and 2011. A team can build around a core like that.

Throw in sound free agent or trade acquisitions Justin Smith, Anquan Boldin, Donte Whitner and Carlos Rogers, and that’s how a team plays three consecutive NFC title games.

But the Niners received next to nothing from their 2012 draft and are now without Gore, Willis, Smith, Davis, Iupati and Crabtree (not that he’s been the same since undergoing surgery in 2013 to repair a torn Achilles tendon).

Bowman also recently acknowledged that the knee injury he suffered in the NFC championship two years ago is still giving him problems, offering another bleak forecast for San Fran’s linebacker corps.

All of this puts more pressure on the 49ers’ 2013, 2014 and 2015 draft classes to make a significant impact this season, as well as Kaepernick not regressing as a passer. Great quarterback play can mask weaknesses, but Kaepernick hasn’t shown signs of improvement over the past two years. In fact, his interception rate and sack totals are up over the past two seasons, while his yards per pass attempt and QB rating are down.

Granted, it’s not on any one player to win games in the NFL.

But that’s also the point: Kaepernick has less talent around him this year than at any point in his career. If he can’t elevate his play, then it’s not feasible that the 49ers will overcome significant change in one offseason and make a serious run at a playoff berth.

Enter, the St. Louis Rams.

It would be convenient to be optimistic about the Rams’ offseason changes and wonder if the 49ers can withstand theirs. Plus, just because the Niners are due for a decline (they were also 6-2 in one-score games last year, which is another indication they’re susceptible to a regression), doesn’t mean the Rams will gain the wins they need to reach the postseason under Jeff Fisher.

So, how about Arizona?

With Carson Palmer coming off his second ACL injury and Todd Bowles (the mastermind behind the Cardinals’ 2014 defense) now the head coach of the Jets, the Cardinals could be due for a decline as well.

How many times can Arizona defy logic and win with average or below average quarterback production? Just ask the Rams. For as great as Bruce Arians is, at some point the Cardinals will fall off that tightrope.

So, change isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The shift in dynamics in the NFC West this offseason puts even more pressure on Fisher and Co. to finally produce a playoff berth in St. Louis.

Nobody is ignoring St. Louis’ question marks heading into the 2015 season, but suddenly the division, outside of powerhouse Seattle, looks less daunting than it did over the past three years.

The 49ers’ Turmoil Could Open the Rams’ Path to the NFC West

Anthony Stalter

http://www.101sports.com/2015/06/09/the-49ers-turmoil-could-open-the-rams-path-to-the-nfc-west/

Is that the sound of a door opening?

With drastic changes on every front for the San Francisco 49ers, the path to the NFC West crown is looking just a bit easier to travel.

Rams look poised to surpass 49ers in NFC West

By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/19076/rams-look-poised-to-surpass-the-49ers-in-nfc-west

EARTH CITY, Mo. — The mass exodus that has taken place in San Francisco this offseason has many wondering just how far the 49ers are going to fall off in 2015.

———–

49ers’ Eric Reid has considered retiring because of concussions

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/09/49ers-eric-reid-has-considered-retiring-because-of-concussions/

Michael David Smith

The 49ers have lost 24-year-old Chris Borland and 25-year-old Anthony Davis to surprise retirements this season, with both players citing concussions as one of the reasons for walking away. And now an even younger 49ers player is saying he has considered walking away as well.

Eric Reid, the 49ers’ 23-year-old safety, told the San Francisco Chronicle that although he does plan to play this year, he has given thought to retiring because he has already suffered three concussions in his first two NFL seasons.

“I will continue to evaluate my own situation. If I have another concussion and I don’t feel like I can play any more, then I won’t. If I [have another concussion], and if I feel that I still can play, then I will. It’s just a case-by-case basis,” Reid said. “I know it’s a huge deal right now in the NFL and everything is being put under a microscope, but that’s how every injury is. It could be a dislocated shoulder. You evaluate your situation and see if you’re healthy enough to still play.”

Reid missed the final game of last season because of a concussion. He says he now feels fully recovered, but he is also seeking more medical opinions.

“There is a doctor that I’m looking further into and I may end up going to see,” Reid said. “Like I said, right now I’ve evaluated my situation and I feel comfortable playing.”

The 49ers, who have lost Patrick Willis and Justin Smith to retirements in addition to Borland and Davis, have to hope that Reid continues to feel comfortable playing.

==============

from MMQB

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/06/09/nfl-randall-cobb-green-bay-packers-new-orleans-saints-bruce-arians-arizona-cardinals/

I think it’s bizarre that 49ers right tackle Anthony Davis, at this stage in his career, has decided to take a sabbatical. But at least he did it after signing his lucrative second contract. True, he may ultimately lose some of the signing bonus, but the second contract would not have come up in the first place if he’d pulled this stunt while still on his rookie deal. Davis would be viewed like Jonathan Martin: too much of an emotional wild card to take a significant chance on.

Davis is better than Martin ever was, but the Niners can survive his absence. Their run-blocking might have some glitches, but their scheme is heavy on tight end and fullback usage, so some of those glitches will be masked. In pass protection, Davis is nothing special. And Colin Kaepernick, with his poor pocket presence, often doesn’t capitalize on good protection anyway. Kaepernick’s randomized style of play will not be affected by a downgraded at right tackle.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by zn.

Shutdown Corner is previewing all 32 teams as we get ready for the NFL season, counting down the teams one per day in reverse order of our initial 2015 power rankings. No. 1 will be revealed on Aug. 8, the day before the preseason begins with the Hall of Fame Game in Canton.

NO. 23: SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/shutdown-countdown–hard-to-be-optimistic-about-the-49ers-144612030.html

Jim Harbaugh. Patrick Willis. Chris Borland. Anthony Davis. Justin Smith. Frank Gore. Mike Iupati.Chris Culliver. Perrish Cox. Michael Crabtree.

I’m sure there are examples of teams who have had a worse offseason than the San Francisco 49ers in 2015. But in terms of sheer volume of talent lost, these 49ers have to be in the conversation.

It’s not just the talent on the field they’ll miss. There are a lot of Pro Bowls (and especially in the case of players like Borland and Davis, who retired abruptly in their primes, perhaps many future Pro Bowls) off the roster. But think about the leadership in the locker room that has vanished from San Francisco.

The 49ers were 8-8 last year, and I can’t figure out how they’re going to be any better this season.

It started with Harbaugh. I still haven’t figured out why the 49ers seemed so eager to push a coach with a 44-19-1 record and five playoff wins out. Maybe Harbaugh really wanted to go too. Maybe he was unbearable to work with (though, plenty of coaches are and not many have a .695 winning percentage). There has been so much said back and forth, and Harbaugh’s interviews are always kind of strange, that it’s hard to tell what the real story is. But he’s at the University of Michigan, which is all that really matters.

Then the players started leaving. You know you’ve lost a lot when Iupati, arguably the best guard in football, rarely gets mentions when wrapping up the 49ers’ offseason. There’s just so many names to go through. I don’t buy that there’s some conspiracy theory with all the defections and retirements. Men don’t leave multi-million dollar jobs because a coach left, or any other reason that has been tossed around. I buy that Willis was breaking down. Borland seemed like he knew what he wanted to do before his rookie season started. Davis had a really bad concussion last year, and said he might return after a year off. I think it was just a crazy run of bad luck.

For all the doom and gloom, it’s not like the cupboard is entirely bare. Quarterback Colin Kaepernickwill have to get the arrow on his career pointed back up after a disappointing 2014, and it’s not like we haven’t seen him play really, really well in stretches. It would help if tight end Vernon Davisreappeared. Carlos Hyde seems capable of carrying the running game. Maybe the great NaVorro Bowman returns after losing a season due to a devastating knee injury and reestablishes himself as one of the best linebackers in football. Aldon Smith might be a pass-rushing menace again after being suspended most of last season. Perhaps new coach Jim Tomsula can use all the negativity surrounding the team as a great motivational tool.

The 49ers went to three straight NFC championship games under Harbaugh in large part because they had a really deep roster. They could withstand some hits. But there were just so many hits this offseason. It just feels like the 49ers’ most recent era of success, which started when Harbaugh arrived, has come and gone.

Missing video here can be seen at the site.

Darnell Dockett and running backReggie Bush. The big ticket item was former Baltimore Ravens receiver Torrey Smith. Smith is a deep threat, which the 49ers have sorely needed the past few years. His 16.9-yard average will pair well with Kaepernick’s big arm and possession receiver Anquan Boldin.

Achilles heel: Cornerback isn’t a strength. Culliver got a four-year, $32 million deal with theWashington Redskins and Cox signed with theTennessee Titans for three years and $15 million. In steps Tramaine Brock, who barely played last year because of injuries, and Shareece Wright, who didn’t play well with the San Diego Chargerslast season and was signed as a free agent. Oft-injured Chris Cook also returns. This position could be an issue.

Position in flux: The offensive line has quickly gone from one of the best in the league to a bit of an issue. That’s what happens when you suddenly lose players like Iupati and Davis. The 49ers are shifting to a zone scheme, and maybe the time is right with some new faces. Left tackle Joe Staley and right guard Alex Boone are still among the best at their positions, but figuring out the other three spots is a priority. The 49ers are considering many combinations as they decide where to best utilize Boone.

Ready to break out: Hyde doesn’t have an easy job, replacing a 49ers legend like Gore. But he’ll be the starter, barring injury, and the 2014 second-round pick looked fine last season, averaging 4 yards on his 83 carries. He’s a load at 235 pounds, and should get plenty of chances to carry the ball. He seems like a good bet for 1,000 yards if he stays healthy.

Stat fact: Kaepernick faded in the final two months of last season. He was fine in September and October, with ratings of 91.2 and 98.2 in those two months. His rating was 78.2 in November and 81.0 in December. He had a completion percentage of 63.8 in the first two months, and that dipped to to 57.4 in the final two months. His yards per attempt, well above 7 yards in September and October, dropped by more than a yard the final two months. Kaepernick wasn’t a terrible quarterback in 2014, and the 49ers can look at his early-season production (he had just one bad game, against Chicago in Week 2) and optimistically project that to a full season in 2015.

Schedule degree of difficulty: The rest of the NFC West is good, and physical. It’s no joke playing six games against Seattle, Arizona and St. Louis. Add in games against the AFC North, and it’ll be a big challenge. A season-opening Monday night game at home against Minnesota will be an interesting measuring stick.

Don’t Bludgeon the Man

By Emily Kaplan

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/07/22/nfl-jim-tomsula-san-francisco-49ers/

Jim Tomsula hardly made a good first impression as the 49ers head coach. But it’d be a mistake to write-off someone who once lived in his car (with a dog, cat and litterbox) just so he could be a volunteer college coach.

The most recognizable man in San Francisco is going unnoticed in his hometown. It’s an overcast Friday in late June, and new 49ers coach Jim Tomsula is nursing a 31-ounce coffee on the patio of a Starbucks in Homestead, Pa., just on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.

He’s packing a wad of tobacco in his left cheek (a regular habit), wearing a nylon tracksuit (his sartorial preference) and sporting the kind of thick, dark mustache that harkens back to the leading men of 1980s TV shows (“a mustache to be reckoned with,” according to his mustache’s parody Twitter account). A group of teens loudly gossips at an adjacent table, and a steady stream of shoppers walk through the strip mall. Nobody stops to look twice at Tomsula.

If he had his way, this would be the norm. No fame, no media attention, no conjecturing about who he is or what his team will be.

“I don’t care about perception, I care about reality,” Tomsula says in a husky voice that sounds like the natural bark of football coach. “I try not to read what’s out there, but sometimes I do and just laugh. I mean, some of the reports out there couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s the exact opposite of the reality that I’m dealing with. The exact opposite! Seriously, the exact opposite!”

He spits out the tobacco.

“But, I guess, that’s the NFL.”

In a league in which perception is everything, Jim Tomsula was a nobody before mid-January, when he made the gargantuan leap from defensive line coach to one of the NFL’s Chosen 32. After being introduced to the press, he sat down for an exclusive one-on-one with the TV network CSN Bay Area that had all the makings of an SNL skit. Like his press conference, this four-minute interview was full of uncomfortable pauses, mutterings, contradictions and non-answers.

To one question he replied, “I wouldn’t not say that. I wouldn’t say it either.” His predecessor—the gauche and irascible Jim Harbaugh, he of the khaki pants and beige answers—suddenly seemed as eloquent as a Shakespearean actor. Asked to define a successful first season, Tomsula said, “Uh…that’s yet to be determined. I mean, uh, we’re gonna, uh, we’re gonna, we’re gonna win today. That’s, our, uh, uh, you know, it’s, it’s one week calendars once you get into the season. So that’s the way I look at it.”

And so everyone looked at Tomsula for what he was: an unpolished assistant who had been promoted so far out of his depths that it was impossible not to wonder if the front office, having grown tired of clashing with Harbaugh, had installed a puppet whom the powers-that-be could control. As Tim Kawakami from the San Jose Mercury Newswrote, “Tomsula will say the things the 49ers want him to say, in the way they want him to say it.”

Then, as if perception couldn’t get any worse, Tomsula’s players started bailing on him.

* * *

General manager Trent Baalke shoots down the idea of a “mass exodus” or a “domino effect,” but it was hard not to wonder about the sudden departures.

In March, stalwart linebacker Patrick Willis said a teary goodbye to football. A week later his heir apparent, Chris Borland, stunned everyone by retiring at 24. In May, defensive lineman Justin Smith walked away from the game after 14 seasons. A month later, 25-year-old offensive tackle Anthony Davis cryptically quit.

The 49ers also bid farewell to wideout Michael Crabtree, guard Mike Iupati and the franchise’s alltime leading rusher, Frank Gore, in free agency. Rumors that quarterback Colin Kaepernick was being dangled for a trade only added to the offseason malaise. “Let’s put that to rest,” Baalke told The MMQB in June. “That’s absolutely untrue.”

What’s undeniable is that Tomsula, who has never been a coordinator in the NFL, is now juggling the most intense expectations of his career. San Francisco’s run of three straight trips to the NFC Championship Game went sideways during a tempestuous 2014 season, and fans aren’t likely to give the least qualified of eight coaching candidates an extended honeymoon period. But Tomsula isn’t fazed. With pop music blaring through nearby speakers and threatening skies looming overhead, he retraces his unlikely journey and ascension, never at a loss for words when describing the obstacles he’s already overcome.

“I feel bad when people talk about the grind of coaching,” Tomsula says. “My people? They work. That’s all they know. And they weren’t working for a job they loved, just for the responsibility for their family. Growing up, I was always told never to let pride get in the way of a job.”

His great-grandfather was a Hungarian immigrant who worked in the coal mills of Indiana, Pa, where he was hit by a coal pulverizer and died on the job. Despite not knowing how to drive, his widow packed her four kids in the car and crashed twice on her way to Homestead, where she was able to find work washing the floors of churches.

Years later Tomsula’s grandfather opened a restaurant, Hungarian Village, in the shadow of Forbes Field, the one-time home of the Steelers and Pirates. Tomsula’s father worked in the kitchen. When Forbes Field closed in 1970, so did the business. Everyone had to find new jobs.

Jim Tomsula himself has always been a worker. Uncle Dave taught him how to weld stainless steel in third grade—“that was a big deal,” Jim says—and his teenage summers were spent laying bricks, a back-breaking trade that helped mold him into a stout defensive end in high school. In 1985, he left home to play football at Middle Tennessee State, then transferred to Catawba College, a Division II school in North Carolina. That’s where he met his future wife, Julie, a student athletic trainer.

“When he graduated, everyone said he should become a coach,” Julie says. “He said, ‘No, I’m going to go make a lot of money.’ ”

So Tomsula got a six-figure job in Greensboro selling medical equipment. But it didn’t take long for Julie to realize he wasn’t happy, and at her urging he walked away from the money. In 1992, Tomsula became an assistant football coach at Charleston Southern for $9,100 a year.

“They also said we could get our masters,” Julie says. “So we thought it was a great deal.”

But they couldn’t afford books or much else. Tomsula supplemented his income with side gigs, working as a janitor, delivering newspapers, and chopping wood for $55 every third truckload. It still wasn’t enough. His father visited and was flabbergasted to find the cabinets bare. Not even a jar of peanut butter. “What are you doing?” he asked. “You can’t provide for a family like this!”

After three seasons, Tomsula returned to Pittsburgh and became a sales rep for a food distributor. But, he says, “I wasn’t good at the whole networking thing.” Division II and III college teams often called about coaching opportunities, but Tomsula always passed on them—until Julie intervened again. “Life is too short,” she said. “Do what you love.”

In 1997, Julie took their two daughters, Britney, 4, and Brooke, 2, to stay with relatives in Florida while everything they owned was put in storage. And so began the year that Tomsula lived in a car, a red Cadillac given to him by his Uncle Tic. Tomsula drove the 430 miles down to Catawba and became an unpaid volunteer assistant at his alma mater, charged with strength and conditioning. He slept in parking lots and cleaned himself up in the locker room. To combat loneliness, he kept a black lab and a cat as roommates. Tomsula hung his suits in the back seat, right above the litter box.

“Ah, the homeless period,” he says. “Everyone makes it out to be a bad thing, but it really wasn’t.”

Tomsula sold carpets for commission on the side. The next season, he became a salaried coach. His wife and daughters joined him, and Tomsula moved his family into a $650-a-month fishing cottage 25 miles away from campus. They didn’t have heat.

But they did have a phone line, and former NFL wide receiver Lionel Taylor cold-called Tomsula in 1998 and asked him if he’d be interested in joining his staff in NFL Europe. Tomsula had never met Taylor, but Tomsula had established a reputation as a teacher of fundamentals, making him a desirable assistant for the developmental league.

For the next nine years, the Tomsulas spent their autumns in Catawba, where the school provided on-campus housing, and their summers overseas. He was the defensive line coach for the English Monarchs for one season, the defensive line coach for the Scottish Claymores for five, the defensive coordinator for the Berlin Thunder for two, and then the head coach of the Rhein Fire in 2006.

Every August, Tomsula toured about a dozen NFL training camps, looking for fringe players who might play in Europe. Some teams allowed him to sit in on personnel meetings, and he’d walk away with dozens of notebooks filled with observations of how coaches talked, what they talked about, how they conducted themselves.

In January 2007, Tomsula received a most unexpected call: 49ers coach Mike Nolan was looking for a defensive line coach. Though they played on the other side of the ball, offensive linemen Harvey Dahl and Tony Wragge had returned from Europe raving about Tomsula’s mentorship. The 49ers flew Tomsula out for an interview; it was the first time he ever rode first class. Tomsula accepted the job, but first asked Nolan an important question: “I don’t know anything about money. Can I live with my family in California and provide for them with that salary?”

Nolan told him yes, and then boosted his salary $10,000 on the spot.

“I never had a dream to coach in the NFL in my life,” Tomsula says. “I’d be happy coaching at any level, anywhere. I just wanted to coach and pay the bills.”

* * *

It’s true that Jim Tomsula knows very little about money. One of the first people he thanked during his introductory press conference on Jan. 15 was Joan from payroll, who doubles as his personal finance adviser. Tomsula has come a long way from that $9,100 a year job. The 49ers signed him to a four-year deal worth $3.5 million a year, but the new riches haven’t changed him.

He also gave shout-outs to Vilma at the front desk and the kitchen crew—the “boys downstairs [for] making that great Mexican feast at Christmas.” Every day at 8 a.m. ET, the coach calls his parents at their home in Pennsylvania. He is usually in his office, and he has usually just pulled an all-nighter.

Over the course of Tomsula’s eight seasons coaching the defensive line in San Francisco, the 49ers ranked fourth in rushing yards allowed (98.4 per game) and third in points allowed (19.4). He molded Ahmad Brooks (supplemental draft), Isaac Sopoaga (fourth round) and Ian Williams (undrafted) into productive starters. Justin Smith never made a Pro Bowl until he worked with Tomsula.

“As an X’s and O’s coach, there’s nobody better,” Smith says. “But he’s not going to be doing as much of that anymore. As head coach, he has to do the stuff he hates: dealing with media, dealing with ownership.”

Tomsula knows he didn’t handle his introductory press conference or the ensuing CSN Bay Area interview with the greatest aplomb. He didn’t sleep the night before and was in crunch mode trying to assemble his staff. The communications department carved out an hour to go over any possible questions that reporters might ask, and Tomsula aced the run-through.

But he froze in the spotlight. Tomsula says he was singularly focused on returning to his office to continue calling potential assistants. Plus, he didn’t want to say anything that could be used against him. If, for example, he said he preferred a certain blocking scheme, would Tony Sparano be hesitant to become the tight ends coach?

The next day, 49ers CEO Jed York told his new coach, “Don’t act or try to be someone you think the media wants you to be. From now on, just be yourself.”

“If there’s ever a time I mess up or seem awkward in an interview, it’s because I don’t want to lie,” Tomsula says. “Really, that’s all it is.”

Tomsula handled himself with greater authority in assembling his staff. His first call was to Bill Nayes, the longtime director of football operations under Mike Holmgren in Seattle and Mike Singletary in San Francisco. The job is essentially a chief of staff: part-assistant, part-confidant. From booking travel to scheduling mini-camps, Nayes knows the minute-to-minute needs of a coach.

This was crucial for Tomsula, whose only previous head-coaching experience in Europe doesn’t quite translate to the NFL. When Tomsula first joined the NFL, he told friends, “It’s amazing, I no longer have to carry the equipment!”

Tomsula sought out assistants who would challenge him. Eleven of the 19 have been head coaches or coordinators either in the NFL or at the elite levels of college football. The next order of business was logistical. The head coach’s office was on the second floor. Tomsula felt it was too far removed from the action, especially during the summer months when the NFL limits the contact he can have with players.

The locker room, training room and meeting rooms are all on the first floor, so Tomsula chose a new space in the middle of a hallway where players would have to pass by him every day. While maintenance crews prepared the room this summer, Tomsula set up shop in a small enclave next to the showers.

“Culture is huge. That’s the difference between a championship-caliber team and a championship team,” York says. “You look at the Golden State Warriors. They were the dumbest team in the NBA for letting Mark Jackson go, who won the most games in the franchise’s history. How could you be so dumb? They bring in Steve Kerr, who has been around the game for a long period of time but has never coached before. Kerr changes the culture, comes in with a different perspective, and look what happens.”

But Tomsula actually has been an NFL head coach before. During the final game of the 2010 season, he served as the interim head coach after Singletary was fired and rallied the 49ers to a 38-7 win over the Cardinals. A year later, according to York, the team identified a few internal candidates who could be potential future head coaches. Tomsula was on the list.

“No player has seen a position coach get promoted to head coach just like that, without being a coordinator first,” Smith says. “That’s a huge jump. But I think it just shows the respect Jimmy T. has from management, which is a good thing. Imagine the star wide receiver is upset and wants to complain to management. If he goes upstairs, he knows which side they are going to fall on.”

Players love him, too. He’s fiery when he needs to be—just do a quick search for “Jim Tomsula Bludgeon”—but tries to be low-key in meetings rooms to avoid overloading players with information. He’ll often say, “Hey, here’s what I’m thinking. What do you think?” Last season, when Frank Gore was distraught after losing a fumble in a 13-10 loss to the Rams, it was Tomsula who sat hunched on a stool by the running back’s locker to console him.

Even still, there was a nervous energy in the auditorium just before Tomsula was set to address his players for the first time as the head coach during April’s minicamp. “Everyone kind of looked around like, How’s it going to be?” says defensive end Ian Williams.

Was it going to be the same Jimmy T. who struts around the facility yelling to no one in particular, “We’re going to do some ass-kicking this week!”? Or would this be a buttoned-up Jim Tomsula?

The coach opened his mouth to speak and was loud, passionate and even a bit goofy. The nervous energy dissipated. He was exactly the same.

“I’ve only been here a short time,” says veteran running back Reggie Bush, a free agency addition. “But I can already tell how much respect this team has for him.”

* * *

Jim Tomsula, 47, spent his first summer vacation as an NFL head coach crashing at his parents’ split-level colonial in suburban Pittsburgh. His wife, Julie, and 8-year-old son Bear, came along. Britney and Brooke, now college-age, stayed in the Bay Area. Tomsula woke up to mom’s bacon and eggs, threw the pigskin in the backyard with Bear, and washed loads of workout clothes emblazoned with 49ers logos in the basement.

On one humid afternoon in June, he loaded two sedans with three generations of Tomsulas and headed to Thomas Jefferson High School for the highlight of his homecoming: his sixth annual football clinic for teenagers with Down syndrome.

The coach knows he could ask the NFL to help sponsor the event, but says, “It’s a Tomsula thing.” Campers dine on burgers flipped by Jim Tomsula Sr. and cookies baked by the coach’s aunts. They even prepared a gluten-free batch, to which Tomsula Jr. scoffs: “Kids these days.”

Camp for the Stars began in San Francisco, in 2007, to give kids who have Down syndrome an authentic football experience. Tomsula loved it so much he brought the camp back home to Pennsylvania. Throughout the two-day camp, Tomsula co-leads drills with his old football coach from Steel Valley High.

Even though the campers wear nametags, Tomsula remembers most of their names without looking. He puts players through one drill that has them catching a ball in the air before falling onto a thick mat. For those wearing red bracelets, signifying a greater risk of injury, Tomsula holds them up in the air and then flops onto the foam with them to brace their fall.

“Hey coach,” one camper says after such a fall, extending his arm to Tomsula. “I have to help you get up a lot this year.”

While Julie is off scouring two Targets and a Michael’s to make sure every participant leaves with a framed certificate, Bear is working the field as a water boy. Two 49ers scouts are also here volunteering, as well as retired defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield, who never played for Tomsula but says, “He’s just a really good dude.” So Stubblefield booked a cross-country ticket and a room at the local Spring Hill Suites.

It’s all smiles until the scrimmage. Before one snap, a camper tells another that he is stupid. The recipient of the slight responds with an uppercut. He then rips off his own hat and storms off into the locker room.

Tomsula tells Stubblefield to continue coaching and follows the player into the locker room. He sits the boy down and talks about the importance of sportsmanship. “The game teaches us to become men,” Tomsula says. “And we need to act like that.” Fifteen minutes later, the camper and Tomsula emerge. The boy walks to his opponent, says he’s sorry, and shakes his hand.

Around 10:30 p.m. on Friday, once the last camper has hugged Tomsula goodbye and once the cafeteria has been wiped clean, an after-party commences at the house of Tomsula’s sister, Jill. Nearly 50 relatives, neighbors, friends and one 300-pound former All-Pro lineman grab Miller Lites from a porch cooler and munch on potato chips and leftover burgers in the kitchen. There’s a glow inside the house. No music, but laughter. Old stories are retold about karaoke nights gone awry and summers at the Jersey Shore. When midnight strikes, Jill notices something isn’t quite right.

“Where the heck is Jimmy?” she asks. “He’s the toast of this damn thing!”

Soon the door swings open. It’s Jimmy, and he’s wearing one of his signature nylon tracksuits that leaves him perpetually sweaty. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he huffs. “I had to drive Uncle Tic home.”

“It took that long?” Jill asks.

“It’s late! It’s dark!” he says. “I had to make sure he got in OK.” Consider it part of Tomsula’s code: When someone gives you a car, the least you can do is make sure he always has a ride. And this too: he downs a beer and devours an Italian hoagie with the urgency of a two-minute drill. Then he goes about working the room with salami-and-suds-doused breath, doling kisses and pats on the back.

“We did great work today,” he says. “I love you people.” He grabs another beer. “Really, I love you people.”

Tomsula’s mother, Betty Jo, beams with pride.

“Folks in San Francisco or around the country might say this or that about Jim Tomsula the football coach,” she says, “but I know this is the real him.”

Mackeyser wrote:

I want us to absolutely CRUSH the 9ers.

And I mean, like… nearly Extinction Level Event Meteor slamming into the earth crushing the earth’s crust level of CRUSH.

And double that for the Seahawks…

Don’t you think rage like that is a little out of proportion for what is, after all, just a game?

I mean…

…uh

…wait

Ah well. Sorry.

I just couldn’t keep a straight face.

Carry on.

49ers have lost more playing time than any other team

Michael David Smith

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/07/24/49ers-have-lost-more-playing-time-than-any-other-team/

In an offseason that started with the departure of Jim Harbaugh and most of his staff, the 49ers have also lost more contributions from players than any other team. According to ESPN, the players who left the 49ers this offseason played a whopping 37 percent of the team’s total snaps last year. That’s the most snaps lost of any team in the NFL.

Among the players who were significant contributors for the 49ers last year and won’t be on the team this year are:

Left guard Mike Iupati (1,003 snaps)
Cornerback Perrish Cox (1,003 snaps)
Cornerback Chris Culliver (821 snaps)
Defensive lineman Ray McDonald (724 snaps)
Wide receiver Michael Crabtree (722 snaps)
Defensive lineman Justin Smith (701 snaps)
Offensive lineman Jonathan Martin (685 snaps)
Running back Frank Gore (647 snaps)
Linebacker Chris Borland (608 snaps)
Linebacker Dan Skuta (572 snaps)
Right tackle Anthony Davis (456 snaps)
Linebacker Patrick Willis (366 snaps)
Wide receiver Brandon Lloyd (335 snaps)
Special teamer Kassim Osgood (254 snaps)
Punter Andy Lee (145 snaps)
Safety Bubba Ventrone (139 snaps)

(Snap counts via Football Outsiders)

The 49ers added players in the draft and free agency, but it’s hard to believe those additions will be enough to make up for the losses. Which means the 49ers, who took a step backward from 12-4 in 2013 to 8-8 in 2014, are probably going to take another step backward in 2015.

Aldon Smith arrested on DUI, vandalism and hit and run charges

By Louis Bien

Aug 7, 2015

http://www.sbnation.com/2015/8/7/9115947/aldon-smith-arrest-49ers

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith has been arrested again, according to reports. He was booked into Santa Clara County jail on $26,000 bail Thursday evening and is still in custody. The Santa Clara Police Department announced Friday morning that Smith was arrested on DUI, vandalism and hit and run charges. A press release is expected later.

Smith has had several run-ins with law in the past. According to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, he has been arrested five times since 2012. In 2013, he turned himself in to authorities on felony gun charges stemming from a house party gone wrong. When he turned himself in, he was on a voluntary leave of absence from the team for another DUI arrest. In 2014, he was arrested after making a false bomb threat at LAX airport.

Smith was suspended nine games during the 2014 season for violations of the NFL’s personal conduct and substance abuse policies. He returned in Week 11 and recorded 15 tackles and two sacks in seven games. Smith may be subject to further punishment, depending on the nature of his most recent arrest.

Should the 49ers decide to release Smith, he would stand to lose a lot of money. He is currently on a one year contract worth $9.754 million that was restructured during the offseason to convert his pay into a series of non-guaranteed roster bonuses and a smaller base salary. The restructuring was essentially a bet Smith made on himself that he would stay out of trouble.

This past Tuesday, 49ers general manager Trent Baalke expressed interest in re-signing Smith.

“Aldon’s like any young player, he’s growing up, he’s maturing,” Baalke said. “You see that with a lot of these guys. Some of them get themselves in a few more situations that you wish they didn’t. If you asked them, I think they’d say the same thing. Really pleased with the way he’s handled things, the way he’s working both personally and professionally.”

Smith’s arrest continues a tumultuous offseason for the 49ers. Since letting go of head coach Jim Harbaugh at the end of the 2014 season, the team has seen linebackers Patrick Willis and Chris Borland, defensive end Justin Smith and offensive tackle Anthony Davis all retire. Other long-time standbys like running back Frank Gore and offensive guard Mike Iupati left for other teams.

Smith has been a bright spot on the football field for San Francisco. Since being selected No. 7 overall in the 2011 NFL Draft, he was named a Pro Bowler and a first-team All-Pro, and become the fastest player in NFL history to record 30 sacks by doing in 27 games. His 19.5 sacks in 2012 were a 49ers single season record. Since then, he has 10.5 sacks in 18 games across two seasons.

We’ll continue to update as more details arise.

Peter King – 8/10/15

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/08/09/andrew-luck-indianapolis-colts-nfl-frank-gifford-hard-knocks

Last one out of Santa Clara, turn off the lights.

Lost by the Niners since the end of the 2014 season:

• Jim Harbaugh, the coach who won 49 games in his four San Francisco seasons.

• On offense: a starting running back (Frank Gore) and wideout (Michael Crabtree) and two-fifths of the starting offensive line.

• On defense, it’s an absolute plague: both starting defensive ends (Ray McDonald, Justin Smith), both starting cornerbacks (Perrish Cox, Chris Culliver), and three invaluable linebackers (Patrick Willis, Aldon Smith, Chris Borland).

The 49ers did the right thing, releasing Aldon Smith after his fifth arrest, and coach Jim Tomsula was deep in individual conversations with scores of players Friday and Saturday after it happened. That’s good. Kumbaya is good. But let’s be real. No team has lost so many franchise players in such a short period and continued to win. Gore, Justin Smith, Aldon Smith, Patrick Willis … franchise guys. A top head coach, gone. We’ve been over this often this off-season, but Tomsula is stepping into one of the toughest spots a rookie coach has ever been in.

And if I’m Aldon Smith—knowing I’m likely to get suspended for part of this season anyway—I am in no hurry to pick a next team. He’s got to fix his life, or try to, before focusing on football.

Ahmad Brooks, Ray McDonald indicted in sexual assault case

Michael David Smith

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/category/rumor-mill/

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks and former 49ers defensive lineman Ray McDonald have been indicted in a sexual assault case.

McDonald faces one count of rape and Brooks faces one count of misdemeanor sexual battery, the San Jose Mercury News reports. McDonald could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison if convicted, while Brooks could face up to six months in jail.

The men were both accused by the same woman in an incident that took place at McDonald’s house in December. She says that McDonald raped her and that Brooks groped her after she fell and hit her head near McDonald’s pool.

McDonald has also been indicted for violating a domestic violence restraining order, in a separate incident.

The 49ers, who had already faced criticism for allowing McDonald to play despite a previous domestic violence accusation, cut McDonald after the rape accusation in December. The Bears signed McDonald this offseason but then cut him amid another domestic violence investigation.

McDonald’s NFL career is almost certainly over, as no team would touch him at this point. It remains to be seen what the 49ers or the NFL will do with Brooks, who has been a starter for the 49ers for four years and started both preseason games this year.

The indictments are another black eye for the NFL and for the 49ers, who have dealt with a string of off-field issues and will now face another.