Like a life preserver thrown to Bay Area sports fans, the NFL season is here to save us from drowning in Giants lousiness.
I mean, it’s been nearly six weeks since the Warriors won the NBA championship. People around here can only tolerate last place for so long.
So, football!
Training camp football! Preseason football! Fantasy football! College football!
And, of course, 49ers football.
(It’s been a few years since the 49ers earned an exclamation point.)
As an old NFL beat writer myself, I well know the “Questions for the 49ers” stories being pumped out by our beat writer buddies. It’s high time the Jock Blog put out its own “Questions for the 49ers” column, except this time with a bonus: I’ll answer the darn questions, too.
— Question: Should we truly be excited about the Kyle Shanahan Era, or is the fact that this is the 4th head coach in four years give us pause?
Answer: First off, you should always have pause when you have four 49ers coaches in four seasons. (Shout out to Jim Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly.) But, for the first time since Harbaugh, and only the second time since his old man canned Steve Mariucci, Jed York hired the “It” guy. Mike Nolan, Mike Singletary, Tomsula, Chip . . . none of those guys was a sought candidate; none of those guys had done NFL head coaching things. They weren’t “It” guys. Kyle Shanahan is. Granted, Shanahan hasn’t done NFL head coaching things, but he’s done lots of NFL offense things, and was last seen skippering an Atlanta offense that had a Super Bowl in the bag. We won’t dwell on what happened next. Bygones.
Does Shanahan have NFL street cred? Heck, Kirk Cousins goes to sleep every night praying to a mini-statue of Kyle Shanahan by his bedside.
In sum, yes, we should be truly excited about Kyle Shanahan, head coach. I am, and I’ve had a lot of trouble getting excited for 49ers football the last three years.
— Question: Should we share the same excitement about a new defensive coordinator, given that the 49ers defense was historically bad last year?
Answer: No, we should not be overly excited. Poor Robert Saleh, the new defensive coordinator, has a ton of work to do, unless you consider inheriting a defense that allowed the most points in franchise history, the most yards in franchise history and the most rushing yards in franchise history to be an ideal situation. Knowing football coaches, Saleh probably sees inheriting an epically bad defense as a chance to be “the team that changes the story!” or “the unit that will make its own history!” or “the men who accept the challenge!” and various coaching bromides that have fueled every coach who ever strapped on a whistle and some BIKE shorts. I am not criticizing Saleh. I am merely saying that the 2017 49ers have mountains to climb on defense, and look to those three first-round picks on the defensive line — Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner and newcomer Solomon Thomas — and to other prize draft picks like the slobber-inducing Reuben Foster and cornerback Rashard Robinson to be the guys who change opinions and make tackles.
— Question: Should we be pumped about QB Brian Hoyer, given that some have already nicknamed him “The Placeholder” until a franchise QB arrives in 2018?
Answer: It is a tough deal to carry that nickname, to be considered sort of the “Academy Awards Seat Filler” of NFL QBs, for sure. Hoyer has to wake up every morning and see those pre-season QB rankings that kick around names like Brady, Rodgers, Roethlisberger, Brees and Ryan without ever pausing once to say the name “Hoyer”. It’s like being back in high school, looking for a cool group of kids to accept you at lunch. “Hey, Cam, Andrew, Dak, can I sit with you? No? OK, cool, I’ll just head over here . . . hey, Eli, Derek, Russell, can I sit with you? No, OK, cool, I’ll just head over here . . .”
I have a sneaking suspicion Hoyer will be better than we think, and of course better than the Blaine Gabbert/Colin Kaepernick duo that bummed everyone out so much. In fact, his past two seasons his numbers (25 TDs, 7 INTs, 93.7 passer rating) compare alongside Kirk Cousins (25 TDs, 11 INTs, 98.0 passer rating), according to research by the Chronicle’s Eric Branch.
So, to say you should be “pumped” about Hoyer may be an overstatement. To say you should be satisfied with an improvement is more accurate.
So many other questions, so many other Jock Blogs to cover them. In the end, let’s just say it’s been some time since the energy around the 49ers was better than the energy around the Giants. We’re at that time. Enjoy it.