49ers vs. the Saints
 

I live in the Bay Area now and it makes me sick that the 4-and-9ers are so relevant again.
But as I watched the game Sunday night, I realized why.

It's no wonder the 49ers are good this year

Of their starting 11 on offense, 7 are first round picks.
Michael Crabtree – 1st round, 10th overall
Joe Staley – 1st Round, 28th overall
Mike Iupati – 1st round, 17th overall
Jonathan Goodwin – 5th round
Alex Boone – undrafted
Anthony Davis – 1st round, 11th overall
Vernon Davis – 1st round, 6th overall
Randy Moss – 1st round, 21st overall
Bruce Miller – 7th round
Frank gore – 3rd round
Alex Smith – 1st round, 1st overall

Last year's New Orleans Saints record setting offense featured one first rounder, Mark Ingram, and he wasn't even a starter.
This year we finally have a first rounder starting... Ben Grubbs (he was a free agent)

With 5 more first rounders on defense..
It's no wonder the niners are finally good. 12 of their 22 starters are "first round talent." They should be good on accident.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

People talk about the 49ers, the Texans, and the Lions as being up-and-coming teams that are really good. They definitely are. But it took roughly a decade of mediocrity for each of them to stockpile all those high picks and accumulate talent on both sides of the ball. They just kept adding and adding, until it finally reaches a certain critical mass, like the Lions making the playoffs last year.

I mean the Texans are scary good, they are so evenly balanced with talent on both sides of the ball. But keep in mind it took a LOT of 6-10, 7-9, and 8-8 seasons, and a lot of playing second fiddle to Peyton Manning in their division, losing to him 2x a year and no playoffs for a LONG time, for them to get that talent.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

We need a dominant player on D, we have gave the O most of the picks the last couple years

Id say we need an CB, OLB or safety

Jenkins needs to go, we need a natural ball hawking safety and that's not Jenkins

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

What we need is a stud DT to replace Ellis, D-Line needs to be the first priority... Build the pass rush first

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

I'd give akiem hicks that spot to begin with, he has potential and disrupted the pocket vs panthers

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

Yep d-line is out biggest need of something... We cant get to the QB when we blitz 7 people ... and with 4 d-lineman we give the qb all the time n the world.... ugh why cant we find the star people n D like we can our offense...

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

They have one of the older rosters - so hopefully they'll break down somewhere along the way. :-)

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

Then grab Smiths replacement... D-Line first

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

Damn I didn't realize that they had that many #1's.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

no an argument NOLA can really make well - there was a time when the only time we got to shout "We're number one!" was on draft day.

I do like the parity in the NFL - even going into week 3 - sitting at 0-2 1/8 of the season gone - last place in the conference - we still have reason to believe.

and I do.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

Thats what happens when you suck for a long time and draft wisely.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

:(

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

YOU WIN BY controlling the line of scrimmage, period...Football 101, Both offensively and defensively. Shore up both of those, primarily the D line (first) and progress from there.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

the guys in the middle are the least of our defensive problems. the LEAST. that might be the best part of our defense right now. all the big runs have been off tackle, nothing through the guys in the middle. they've been pretty stout against the run. and they're getting push in the middle as far as pass rush is concerned.

if you wanna talk defensive problems, look at our weak linebacking corps and shoddy secondary. they cant tackle worth a crap. i bought a jenkins jersey this summer. im going to burn it.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

I agree with you, with the exception that it's Roman Harper that needs to go. He's one of my favorite players, but everyone around him is stuck compensating for him in the pass game and can't focus on their job. He was good when GW ran the Voodoo defense that kept him out of coverage and blitzing, which he is good at, but in a traditional 4-3 D he has no place (too small to be a linebacker.) Jenkins, Lofton, and even Jabari sometimes have to focus on backing up his assignments, and they can't focus on their job. The system works, the players can run it, but Harper is a 2 down safety (does that even exist?) at best.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

I dont think first rounders have a whole lot to do with it.

The Pats do just as well with out them

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

The 49ers won't be around for a long.

Defensive teams in this era don't last that long unless they update or at least have SOME offense.

The Ravens and Steelers have always done good because they have an offense to work with that and they got that early. The 9ers JUST GOT THAT. They've already wasted so much time.

The steelers and Ravens are STILL good because they continue to update their teams.

Ray Lewis and Ed Reed getting old? Here's Terrel Suggs and Haloti Ngata.

Troy Polamalu and Jame Harrison getting old? Here's Lamarr Woodley and Ryan Clark.



The 49ers got lucky because none of them got injured last season. That most likely won't happen again and unlike the steelers and ravens, the 9ers have no depth and I don't think they can update since it took them this long just to update their head coach.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

naaa... fear not the Texans.... Wade Phillips, maybe, but as long as Kubiak
is their HC, they'll find a way to outsmart themselves.

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

The ravens don't have an offense. They had jamal lewis and now they have ray rice. The other 10 guys on the field are there to block

Re: 49ers vs. the Saints
 

Yes, the key is that you MUST draft wisely.

I sometimes suspect that the Saints have not drafted very wisely, especially on Defense.