49ers--4 Things to be Optimistic About Going Into Week 1

So, the offseason from hell is (finally) over. The last 9 months have been unkind to the 49ers in the way that spoiled milk is unkind to cereal—that is to say, the whole thing results in a stinky, sour mess. From “winning with class” to Aldon Smith getting arrested for the 5th time and then signing with the Raiders of all teams, it was certainly not the most pleasurable 9 months.

However, the beginning of a new season is always a time for optimism, even if expectations are low. I mean, if you can’t be optimistic about a team before week 1, then you might as well throw up a white flag, grab that Costco sized Cheez Whiz and go to town every Sunday. So let me offer you, instead, a healthier platter of things for the optimistic side of your brain to munch on while we await Monday’s opener.

1. Carlos Hyde

I truly believe that a well-rounded, three down running back is still a pleasure to watch in the NFL. Somehow the game slows down when people like LaDanian Tomlinson, Frank Gore and Adrian Peterson have the ball. Well, it slows down for a bit, until they burst through the tiniest of holes like they were shot out of a cannon. Now, I’m not saying Carlos Hyde is anywhere close to the trio I just mentioned, because he’s not and probably will never be, but in short bursts last year he was fun to watch. He was a bit too quick to hit the lane on more than one occasion, but as Al Michaels noted during the NE vs. PIT game on Thursday, DeAngelo Williams said that he was impressed Le’Veon Bell showed patience behind the line and in the hole as a rookie because it took Williams almost a decade to learn it. I think Hyde, if he can slow his mind and feet down a bit on a few runs, has the chance to be a top 10 back in the NFL. Maybe this is the year he does that.

2. The new(?) offense

Ah, the offense. What was so promising in 2013 fell so flat on it’s face in 2014. So, management hit the reset button. No, wait, not really. Because Geep Chryst, who was on Harbaugh’s staff dating back to Stanford, is back as the OC. However, it’d be a rush to judgment to say that the same woes of yesteryear—namely, the absurdly slow pace, over-use of the shotgun and over-use of 3 and 4 WR packages—will once again be nuisances this year. Especially when you take the possibly disastrous state of the offensive line into consideration, it would make logical sense that this year’s offense will feature more power formations, playaction, varied backfields, screens, crossing routes and QB boots/rollouts. If that game plan sounds familiar, that’s because the 49ers defense sees it twice a year when they play Seattle. And before you flood this with comments about how the 49ers shouldn’t be emulating the Seahawks offense, I don’t think that should happen at all. Mostly because Kap and Wilson are totally different QBs. More on that later. For the offense as a whole however, change is needed and is likely coming. I think it’ll look better than last year. Whether or not it gets better results is perhaps a different story.

3. The young corners

Reaser, Acker and Johnson are all 2nd year CBs with now vastly different experience levels. Although I still get Reaser and Acker confused, I believe Reaser was the one who was drafted as a “red-shirt” coming off of an ACL tear and Acker has had two Jones foot fractures, the 2nd one landing him on IR before last season. Dontae Johnson is much more familiar, as he got a lot of time on the field last year and showed some promise handling the duties of an outside cornerback. I can’t say I have a lot of insight into what these three will become, but the fact that they’ll have a chance to be on the field a lot will make for interesting viewing because it’s likely that one of these three, at least, will cement themselves as a start going forward.

4. Navorro Bowman

Bow is back. And the short amount of time we saw him in the preseason is more than enough to get me excited to see 53 running around the field again. I think as football fans we generally don’t appreciate a few things about true superstar players. One is that the sheer talent it takes for someone like Bowman to do the things he does. This is the guy who ran down Darren Sproles from behind and picked off Aaron Rodgers after initially showing blitz at the line of scrimmage. It takes serious skill and talent to pull those two, dichotomous things off. The other thing people forget is how short the pinnacles of NFL careers are, superstar or otherwise. So I say we should sit back and watch Bow do his thing while it lasts. We’ve already seen a lot, but I think there’s more than a bit more left in his tank.