Who Are The Real 49ers?

Lets start this off saying that, yes, this was a turbulent offseason paired with a terrible, no good, very bad first three games. 49ers fans alike want to see progress, a sign of life, and ultimately hope after what has transpired over the course of a year. After firing Jim Harbaugh, Jed York's "win with class" tirade, hiring Jim Tomsula, the retirements of Borland, Willis, Justin Smith, Anthony Davis (most of which will go down as "black monday"), and multiple free agent departures, the Faithful thirst for hope.

This leaves the question, who are the real 49ers? Lets jump into this by saying, Jim Tomsula is a good coach, and though many will not think so, he is placed in a bad situation right now and we as fans will need to see how he responds. Jim Tomsula and co. (Trent Baalke and Jed York) put together a good staff, though I'm sure many will disagree right now. The group has a diverse backgroud of experience and have been through adversity. To assume the season is over after three games is a rather lazy assumption, and really insults the unknown. Can Jim Tomsula and this staff turn things around? Or are the 49ers fans in for a rough ride?

Lets start off with Jim Tomsula, often refered to as the "yes man", has 26 years of football experience as well as time playing in high school. Fans who were around in 2010 remember Jim Tomsula as the interim head coach for the last game of the season after Mike Singletary left the 49ers (along with his pants held at his hip). In that season, Alex Smith was benched for the likes of the seemingly fan favorite in David Carr, who got injured in his one starting game vs the Panthers, signed Troy Smith, who then started his debut vs the Broncos in London. Troy Smith then held the reigns up until week 16 (when Mike Singetary was fired) and holding the 49ers record at 5-10. Enter Jim Tomsula. Jim Tomsula made the concious effort to start Alex Smith over Troy Smith for the last game of the season, the 49ers were down Frank Gore and were left with the combo backfield of Anthony Dixon and Brian Westbrook. For the first time of the 2010 season, 49ers football was fun to watch again. The 49ers won that game 38-7 in Jim Tomsula's first action as a headcoach at the professional level.

Looking back at Tomsula's career, he spent time with NFL Europe from 1998-2006 (until being hired by San Francisco in 2007). During that time, he was the DL coach for the England Monarchs during their last season in NFL Europe, the Scottish Claymores from 1999-2003 as a DL coach (lost world bowl in 2000), the Berlin Thunder from 2004-2005 as a defensive coordinator where he won a world bowl (NFL Europes equivalent of a super bowl), and the head coach of Rhein Fire in 2006. Jim Tomsula, during that time coached players like Fred Jackson (Bills-Seahawks), Harvey Dahl, Tony Wragge, Drew Henson, and Dante Hall (who was with the Scottish Claymores in 2001), Israel Idonije, Keith Davis, among others that I am sure I'm missing. If you are unaware of NFL Europe, it was a developmental league where teams would assign players to go and develop, one of the more notable players being James Harrison. So essentially you would have a new roster every year, so coaches had to adapt.

We can all point to Jim Tomsula's lack of head coaching/coordinator experience at the professional level, but looking at the bigger picture of the staff is another story. You have Geep Chryst who was the offensive coordinator for the Chargers when they had Ryan Leaf, Steve Logan who was a long time head coach for East Carolina and the OC for Matt Ryan, Adam Henry who coached other WR coach Ronald Curry in Oakland and coached LSU's Odell Beckham Jr., Tony Sparano HC for Miami and Oakland, Eric Mangini DC for New England as well as HC for Browns and Jets, Tarver DC for Raiders, and Tim Lewis DC for Steelers and Giants. Time will tell how good this coaching staff can be, if they can make half time adjustments and put together decent game plans.

As for the players, we all know about the turnover this offseason, and we all know about the players we have in the building. We've seen it, and we obviously have a lot of opinons about it, however, the team will go as far as Colin Kaepernick will take them, and really, that sets up the real question, who is the real Colin Kaepernick? Name me one player who has gone into an offseason, changed his entire mechanics as a QB and had success the next? When you talk about keeping your base wide, going through reads, touch, shifting your weight, throwing with your hips, among the many intricacies that come along with being a QB, how can you do all that and be successful right away? There will be times where he doesnt have good games this year because he is still learning, and making reads easier for him wont help. Will Kaepernick be the QB we want him to be? Again, time will tell, but as fans, we need to be patient with the guy who is trying to make the necassary changes to give us what we want.

Now for the rest of the team, football is more than how many "stars" you have on the field, the game isnt Madden, you cannot just sign a bunch of big name free agents and say okay win! Football is a game that is based off chemistry, body language cues, and trust. Great teams are the ones who know can refine those three areas. So, what I ask you is this, look at where we need to improve now and look at where we've had the biggest amount of turnover, does it coorelate? The answer I am looking for is yes. Those areas where we saw the most amount of turnover are typically where you dont wan't to see it. Offensive line, defensive backfield and defesive front seven are strongly reliant upon chemistry and body language cues. The amount of turnover we had their is extremely damaging for that group and for the QB as well. All of that effects timing, spacing, and communication. Non-verbal communication is key to success, especially on defense. You do not want to give the QB or any opposition cues as to what you are doing. So when you look at all that, it goes into trust and chemistry.

So who are the 49ers, and what can we expect from them? The 49ers are a team who is trying to build off of one of the worst offseasons in NFL history. Making depth chart changes or cutting players will not fix short term problems. The 49ers are a team with talent that is trying everything they can to fix the problems and learn to work with eachother. That is who the real 49ers are, and if that means we will have to wait till next season to see the true 49ers? Who knows, but this season will tell a lot about this coaching staff who is on to the worst win-loss scoring percentage since 2013 (2013: lost to Seattle 29-3 and Indianapolis 27-7 bringing in a WLSP of 17% where as the combined 90-25 brings in a 28% differentail). So lets not write off the 49ers yet, take this season to evaluate the coaching staff and how this young team is developing together, if we still look bad by the bye week then it is time to panic, but for now (in the wise words of Aaron Rodgers who will face the 49ers this week) R-E-L-A-X.

Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Go 49ers!

Kyle Breitkreutz

49ersHub Contributor

@49ersHub

hub49ers@yahoo.com