PING: 49er fans
 

Geez the Niners have to play both teams who made it to the Superbowl (Carolina and New England) AWAY. And New England in January! Also have to play the Jets and Tampa Bay away. Miami and Washington at home and not to mention they have to play Seattle and St. Louis twice.
On another note, which team has the hardest schedule in league? And Yes I know we haven't even had the draft yet.

The Niners will suck badly this year. Write it down.

Way to state the obvious

Clean it up. I'm calling an 8-8 record or better.

Really? I didn't know the 49ers were going to be playing in NCAA Div. II this year.

Ok that was absurd. I can let someone say they suck, but I can't let that comment in. BTW how many Superbowls have the Redskins won Franklinnoble?

Three. And the man who coached all three of them is back in charge this year.

I like seeing Californians argue with each other... :)

Eh... don't call me that. I live here, but I'm not from here. ;-)

While it is a bit hard to predict a team's record before the draft, but 8-8 sounds pretty reasonable for a team with a very good defense and an iffy offense in transition.

I hate John York!!!

Well, the bad news is, they're probably worse than half their division. And they only get to play the Cardinals twice. ;)

8-8 is way too optimistic for a team who hasn't even signed a free agent yet.....too much pressure on rattay and no proven wide receiver options means a poor, poor season by the 9ers vince....oh yeah, dennis erickson is your coach...enough said. :eek:

I see the Niners going 5-11...Please don't talk that much sh*t Franklinnoble...
Remember the 49ers still have 5 Superbowl rings.

if they go 5-11 they are lucky. Im thinkin 3-13

I don't really see them as having a very good defense. I think I can state with a good bit of confidence that this will be the worst 49ers team in at least 20 years.

I wouldn't go that far. And their defense isn't that bad at all. Although their defensive line is kinda suspect. They still have Andre Carter who had 12.5 sacks in 2002 and should rebound from last year. Their linebacking core has been secretly one of the better in the league. Julian Peterson had 94 tackles, 7 sacks and 2 INTs. Derek Smith added 114 tackles and Jeff Ulbrich had 79 tackles. In the secondary Tony Parrish tied the league lead with 9 INTs and Ahmed Plummer is a solid CB.

dola, I think the media has been discounting the Niners ever since they lost Garcia and Owens. They see those two players leave and say, "this team has no chance." Its the typical media overreaction. If Rattay turns out to be at least solid QB the Niners could be a good team. Remember he had 7 TDs and 2 INTs with a 96.6 QB rating and was almost challenging Garcia for the starting spot. Garrison Hearst was released but the Niners still have Kevin Barlow, who despite sharing time with Hearst gained over 1000 yds last year. There are 2 main concerns with the Niners offense. Who can replace Stone at RG and who's going to replace Owens at WR? One thing misrepresented by the media is that the Niners are a passing team. They are obviously not, they rely heavily on the running game.

How good the 49ers are will depend on Rattay and the offensive line, and we don't know enough yet about either. I think the offensive line is going to kill them, and that it will be a down year. 5-11 or 6-10 sounds about right to me. The defense should be OK. They haven't lost too much there.

yeah, but with all the losses on the O-line (deese and stone), they are going to have a hard time running the ball. also, if they can't establish the run, that same O-line is going to be counted on to protect Rattay, which might get ugly. losing tai streets is a big loss to, by the way, he was a good #2 receiver for them last year. also, it will be interesting to see how barlow will handle being the feature back for an entire year too instead of platooning like he's done his whole career.

If the 49ers find help at DL and in the secondary on draft day, they could very well field a pretty dangerous defense. As I mentioned, it is hard to project what a team will look like before they draft. Maybe they will spend their top picks filling their holes on offense, but drafting to complement their greatest strength...LB...might be the better route.

This will be a very ugly season... but 3-13???? Give me a break! They won't be nearly that bad.(I hope:()

You forget that the only real loss on the O-Line is at RG, because Kwame Harris, the Niners first round draft pick last year will be starting at LT and after being under the guidance of Deese for a year, it doesn't look like that will be a soft spot on the line.

dola, the Niners are also going to get Eric Johnson their TE back, he adds an extra little option in the passing game. Granted the Niners really need to get a WR, but Brandon Lloyd has shown flashes of talent and it looks like the Niners management are very comfortable with him being the #2 WR. If Barlow can learn to limit fumbles, the running game could be very good.

I know what it's like to play the If game. If Troy Hambrick can be a decent running back...if Ekuban can get a pass rush like he had in 2001...

I'm sure there will be some aspects of the 49ers that will surprise people, but the fact of the matter is, they're going to be in essentially a new offense this year and they will have numerous new starters that no one knows how they will do as a full-time starter (which in turn has an effect on the team's depth). There are way too many things that would have to somehow go right for the 49ers to put together even an 8-8 year.

By the way, I don't think it's a stretch at all to say this will be the organization's worst year in at least 20 years because they haven't had many bad years in that span (I think 6-10 was the worst).

I'm not expecting much of that upcoming 2004 season. Even Donahue said it will be tough to do "better than last season's 7-9 record" (uh!).

However, I agree that losing Garcia and Owens has been overblown by the media.
If Rattay is fine, then this team has a chance. If he's not, then it's a 4-12 season.

That's the beauty of Erickson. No matter what he's always 8-8. Works well when you have a crappy team, no so well when you have a good one.

That's all well and good, but they don't have any of those players on the current roster, and they're coached by a man who's never taken an NFL team to the playoffs. Not to mention that there current ownership has basically run the team into the ground.

True, but I like living in the past