2013 Offseason Update, Week 16

Levi's Stadium, set to open in 2014, will be the 49ers new home
and was chosen to host Super Bowl L in February 2016.
Photo from Wikipedia.

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Homes Chosen for Super Bowls L and LI

The San Francisco Bay Area was awarded Super Bowl L (50) on Tuesday. It will be just the second time the area has hosted the NFL’s biggest game. In 1985, Stanford hosted Super Bowl XIX and Joe Montana led the 49ers to a 38-16 victory over the Dolphins in Dan Marino’s first and only appearance in the title game. It was the closest a team has come to winning a Super Bowl at home.

Houston was awarded Super Bowl LI, which is tentatively set for February 5, 2017. Houston hosted Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 and Tom Brady won his second ring as Adam Vinatieri again came through in the clutch. It was also the site of Janet Jackson’s famous ‘wardrobe malfunction.’

Kansas City Changing their Offense?

Reports last Monday suggested that Alex Smith was running the Chiefs’ offense out of the pistol last week, a formation mostly used with read-option sets like what the Redskins and 49ers used with RGIII and Colin Kaepernick last year. With a running back like Jamaal Charles, this sort of formation could work. But it might make it less likely for Dwayne Bowe to lead the league in receptions like he plans to do.

Michael Crabtree Tears Achilles

Doctors have not said for sure that Crabtree will not return this season, but it would be a late-season return if it comes at all. Last year, after Alex Smith’s concussion, Crabtree and Kaepernick developed quite a rapport and the two enjoyed a high level of success late in the season and through the playoffs.

Charles Woodson Returns to Oakland

Woodson’s first home in the NFL was in Oakland, and now that his career in Green Bay has come to its end, he is returning to the Raiders on a one-year contract. It’s a good opportunity for both parties. Though the Raiders have been a struggling franchise for many years, the defensive secondary is one area in which they have done a good job of drafting and developing solid players. Woodson has the opportunity to be a part of a solid secondary late in his career and the young Raiders players will have a lot of experience to draw from by watching and listening to him.

‘Puff on the NFL’ to take New Direction this Season

As I mentioned at the beginning of the offseason, I am now writing for ACC Battles, covering several athletic teams here at the University of Maryland. Because of that, I have less time for projects like this blog.

That said, covering the NFL truly is my passion and I am not prepared to give it up completely. So this year I will be doing something a little different. During the regular season, I will be focusing on the Redskins and Ravens, the two local teams. I will also cover prime-time games in depth (Thursday-, Sunday- and Monday-night games) and will predict every game of every week. But, until the playoffs, my main focus will be the Redskins and Ravens. I will still be watching as many games as possible, but I will not recap every game as I did last season.

I’d like to thank everyone for their support and for reading all my blog posts. As always, if I’m missing anything important, or if you just want to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

2013 Offseason Update, Week 4

Andy Reid got Kansas City a quarterback. Now he has to decide what to
do with the team's top overall draft pick. Photo credit to CBS Sports.

Every Monday during the offseason, I will be recapping some of the biggest stories of the previous week that I did not cover individually. So let’s get to last week’s news.

QB Contracts

The biggest news out of the offseason’s fourth week was definitely quarterback contracts. Joe Flacco got a huge deal in Baltimore that local fans can only hope doesn’t rock the boat. Meanwhile, up north, Tom Brady reworked his contract to help clear cap space for the Patriots and ensure he will be in Foxboro through 2017.

I don’t have the full, year-by-year breakdown of Flacco’s contract, but I can tell you that in at least two of the next six seasons, Joe Flacco will make more than Tom Brady will in any single year of his five year contract, with his highest-paying year to come in 2017 when he is scheduled to make $15 million.

Now, if Baltimore does crash and burn because of Flacco’s new contract, Ravens fans can rest assured that it won’t happen in the first year of his contract. He will count for less than $7 million against the cap in 2013. Unfortunately, this means that he will be getting big numbers in the last three or four years of his contract and that could be crushing.

New England got the better deal as far as I’m concerned. Yes, Tom Brady’s whole contract is guaranteed money, which is unheard of. But to have a quarterback of his caliber and never have a year in which he is due more than $15 million is extremely rare, too.

Alex Smith Trade

Thought Joe Flacco and Tom Brady stole the spotlight, another huge story is the Alex Smith trade to Kansas City. The 49ers got a 15^th pick for the upcoming draft and a conditional pick in the 2014 draft. Andy Reid got Kansas City a quarterback for the first time since Trent Green.

Over five and a half seasons with Trent Green as their starting quarterback, the Chiefs compiled an average 48-40 record, including three winning seasons and two playoff appearances, of which they have had only one of each since.

The difference is that in Green’s first couple seasons in Kansas City, the Chiefs had little talent surrounding him. This year, they had several Pro Bowlers and way too much talent to be winning only two games. This ultimately was the reason Romeo Crennel was fired.

With Alex Smith, the Chiefs instantly become a wild-card contender, especially with a first overall draft pick and options for how to use it.

Darrelle Revis Trade Talk Picks Up Steam

About a week ago, reports came out of New York that the Jets might try to trade cornerback Darrelle Revis, who is coming off an ACL injury. So far, nothing I have read is anything more than speculation.

Still, it’s an interesting idea that the Jets could possibly trade away their most recognized current player, especially when nobody knows just how healthy he is, or even will be in 2013. But then, it is the Jets so anything is not only possibly, but likely.

Jeff Saturday a Colt Once More

No, Saturday will not suit up for Indianapolis, at least not on the field. Just before the Pro Bowl, he announced his intention to retire after this season, and he will do so. But he will go through the process many other great NFL players have done by signing a one-day contract and donning the Colts’ uniform one last time, retiring as a member of the team he spent almost all of his career with. The date for the official announcement has not yet been set.

Last week I wrote about the offseason needs of all 16 AFC teams, on division per day. Tomorrow I will start doing the same for the NFC, so be sure to check back daily.

If you would like to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my blog’s Facebook page or my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

Rushing RG3

Robert Griffin III was knocked out of three games in 2012.
Photo credit to WKYC.com.

There isn’t a whole lot of news in the NFL today that grabbed my attention, and I don’t want to start looking at what each team needs to do this offseason until next week or the week after. So I decided to stay local and offer my two cents on a report released by Adam Schefter this morning.

The Redskins, according to Schefter, believe that Griffin’s progress up to this point has been good enough that he could definitely be ready to start in Week 1 of the 2013 season.

Honestly, this concerns me more than a little. He had pretty invasive surgery to repair is LCL and ACL. They had to operate on both knees, so it isn’t just his right knee that they have to rehab.

Everybody points to Adrian Peterson’s swift return as reason for hope that Griffin III can do the same. After all, they both had their ACL’s hurt and Dr. James Andrews performed both procedures to repair them. In addition, RG3’s injury came only about two week later in the season as Peterson’s did last year.

But Peterson did not have work done on his LCL. Andrews did not have to go into Peterson’s non-injured leg in order to repair his injured ACL.

Most importantly, Peterson, as far as we can tell, may not have been 100% at the start of the 2012 regular season. Remember that he was nowhere near his normal self in the first eight weeks of the season. It was the second half of the season where he ran circles around defenders.

If RG3 is 99% in Week 1 of the 2013 season, I would not start him. Having full strength in your legs is much more critical for a quarterback than for a running back. You have to be able to drive through your legs when fitting the ball between defenders on a line. You have to be able to shift your weight properly when delivering a high-arcing touch pass on a corner route.

You might say, “Griffin III can do all that effectively if he’s 90%, so why are you being so conservative?”

I say that because Cousins has proven himself as a capable backup and he will be working this entire offseason as if he is the starting quarterback. After all, he is until RG3 is healthy enough to take over.

Cousins can lead us to wins in the early part of the season as long as the Redskins shore up their defense and keep their offensive line healthy like they did this season.

Robert needs to not rush his recovery. Do it right. He has to understand that if Cousins has to start the season for us, no matter how Kirk does, RG3’s fate will not be the same as Alex Smith’s in San Francisco. We have reached a point where players know that they can lose their job because of injury. Robert is not in that category, though. The Redskins gave up too much to get him and he’s too remarkable an athlete for Washington to replace him.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt if Griffin III can learn to protect himself a little better. Sliding, getting out of bounds. We don’t need him to get 13 yards every time he runs, we can settle for 6 and him getting out of bounds safely.

Be sure to find my blog’s Facebook page and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl, to keep up with new blog posts as I publish them and to request for me to cover specific topics.

Super Bowl XLVII: San Francisco 49ers

Super Bowl Sunday Countdown: 5 Days

The 49ers have appeared in two consecutive NFC title games, but make
their first Super Bowl appearance in 18 years on Sunday. They beat the
San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. Photo credit to NFL Network.

It is both exciting and depressing that the week of the Super Bowl is now upon us. There is so much anticipation leading up to the main event, but well before midnight on Sunday, the 2012 season will be over.

It hasn’t felt like a long season, but this 49ers team is more than just a culmination of the past six months. When Jim Harbaugh was hired as San Francisco’s head coach during the 2011 offseason, nobody knew what to expect. Few, if any, expected that he would turn this franchise around and bring it back to the sport’s biggest stage. Even fewer, maybe nobody, expected it to happen so soon.

I still remember how the 2011 season began for the 49ers. I may be a little hazy on which team they were playing, though I’m fairly certain that it was Seattle, but Ted Ginn Jr. returned a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns in the final minutes of the game to carry the 49ers to victory.

It was a fluke as far as the experts were concerned. I certainly didn’t think much of it. But they kept finding ways to win. They won close games, they won in blowouts – most of you may not remember the Tampa Bay game from last year – it didn’t matter how they had to win; they won.

Yet, after losing just three games all season, when we reached the playoffs, nobody expected they could outrun the Saints if it turned into a shootout. They hadn’t beaten a team with a high-octane offense like that of New Orleans all season. Sure enough, the game turned into a shootout. The winner, however, was not the team many of us expected, as Alex Smith and Vernon Davis became Steve Young and Terrell Owens.

The party ended the following week, as errors haunted the team and the Giants advanced to Super Bowl XLVI.

This past offseason, Jim Harbaugh schooled his team in preparation. He never wanted his team to find itself in a close game and let it slip away from them. They had some rough games this season, more than they did in 2011, but to their credit every time they lost a game, they came back the next week with a big win, and they only lost one close game.

This week, though, if they lose, there is no ‘next week’ where they can go out and win a game and make a statement. This is the last game of the season. They won’t play another game that matters until September, and that won’t be counted as a part of this team’s accomplishments.

Many of these players came to San Francisco before Jim Harbaugh took over. He has transformed this team and this Sunday they will attempt to tie Pittsburgh as the owners of the most Vince Lombardi Trophies in the NFL. They also look to keep their perfect 5-0 Super Bowl record intact.

Baltimore, meanwhile, will look to duplicate what it did on Thanksgiving night in 2011. This is a different 49ers team than it was then; perhaps more vulnerable in some ways, but also much more explosive since the move from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick. This team may have been ready for the Super Bowl last year, but the second year has prepared them even more. Few teams get two years of steady building toward this game. This team did, and they’ve used these two years well.

Tomorrow I will profile the Baltimore Ravens and will continue my Super Bowl XLVII coverage all the way through to Sunday, when I will make my official prediction by noon. For links to new blog posts as they are published, ‘like’ my blog’s Facebook page and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.

NFC Championship Preview: Falcons vs 49ers

Sunday, January 20, 2013

3:00pm – FOX

San Francisco 49ers @ Atlanta Falcons

The 49ers return for a second straight year as they tie Dallas for the most
NFC Championship Game appearances, with 14. This is Atlanta's third
appearance and their first since January 2005.

I did not have an easy time coming up with my predictions for either of Sunday’s games, but this one was definitely the tougher of the two.

San Francisco, of course, has had a fantastic season. Alex Smith played great football early in the season, and when Colin Kaepernick took over, he impressed right away. As bad as I feel for Smith, Kaepernick earned the right to continue starting for the 49ers and he has continued to play great in big games.

Not only has Kaepernick shown an ability to win big games, he’s shown that he can do it regardless of the venue. The Georgia Dome, however, may be the loudest venue in the NFL – no offense to the Superdome or to CenturyLink Field.

I think being at home played a fairly significant role in Kaepernick overcoming an early pick-6 and leading San Francisco to victory last week. I’m not ready to bet on him having as big of a game against Atlanta.

The Falcons have been wanting for a postseason win for several years now, and they finally got one by holding off the Seahawks last week. I think Matt Ryan will benefit a great deal from that confidence boost.

The 49ers dealt with Green Bay’s massive receiving corps quite nicely. They likely won’t get beat too badly by Roddy White or Julio Jones, but I don’t know that they can compete with White and Jones on a physical level.

The one thing that makes me real nervous about this pick is the questionable status of John Abraham, who was severely limited against Seattle with an ankle injury and might not be active at all tomorrow.

Still, I think the home field advantage, a confident Matt Ryan and a defense that is much better than Green Bay’s will be enough to send Atlanta to their franchise’s second Super Bowl appearance.

Puff’s Pick:

San Francisco 49ers – 20

Atlanta Falcons – 31

MVP: Matt Ryan


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Divisional Round Afterword: 49ers vs Packers

Colin Kaepernick threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more in his
NFL postseason debut, leading San Francisco to a 45-31 victory over
Green Bay. Photo credit to CBS News.

Colin Kaepernick had nearly identical passing numbers as Aaron Rodgers despite attempting and completing fewer passes. The difference was Kaepernick’s record-setting day on the ground. While Aaron Rodgers carried the ball three times for 28 yards, Kaepernick ran 16 times for an NFL record 181 yards. He broke Michael Vick’s record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a postseason game during the third quarter. By the final gun, he had broken Vick’s overall single-game record.

So Colin had a terrific game, but that wasn’t it for San Francisco’s offense. Frank Gore added 119 yards on the ground and a pair of receptions for 48 yards. In all, the 49ers gained 579 offensive yards, 323 of them on the ground.

The 49ers also possessed the ball for 16 more minutes than the Packers, so Green Bay’s defense was exhausted in the second half, explaining how a 24-21 halftime lead for San Francisco turned into a 45-24 lead until Green Bay scored a garbage-time touchdown with 67 seconds left.

Kaepernick showed terrific poise in the game. Two minutes in, he tried to hit Vernon Davis to the left but Sam Shields picked it off and took it 52 yards to the house. After that, Kaepernick led San Francisco on back-to-back nine-play drives, the first of which resulted in a touchdown.

For Green Bay, it was a painful reminder of their Week 1 loss to this very team. Alex Smith started that early-season matchup, but it apparently didn’t matter which quarterback started for the 49ers.

San Francisco will play in the NFC Championship for the second consecutive season. Last year they lost at home to the eventual Super Bowl Champion New York Giants. They will play in Atlanta this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. for a second chance to advance to the Super Bowl for the sixth time in franchise history.

Monday Night Football Afterword: Cardinals vs 49ers

The Cardinals failed to protect their home field against
NFC West rival, San Francisco, on Monday Night.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy kept me busy during all but the final seven minutes of the game last night. My bedroom window in my apartment was leaking quite badly (it’s currently under control and hopefully will stay under control until someone can come take a look at it). I don’t mean to whine too much, I know there are plenty out there in much worse shape than I am, and know my prayers are going out for you.

However, it does mean I don’t have much to say about the game. San Francisco took care of business. I expected it to be close but I felt that the offensive troubles the 49ers have been dealing with would only be magnified against a very good Arizona defense. That didn’t happen as Alex Smith had one of the most efficient games of any quarterback this year.

Smith completed 18 passes. 18 passes in 19 attempts, and the one incompletion was a dropped pass by an open receiver. I don’t care that I didn’t get to see all of them, and I don’t care how many short passes those completions came on, you can’t have a much more efficient game than that. His passer rating was 157.1 – a perfect passer rating is 158.3.

San Francisco blew the Cardinals out of their home stadium and extended their lead in the NFC West with all three of their division rivals losing this week. We will see if they can maintain it, but with how inconsistent the other three teams have looked, I don’t think any of them will catch the 49ers during the second half of the season.