Saturday, March 6, 2010

Carr?

So the Arizona Cardinals have been the class of the NFC West for the last two years. They made the superbowl the year before last, and this year they ended up winning a crazy home game and advancing but eventually losing to super bowl champions, New Orleans Saints. The team has been turned around since that game.

1. The biggest hit (in my eyes) is losing veteran QB Kurt Warner. He was savy and could throw the ball amazingly well in his later years. Having 2 great WR's (Bolding and Fitzgerald) did help, but he really lead the team and was a huge reason they turned it around and made the Superbowl. Taking over for Warner, at this point, is Matt Lienart. Funny enough Leinart could have been a 49er, if he decided to come out a year early. Instead he chose to stay at USC, enrolled in one class, salsa dancing, I believe and try to win another championship. He lost to Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns in what is one of the best college football games in a long time. So back to the point, having an unproven starter now (they could get a older veteran to play QB as well) at QB should hurt them.


2. They also lost Pro Bowl WR Anquan Boldin, he was traded to Baltimore for a 3rd and 4th round pick. This makes me think two things: First they do have another good WR in Steve Breaston but losing Boldin should hurt, the guy was a beast and always reliable when playing even before Fitzgerald was added to the team. I think teams can now play the pass better knowing Warner isn't there to throw and less weapons on offense. The second thing is that I do not understand trading in the NFL. It seems that almost anyone could be had for a 3rd round choice. Example would be Randy Moss a few years back. There is talks that WR Brandon Marshall may go to the Seahawks for the 6th pick overall, my only question is why would you NOT do that? You could draft a total bust #6 overall OR you could get one of the best WR in the league.


3. They lost good players on defense. Saftey Antrel Rolle was released because he had a 4 million dollar bonus coming his way. Rolle has signed on with the Giants since. Arizona has some weakness on playing the pass last season I cant see how this will help them in anyway. They also lost veteran LB Karlos Dansby today, he signed with the Dolphins. Both of these players are not the best at their positions but they are ranked pretty high and losing them will do nothing but hurt the Cardinals.


So back to my point, now that we have the class on our division down and we can easily make a few moves and take over the NFC West, so what did the niners do... WE SIGNED QB DAVID CARR! I am not the only one who thought the signing was bad. Patrick Willis wrote on his twitter: “We have 3 QBs that are better (than) him. That’s a waste of his time.”


Wow...I read that earlier and still do not see how it makes a lot of sense. Yes, we get a veteran QB for back-up, but is that something we needed to do? There is talk that this will mean the end of Shaun Hill as a 49er. So now we are rolling with the #1 pick in the 2002 draft and the #1 pick in the 2005 draft at one position.


Argh okay I just hope Carr doesn't ever have to play extended period of time. And I am not saying that niners are done signing players but I just was hoping for a bigger splash, there is no salary cap this year. The salary cap was the niners biggest foe back in the day, they would sign whoever would make them better back then and the only thing keeping them down was not being able to spend more because of the salary cap.


As far as I see they are still selling out every game, so the spending should be coming. Why not go after someone like Brandon Marshall, we have two first round picks, we could easily give up one for him and be set at WR with Marshall and Crabtree for many years. Plus it would give Alex Smith no excuses for not having anyone to throw the ball too (Pro Bowl TE Vernon Davis, Pro Bowl RB Frank Gore, Up and coming WR Crabtree, and Marshall).


Ok thats my rant for the day. I just really want to see my Niners improve and overtake the rival Cardinals. This could be the year! One or two good picks or singings could lead to a lot.

2 comments:

Wesley said...

And we thought Alex Smith got sacked a lot...ugh...

Colonel Mortimer said...

Yeah, I am not crazy about Carr either. Why not stick with Smith and Hill and if Smith starts and falters, we know Hill's a solid backup?

Well the bright side is that the Niners could probably win the division by going 9-7 which would only require a one game improvement over last year.

I'd like to see them do a little more in free agency, mainly sign an offensive lineman, but I don't think this is the best class of Free Agents (Peppers is solid, but a bit overrated imo) and perhaps they are saving their money to resign Davis and Willis.

Two number one picks hopefully will address their needs: offensive line and kick returner.