Coming off a huge Monday night win against Pittsburgh there is no better time for me to make bold statements about what the 49ers should do during the free agency period next season. Right now moral is high and Niner Nation is floating on cloud nine, the last thing Niners fans want to do is talk about who needs to go and who should be acquired. But, I will.
Bold move #1
The Niners pass defense is their weakest link on that side of the ball, they rank 21st in the NFL right now giving up 239.6yds per game. They do rank #2 in INT's with 21 and #1 in Fumble Recoveries with 14, over-all ranking #1 in take-aways with 35. Starters Carlos Rogers and Tarell Brown have been good in coverage but have had their moments of breaking down. To be fair it is safe to say Rogers is on his way to the Pro-Bowl, it's Brown that really has been more suspect throughout the season. Chris Culliver has been a nice surprise as the nickel DB and seems to have the upside to contribute for years to come. Shawntee Spencer, the former starting DB for the past few years has seen little to no action this year and probably will be cut loose in the off season. With this group, as is, they are struggling to stay up to par with the front 7 of the defense that is dominating the league right now, even without Patrick Willis (Hamstring injury). So, what should the Niners do in the off-season to get better in the secondary?
Well, first resign Dashon Gholdson to a multi year deal. Right now he's tied for the team lead in INT's with 6 and looks more and more like the ball hawk he claims to be. And resign Carlos Rogers who is also a free agent and is the guy tied with Gholdson with 6 INT's.
However the bold move would be to sign Mario Williams as a free agent.
I can hear it now "what are you talking about? Mario Williams is a Linebacker/DE not a DB?" and to that I say "fret not." Look, everyone knows that the less time you give a QB to throw the less effective he will be. Right now Aldon Smith, who has an amazing 13 sacks (a new 49er rookie record), doesn't even start. If you play him even more next season and continue to have Justin Smith and Ray McDonald creating pressure from the DE spots and add in the pass rushing abilities of a Mario Williams QB's won't ever have time to pick apart our average secondary. The ability to get to the QB quicker and more frequently will automatically make our secondary better because of the small amount of time they will have to do their job. Could you imagine a defense where as a QB you come up to the line and you see the likes of A. Smith, J. Smith, R. McDonald, and M. Williams all lined up in front of you?! That would be scary.
The main problem here is that there are no "big name" DB's on the free-agent market in 2012 right now to make our secondary better. The top 3 DB's right now that will hit the market are Cortland Finnegan, Brent Grimes, and Terrell Thomas and I'm not shy to say that I don't know who the last 2 are. The Niners had a great draft class last year so there's the idea that you could draft a DB but let's face it, with where the Niners will be selecting in the 1st round next year (because of their dominating record) the DB's who can contribute right away will more than likely be gone already. Plus, I see interior offensive line being a bigger need in round 1 next year, but that's for another blog.
So basically the Niners should get better on one level by getting superior at another. Coming soon is Part 2 of this blog where I will make a prediction about a bold move the Niners should make on offense, and yes it has to do with the passing game...
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