Hey Matt, excellent read as usual, but I think you meant "He can be a good one," Ditka said. "Let me tell..."

Jeff B - in an effort to better communicate with 'today's player', singletary has taken a page from the likes of Joe Horn and Chand Johnson. He will no longer refer to himself u=in the first person. "Mike Singletary can't win with guys like that! Mike Singletary needs winners!" A rather unorthodox approach, but the jury's still out on it.

I hate to see Singletary on another team, but I dread the Yorks gutting this team by season's end. We got to keep Singletary in some way on defense, maybe fire Manusky and put Singletary as DC. We can't let this individual go.

I like Singletary a lot and hope he succeeds. Grumpy Guy posted a wonderful compilation of our past draft picks. We have been miserable for way too long and that is something you can't change quickly unless you were the amazing Bill Walsh who could evaluate player and utilize their talents. In three years he won a Super Bowl with just a few starters left over from three years and the team he took over. Considering we have been drafting in the bottom half for about the last six years luck should have given us a better team. Singletary may be the right choice, but we need some new asst coaches. Can Singletary bring continuity to OC and keep him here? Can he rebuild what is a poor O Line? Can he bring us a better D Line? Also we really need is a superb player personnel man and I hope Jed understands he is the product of nepotism and should step away from active input. My choice for New GM is Reggie McKenzie from Green Bay

This team needs a lot of things. It goes in this order:

1. A certified Club President.
2. A damn good GM (which will bring in a good coach).
3. A damn good OC.
4. A DC with balls (Singletary would fill this slot well).

Most of the players we have (right now) have a lot of talent, but they lack the proper coaching to be utilized to their full potential.

I like Singletary. But he hasn't done anything yet. Plenty of high quality football guys can't coach a team to the playoffs, and it is possible that Singletary is one of them. One disadvantage he has as HC is that he is not an offensive strategist and is therefore dependent on finding and retaining an innovative OC, in a league where any competence gets rewarded with a HC job somewhere else. We saw this problem with Nolan.

gw2- I agree with you. I like Singletary, but can he be a good HC is a complete unknown. We need an offensive HC, for the reasons you stated. I also worry that if he had anything to add, he would have shared it with Nolan all along. I also share Ditka's concern, that we just don't have the horses to be in the race.

Hmmm. Horses as in O line and D line? They're all in Philly and NY.

Matt, I am actually dying to hear your take on what went wrong with the Nolan era. The past two seasons, we had cautiously optimistic expectations, and the team absolutely bombed. This is very strange to me for several reasons:

1. We had decent drafts, with a few home-runs (Willis, Gore).
2. Our FA failures were balanced by successes (Justin Smith, Nate Clements is a pretty good corner for whom we overpaid, Takeo Spikes, Isaac Bruce).
3. We had a strong locker room culture.
4. Nolan was a pretty bright, focused, committed coach.

There are many obvious problems we encountered:

1. No QB.
2. No continuity or consistency on offense.
3. FA failures and draft misfires (Davis is on the verge of bust-hood; Alex Smith...although much of that is a result of injury, and Aaron Rodgers wouldn't have fared any better).
4. Nolan-Smith spat.

I like the idea of letting the dust settle before putting a stamp on the Nolan era. There are writers and fans who are ready to string up Nolan and lay the blame for all the team's shortcomings at his feet. This comment about us "not having the horses," though, seems to ignore the fact that we have decent personnel. Not stellar, but we're not starting rookies with nobody to challenge them; we're not taking guys off the street or people who'd be P-squad players on any other team. I'm just curious...the Nolan era seems to have been a time of consistent underachievement, indicating that you really can't win in the NFL without a good QB...but even that can't explain it all. When can we expect a breakdown?

Graham,

you are missing one problem: We have a weak OL. Granted, our Ts are good (if healthy), but the interior breaks down frequently.

As long as we refuse to pay Gs the same money other teams pay this is not going to change.

I wouldn't label VD bust-hood just yet. There's still hope for him... Dynasty from Madden Nation figured out a way to use him. Why not the real niners? ;)

I can feel it – Hill and Davis coming out party on Monday Night. Let's go baby!

I feel a break-out game also ....we are blowing the cardigrls out.....

Anyone who watched yesterday's games should easily see how far we have to go in terms of our OL and DL.

As has been pointed out here already, Haloti Ngata was drafted six slots after Vernon Davis. Our current nose tackle, Franklin, can be pancaked by a running back. How many legitimate NFL lineman are there on our OL and DL combined? Maybe two or three.

Even tho' I'm a season-ticket holder I'm sorry to say that we're years away from putting a competitive team out there.

Matt, just watched the Sunday conversation. They talked a lot about tradition (also a big topic in Cohen's interview of Jed). I got the vibe from Nolan that he didn't really want players from the 80's around. You would read the occasional story about Ronnie or Jerry showing up at practice, but it seemed like Mike was trying to distance himself from them. I understand wanting to put his stamp on the team, but when you have those resources available to you, why wouldn't you use them?

I guess my short question is, have you, or do you see Singletary calling on any of these former players to try and instill that sense of tradition.