I hate to sound like a grump, like the only one who is disagreeing with the teacher. But I have misgivings.
The Niners had two coronations today -- Jed as president and Mike Singletary as head coach -- four-year contract. Is Jed competent to run this big corporation? I don't know. Is Scot McCloughan competent to be his No. 1 football guy? I sure don't know.
What was the hurry to name Singletary head coach? I don't know. They had the press release waiting for the media when we walked into the press room after the game. Why? They might have interviewed a few other people in the next week or so, would have lost nothing by that. They thought Singletary was the man after nine games. It's a small sample on which to make a big decision.
They seem poised to dump Mike Martz, wouldn't give him a vote of confidence. Why? He engineered the drive that won the game in the final 1:02. Is that bad work? What's really going on here? Lots of questions. Lots of reasons to feel edgy even if the Niners don't. To read my full column on the Niner coronations click here.
Exactly! How come nobody else sees it like this. Martz deserves most of the credit for turning around the offense.
You base your endorsement of Martz on the last drive of the season. Did you watch all of Martz's drives this year.
Lots of turnovers, sacks and trouble scoring in the red zone. Same as in St. Louis and Detroit.
Singletary deserves the credit for benching JTO and going with Hill and forcing Martz to be balanced.
Lowell, I agree with all your points about the 49er situation. Handing Singletary a 4 yr deal brings back memories of Terry Donohues' multiple year extension--bad move.
The 49ers in the second half had a much more efficient
offense, less turnovers, and this with a gimpy or
obsent Frank Gore. Martz should get credit here,
and there is no reason not to endorse Shaun Hill as
the starting Qback for 2009. Is he perfect, no.
Is he much better than anyone since Jeff Garcia? yes.
A 29yr old (or so), minimal background, elevated to team president. Nepotism at its worst.
Finally, I am not enthralled with Scott M as GM.
Very sportty draft record----how did everyone like
Vernon Davis's production this year? Who was our
first round draft choice?, yeh, the guy with 6 tackles
all season.
gary
Lowell,
As always thanks for questioning conventional wisdom and writing and interesting piece. You are spot-on when you make the point that the 49er brain trust (such that it is) deserves to be relentlessly questioned. This fan certainly is not satisfied and would love to see the team sold to competent ownership. However, some of the points you make seem contradictory. You criticize the 49ers for decisively embracing Singletary as the new head coach. Yet you also criticize them for taking a wait and see approach with quarterback Shaun Hill and Martz. You make the (debatable) case for why this was wrong in the case of the head coach, but you don’t explain your disquiet for the Hill stance (do you want the coach or management to declare that Hill is the starter going into next year? Is the new franchise QB they’ll build around? What should they do different and why?). Regarding, Mike Martz: have you considered that he may not want to come back and the team is aware that he won’t stick around? Let’s find out before we slam them (a great chance for you to do some reporting). It is clear that whatever the 49ers do they can’t win with you and they will be blasted for it. I agree that the current 49er ownership deserves much abuse and has lost any benefit of the doubt. Nonetheless, just ripping them no matter what they do seems a bit lazy.
Lowell
I agree entirely with your piece! Why grab Singletary so fast? I don't understand this Franchise (or maybe I do!) Putting a finance man as President of the club. Of course he happens to be Dr. Yorks kid who knows nothing about football, football players and creating a winning organization just like daddy! I have a 31 year old son who played High School football and and College. Why not name him President? At least he has SOME experience.
Singletary taking over the team when the season was over and winning SOME games proves nothing about his coaching ability. Martz turned out to be a real plus for the team. He brought an exciting offense to a team that was puke on offense for so long I can't remember when a pass was completed before he arrived. Martz brought the fans at least the possibity of a victory with the offense. He also proved he could tweek his offense and won some games with 2 different QB'S.
I'm not saying Martz is the answer for a HC. But I am saying Singletary shouldn't have been grabbed as the HC so fast.
But with a York pulling the strings, it's 99% chance it will blow up in our faces. So remember 49er fans, and that includes me, It's your funeral!
I think Martz and Singletary balanced each other well. Their different "philosophies" kept each from going off the deep end. Now that Singletary has no opposition, the offense will probably loose whatever progress it made under Martz. And I hate run after run after run. AND that there have been so many offensive coordinators!
Lowell Cohn takes a lot of guff from the typical jock *** clowns who are simple homers. Lowell is correct more often than not.
Why the rush to hire Singletary? If the 49ers had waited until the season ended, they possibly could have made a deal with Mike Shanahan. You don't really want to compare the 2 Mikes? He is totally unproven, coaches 20 years younger have more experience and knowledge. This is a good man, but a Charlie One Note, he will do everything in his power to remake the 49ers into the Bears of '86, lots of luck with that. Look at how he treated Martz. Clearly he is still at the ego stage of his coaching career, he wants it all his way. Get ready for 3 yards and a cloud of dust, and oh yeah the 49ers better get ahead early, 'cause his kind of offense don't come back in the 2nd half.