:::[Official] San Francisco 49ers 2024 Offseason Thread [NFC CHAMPIONS]:::

[moe200069]

maybe it's the cal homer in me, or because im dreaming he could be as good as goff, but i like what i see how out of davis webb. doesn't hold onto the ball too long, knows how to step up in the pocket, can throw deep and does it with a so-so run game. he's making chad hansen look like a straight beast.

niners could probably swoop him in the later rounds too. if he had any ACL issues, baalke would fasho use a 2nd round pick on him

 

[red81]

i wouldn't be mad if we took 2 qbs; one relatively early, one late. we have 10 picks going into the draft as of right now.

 

[aNYone]

i wouldn't be mad if we took 2 qbs; one relatively early, one late. we have 10 picks going into the draft as of right now.

Who do you see as our starting QB come first game of next season?

 

[red81]

not gabbert or kaepernick 

 it would be nice if whoever we draft comes in and grabs the start job.

in addition to whoever we draft, it wouldn't surprise me if ponder somehow finds himself here next season. maybe thad lewis. someone will stick around.

 

[red81]

Positives: Good height to see the field. Very poised and composed. Smart and alert. Can read coverages. Good accuracy and touch. Produces in big spots and in big games. Has some Brian Griese in him and is a gamer. Generally plays within himself. Team leader.

Negatives: Poor build. Very skinny and narrow. Ended the season weighing 195 pounds and still looks like a rail at 211. Looks a little frail and lacks great physical stature and strength. Can get pushed down more easily than you'd like. Lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush. Lacks a really strong arm. Can't drive the ball down the field and does not throw a really tight spiral. System-type player who can get exposed if he must ad-lib and do things on his own.

Summary: Is not what you're looking for in terms of physical stature, strength, arm strength and mobility, but he has the intangibles and production and showed great Griese-like improvement as a senior. Could make it in the right system but will not be for everyone.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

lol jk that's tom brady 

[h1]Luke Falk and the Air Raid Conundrum[/h1]
The Air Raid offense has produced prolific collegiate passers but few NFL success stories. The latest Mike Leach pupil, Luke Falk, has a chance to buck the trend

We’re halfway through the college football season, and when it comes to the draft-eligible quarterbacks there is no consensus to be found. Summer frontrunner Deshaun Watson has been inconsistent. Junior pocket passers Brad Kaaya and DeShone Kizer flash high ceilings, though one or both could return to school. Senior Chad Kelly remains polarizing for his play on the field and his actions off of it.

With the top-tier passers struggling to separate themselves, scouts are spending more time mining the rest of the pool of quarterbacks. And the next name for many evaluators is Luke Falk.

The Washington State quarterback is 6'4" and 203 pounds. He has completed 71.5 percent of his passes for 352.2 yards per game this season. After starting the year 0-2, the Cougars have rolled off four straight wins and emerged as a surprising Pac-12 contender. He is tough; look no further than a 42-16 win over then-No. 15 Stanford on the road. In the third quarter Falk’s jersey was smeared with grass and red logo stains. He lay on the ground after absorbing a massive hit while sliding (the defender was ejected for targeting). He sat out one play, and upon returning he scrambled for a first down on his first play back. Then capped the drive with 17-yard touchdown pass.

But there’s a familiar caveat with Falk. Yes, barring injury he’ll throw for 4,000 yards for a second straight season. But he’ll do it on about 50 pass attempts per game (last year he averaged 53.7, so far this season it’s 49.2). Falk plays for Mike Leach. He is an Air Raid quarterback.

The presumption is that an Air Raid quarterback’s production is simply a byproduct of the system. There have been former Air Raid quarterbacks drafted high who didn’t pan out: Tim Couch, Nick Foles, Kevin Kolb, Johnny Manziel, Geno Smith, Brandon Weeden. Case Keenum is arguably the most successful former Air Raid quarterback in the NFL right now, and on a micro level the argument could be boiled down to the top picks of 2016. The Eagles felt comfortable with Carson Wentz (pro-style offense at North Dakota State), so much so that he was under center in Week 1 despite transitioning from the FCS. The Rams say they need more time for Jared Goff (variation of Air Raid at Cal) to develop.

“I think the knock on the Air Raid is just a cop out,” Leach says. “If a guy who played in that system falls short, people use this as an excuse to their own convenience, saying what we’re doing is a trick or something different or whatever.”

Leach, often regarded as the Air Raid’s godfather, says his system is derived from many wishbone principles: distributing the ball to all five skill-position players. Except his offense focuses on doing that through passing. The coach also emphasizes that the NFL has borrowed from his playbook.

“It’s indisputable that most of the NFL is copying us and doing Air Raid things,” Leach says. “The Patriots have total Air Raid influences, the Saints have total Air Raid influences, the Packers, the 49ers, to a lesser degree Seattle, the Broncos for sure. It’d be easier to say the ones who aren’t  influenced by it.”

But the Air Raid alone isn’t the only reason some evaluators are skeptical of players like Falk. “Of course it’s great if a guy has big production, and you’re more likely to find that if they’re in an Air Raid system,” says an AFC personnel man. “My concerns with a guy from the Air Raid are the same as any guy who ran a spread offense. Only a fraction of the snaps they take are transferrable to the NFL.” The two biggest differences: commanding a huddle and taking snaps under center.

“No question when a guy is learning how to play under center, the footwork needs to be worked on,” says UMass coach Mark Whipple, who was the quarterbacks coach for the Steelers during Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie year and the Browns during Weeden’s first NFL season. “The verbiage is a challenge for rookies no matter where they come from. But for guys like [Weeden], you’re calling plays in the huddle you're making some checks, you might make some protection changes, and the game is different when you’re closer to the line of scrimmage.”

Weeden agrees. After winning the Fiesta Bowl with Oklahoma State in 2012, he returned to Arizona for three days of private tutoring with Marc Trestman, then known as a West Coast offense expert, to practice taking snaps under center as well as “play-action stuff” and “the huddling part of the game.”

“I found that going from a three- to a five-step drop out of the shotgun, that wasn’t a huge difference,” says Weeden, now a backup for the Texans. “Turning your back to the defense was more of a change, as well as sightlines.”

In his 2012 rookie season, Weeden led the NFL with 21 batted balls. “A lot of it was the three-step quick game,” he says. “Those defensive linemen were right in your face and you had to throw over them, whereas in college I didn’t have to worry about that because I was five yards deep. I could catch the snap, and I had a little bit of space there. So learning how to throw through windows [after lining up] under center was pretty challenging at times.”

“There’s a lot of throws these guys were making in college translate to the NFL,” Whipple says. “But it’s really what I call the hash game—the tight end throws on linebackers—that these guys have difficulty getting. The tight end throws in the middle of the field, where in the spread offense you may not be getting them as much. Then turning your back to the defense on play-action, that's something we spend a lot of time on with Brandon, kind of get your eyes on faster, reaffirming some of your pre-snap reads, and your decision making is a little different.”

Whipple cautions against knocking a player’s college system in evaluations. “Everyone wants to think they know, but if they did, Tom Brady wouldn’t have gone in the sixth round or Dak Prescott wouldn’t have gone in the fourth round. I don’t care if you came from the Air Raid, the Wing T, whatever. I think there’s a million other factors that contribute to success of a quarterback than the numbers he put up in college.”

Which brings us back to Falk. Leach recites his quarterback’s intangibles to NFL evaluators who cycle through Pullman. Falk is a former walk-on who had his scholarship yanked by Florida State and received no other offers, in part because he moved as a junior and had to sit out due to transfer rules in Utah. The family briefly relocated to Los Angeles  so Falk’s sisters could pursue careers in music, so Luke could attend the glitzy Oaks Christian High, and so his father could expand his commercial real estate business.

Leach says the Los Angeles lifestyle of “Hollywood High” was not for Falk, whose demeanor is unflappable. “I grew up in Wyoming,” Leach says. “And he reminds me a lot of farmers. Doesn’t get excited about anything. Kind of boring, but same guy every day.”

There’s the toughness factor: Leach cites his favorite road win of last year, when Falk led a 10-play, 90-yard touchdown drive to defeat Rutgers. Falk finished the game with 468 yards and four touchdowns. And he’s a student of football. “Watches film as much as if not more than any guy I’ve ever coached,” Leach says.

The coach has given his quarterback more leeway regarding checking at the line of scrimmage. Leach says Falk can check at any point on the field, and this season probably checks 35 to 40 percent of the time. Falk can take off with his feet and has, though Leach says “he’s not particularly fast, he just has quarterback speed.”

But an evaluator who has watched Falk says production aside, the one thing he has been impressed with is the quarterback’s accuracy. Yes, he throws a ton, but does so accurately and has a nice feel of both deep touch passes and short strikes. That’s something that pleases Leach.

“I get a kick out of guys who say he’s this big, he’s this strong, he’s this fast, all you need to do is work on is accuracy,” he says. “You’re not going to fix that [if somebody doesn’t have it], no matter what college system they came from.”

the last line is so true. i can't recall a single player that had poor accuracy in college and became an accurate passer in the NFL.

 

[red81]

chip kelly is literally on KNBR right now talking about his buddy mike leach 

 im sure leach has put in a good word for his qb.

 

[lightweight champion]

Leach wouldn't leave to be OC...would he?

 

[red81]

nah, chip knows the air raid well. he uses a lot of air raid concepts.

man, this draft is so deep in OLB/edge pass rushers. even if we miss out on myles garrett, we should be able to grab a good one. i have a couple dudes in particular that i would love to draft. 

 

 

[red81]

alshon jeffery is playing like **** for someone who is looking to get a lucrative contract in the off-season.

with collins being moved, good chance the pats are going to pay donta hightower. surely there's no way cards let chandler jones walk after trading for him. free agent pool starting to look a lot like last years.  

 dontari poe might be my favorite free agent.

 

[red81]

someone told me the niners had the #7th overall defense against the pass. i couldn't believe it, so i went and checked....sure enough, it's true. 

jim o'neil  #noflyzone 

 

 

on a serious note, we have some pretty good young players in the secondary with jimmie, rashard and tartt. it's a shame they'll go unnoticed because of how terrible the run defense is.

 

[lightweight champion]

A good bit of why the pass d is so highly ranked has to do with the inability to stop the run. If every run goes for 7+ yards why would you even think about throwing?

Jim O'Neil #donthavetoflyzone

 

[moe200069]

damn it jed, empty the bank on lord fangio and bring back tomsula as dline coach. there's just too much talent at Dline to let it go to waste

i wanna wake up tomorrow to the news of the niners trading away a draft pick in return for jimmy garoppolo

 

[red81]

A good bit of why the pass d is so highly ranked has to do with the inability to stop the run. If every run goes for 7+ yards why would you even think about throwing?

Jim O'Neil #donthavetoflyzone

 hahah very true.

i think fangio could be available after this season. john fox is on the hot seat. however, the yorks might have already burned that bridge...

 

[moe200069]

damn fellas, i just realized that if jaylon smith finds his way back onto the field and can play with the same intensity he did at ND, my gawd, the cowboys 2016 draft might be the draft of the century.

 

[red81]

damn fellas, i just realized that if jaylon smith finds his way back onto the field and can play with the same intensity he did at ND, my gawd, the cowboys 2016 draft might be the draft of the century.

it's funny you mention this - i was literally thinking about that earlier. their '16 draft class is already a home run with zeke and dak, and it could get exponentially better with time.

cowboys are going to be a force in the playoffs. watch the **** out. it could be the early 90's all over again. 

 

[moe200069]

damn fellas, i just realized that if jaylon smith finds his way back onto the field and can play with the same intensity he did at ND, my gawd, the cowboys 2016 draft might be the draft of the century.

it's funny you mention this - i was literally thinking about that earlier. their '16 draft class is already a home run with zeke and dak, and it could get exponentially better with time.


cowboys are going to be a force in the playoffs. watch the **** out. it could be the early 90's all over again. :x

Could it be the early 90s for the niners, too??

 

[davizzy]

^wishful thinking.

 

[red81]

god damn

 
Spotrac  ‏@spotrac   42m42 minutes ago

@49ersMike_NF Once Kaepernick opts out the #49ers would clear $14.4M in additional space. Add in around $50M rolled over from '16 = $100M.

 

[bentrill]

I was just about to post that.

Lol, Baalke aint over paying and no one wants to come here. Wouldnt be suprised if the niners dont roll over the cap from this year.

 

[nothingtol0se]

seems **** they just signed another ACL guy to the PS.

 

[red81]

my brother has no meniscus in his knees. maybe he can get a look. 

 

[red81]

jim o'neil getting feisty when reporter asked him about gap integrity

Jim O'neil: "I don't know what you mean by that"

yeah, we know you don't know, jim. 

 

 

[bentrill]

I believe in oniel, he can see it turning already.

Ima ride with him to that number one pick.

 

[red81]

LOL

 

[hyper cutter]

Jim O'Neil can get any offense in the red zone and Greg Roman Flat out stuffs them.

They body switched.