original poster":2t6tqqf5 said:
Expectations have certainly been lowered dramaticly which is no doubt a good thing for them, in reality they will definitely meet or exceed expectations. I'd love to hear from a genuine 49'ers fan what W/L ratio they expect this season.
To be honest I really have no expectation.
I don't mean that to sound as if they will be bad, but more that I really don't have any idea what to expect.
From both a coaching and personnel perspective, they haven't so much traded the good for the bad as traded the known for the unknown.
Can Tomsula and staff be as good as Harbaugh and staff? Harbaugh and staff were pretty damn good so on the surface it seems to be a resounding no....but Harbaugh had a blind spot for Greg Roman. As much as Seattle fans and ALOT of Niner fans want to heap the blame on Kap, Roman did very little to help that offense go over the last two years. Roman is an OUTSTANDING run game coordinator, but not much of a pass game coordinator. There is a reason Roman only coached the run game at Stanford and will do the same in Buffalo.
Can Geep Chryst be better than that? Dunno.
On defense it would appear to be a downgrade from Fangio to Mangini.
Can Carlos Hyde, Kendall Hunter, and Reggie Bush make up for the loss of Frank Gore? Frank is my all-time favorite Niner so I don't want to to sound like I am minimizing his loss, particularly in the locker room. However, Frank hasn't really been the Frank we remember for a few years now. Hyde has a juice to him that Frank may never have had...tho last year he seemed to lack Franks vision and patience.
We'll see.
WR? I think adding Smith is exactly what they've needed for a few year now...finally a guy to vertically stretch the field.
There are SEVERAL other positions where I can go into the known vs unknown conversation.
So the best way I can answer your question is "I have no idea". 6-10? 12-4? Neither result would be more surprising to me because I have no idea what to expect.