SF Examiner: Niners’ season could hinge on QB decision
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO — In May, we ask about September, about the 49ers, about the most important of positions, about the quarterback. In May, we wonder who will be starting when the season is starting.
That’s the issue as the Niners hold a minicamp, or what in NFL newspeak is labeled an “OTA” (organized team activity).
That’s the issue, who plays quarterback for the franchise of quarterbacks, the franchise of Frankie Albert, John Brodie, Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jeff Garcia.
Mike Singletary is a defensive guy, a Hall of Fame linebacker.
Singletary is a slug-it-out guy, who played for the Chicago Bears, a slug-it-out team.
“We will go out and hit people in the mouth,” Singletary promised in October after his first game as the then interim coach.
Maybe that works here by the Bay, maybe not.
We’re used to passes, short or long. We’re used to offense. We’re used to a quarterback who does more than hand-off.
So who’s that quarterback? Shaun Hill, the undrafted overachiever who doesn’t so much win games as he does from keeping the Niners from losing them?
Or from off the scrapheap, Alex Smith, the first man taken in the ’05 draft who for various reasons — injuries, coaching switches — has done almost nothing?
Does Hill, who we’re told is more caretaker than offensive innovator, become Singletary’s choice to keep the game under control?
Or does Smith, healthy again, get the opportunity to show the reason he was selected ahead of every other player then available?
“We’re all communicating,” Singletary said of players and staff. “They’re going to tell us when that decision needs to be made. They’re going to compete.”
The Niners brought in free-agent Kurt Warner for a visit after the Super Bowl, even after Singletary fired offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who years ago with the St. Louis Rams built the offense, the “Greatest Show on Turf,” which made Warner a star.
Warner never was going to join the 49ers. He re-signed with the Arizona Cardinals, the NFC champions.
So do the Niners believe in Hill or in Smith? Or in neither? Do the Niners, with their seventh offensive coordinator in seven years,Jimmy Raye, feel confident Hill, who spent seasons on the Vikings’ bench or Smith, who got trashed by former coach Mike Nolan, can make a losing team a winner?
“They’re competing not so much against each other,” Singletary said in one of those coaching comments that bewilders more than it explains, “but against the best quarterbacks in the league.”
Not until one of them is named starter. Not until the games begin.
“Coach Singletary is a fiery guy,” Hill said about the coach’s displeasure with the way both he and Smith performed in the first day’s workout, “and he obviously holds the quarterbacks to a high standard.”
A standard maybe neither QB reaches, although one of them will be reaching for the football from behind center.
“At the end of the day,” Singletary said, “we’ll know when that decision needs to be made, and we’ll do it.”
And we’ll hope they’ve done it correctly.
Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com andwww.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.
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http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Niners-season-could-hinge-on-QB-decision-45456527.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company
Special to The Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO — In May, we ask about September, about the 49ers, about the most important of positions, about the quarterback. In May, we wonder who will be starting when the season is starting.
That’s the issue as the Niners hold a minicamp, or what in NFL newspeak is labeled an “OTA” (organized team activity).
That’s the issue, who plays quarterback for the franchise of quarterbacks, the franchise of Frankie Albert, John Brodie, Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jeff Garcia.
Mike Singletary is a defensive guy, a Hall of Fame linebacker.
Singletary is a slug-it-out guy, who played for the Chicago Bears, a slug-it-out team.
“We will go out and hit people in the mouth,” Singletary promised in October after his first game as the then interim coach.
Maybe that works here by the Bay, maybe not.
We’re used to passes, short or long. We’re used to offense. We’re used to a quarterback who does more than hand-off.
So who’s that quarterback? Shaun Hill, the undrafted overachiever who doesn’t so much win games as he does from keeping the Niners from losing them?
Or from off the scrapheap, Alex Smith, the first man taken in the ’05 draft who for various reasons — injuries, coaching switches — has done almost nothing?
Does Hill, who we’re told is more caretaker than offensive innovator, become Singletary’s choice to keep the game under control?
Or does Smith, healthy again, get the opportunity to show the reason he was selected ahead of every other player then available?
“We’re all communicating,” Singletary said of players and staff. “They’re going to tell us when that decision needs to be made. They’re going to compete.”
The Niners brought in free-agent Kurt Warner for a visit after the Super Bowl, even after Singletary fired offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who years ago with the St. Louis Rams built the offense, the “Greatest Show on Turf,” which made Warner a star.
Warner never was going to join the 49ers. He re-signed with the Arizona Cardinals, the NFC champions.
So do the Niners believe in Hill or in Smith? Or in neither? Do the Niners, with their seventh offensive coordinator in seven years,Jimmy Raye, feel confident Hill, who spent seasons on the Vikings’ bench or Smith, who got trashed by former coach Mike Nolan, can make a losing team a winner?
“They’re competing not so much against each other,” Singletary said in one of those coaching comments that bewilders more than it explains, “but against the best quarterbacks in the league.”
Not until one of them is named starter. Not until the games begin.
“Coach Singletary is a fiery guy,” Hill said about the coach’s displeasure with the way both he and Smith performed in the first day’s workout, “and he obviously holds the quarterbacks to a high standard.”
A standard maybe neither QB reaches, although one of them will be reaching for the football from behind center.
“At the end of the day,” Singletary said, “we’ll know when that decision needs to be made, and we’ll do it.”
And we’ll hope they’ve done it correctly.
Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com andwww.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com.
- - - - - -
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/Spander-Niners-season-could-hinge-on-QB-decision-45456527.html
Copyright 2009 SF Newspaper Company