Who are we gonna miss the most?

[Hawk Sista]

I watched highlights of the season today and saw lots of good plays from ex-hawks: Big Red, CC, Golden, BB, Walter "I smoke so much pot I think my clothes look good" Thurmond, Breno, Paul, & Clinton.... Plus I think we can all agree real-Rob be hanging up the cleats.

Strange as it seems, I was most concerned - still am - with the losses on the O-line, particularly the Big Russian (Breno). I don't think Breno & Paul were superstars (I think the Jets overpaid), but they were Hawks, used to our system and at the least, provided o-line depth we ALWAYS seemed to need. While I like the promise of Bowie & Bailey, and the news that Carp seems to be getting a new message about conditioning and trying ALL the time, at this point in the game.... Letting our oline FAs go, overreaching in the second and drafting a dude w/ a medical condition makes me worry about the oline.

I know there is still time. But our offensive woes last year... in spurts...were, IMHO, oline centric. While I will miss GT for his big play potential & personality, CC for his production, motor & sacks, big Red for his run-stuffing abilities, & M Rob for his leadership..... I pick Breno and Paul as 1A and 1C.

I'm happy to eat crow, and anxious to hear who you will miss most & why.

[Zorn76]

Off the top, I'd say GT, though I think we'll be able to find another effective punt returner and our WR group will be better with Harvin back in the fold. I'd actually like to see Percy do some punt returning as well, seeing how our D won't be giving up many scores for him to get KR chances anyway.

Beyond that, I don't think we'll miss any of the rest. Breno and McQ were 2nd string, at best, who were the best option to start for a beat up OL in 2013. We didn't even try to keep them. That says it all. CC was done. Red got a nice deal in Jax.

We're gonna be fine. Harvin alone goes a long way for our chances of repeating. I think SF will suffer somewhat from Bowman and Smith missing games, the latter of which could be significant time. Gore is nearly done, Justin Smith will be 35. We may see the 49ers only win 10-11 games max this year. I think we win 12-13 again, and take the division.

The Seahawks are still the best team in the NFL.

[RiverDog]

I'm gonna pick the Big Russian. The OL is undoubtedly our weakest area, and Breno wasn't an All Pro OT, that's for sure, but he cleaned up his stupid-is-as-stupid-does penalties without losing that nastiness to him, and I have yet to see a viable replacement for him on our current roster.

[c_hawkbob]

While Breno's talent is replaceable by nearly any journeyman quality lineman, his nasty 'tude may not be, I just hope someone among the potential replacements can exhibit the same mean streak while maybe keeping the penalties down a bit ... but I think we'll be lucky to replace Tate's circus catch ability. Not that others on our team don't have that as well but Golden's highlight reel catches were so commonplace I think people got too used to them and they kind of seemed just what to expect from our receivers. We'll still have some to be sure, but methinks perhaps not with the frequency we did with Golden Tate around.

[nlbmsportin]

As a personality: Big Red
As a player: None of them will come close to what we are about to feel when Marshawn leaves

[NorthHawk]

I hear you about Lynch, but that's not this year.
This year, I think we miss Tate the most. He made a lot of big plays when we needed them.

Breno may only be a journeyman Tackle, but the others we have are relatively untested.
I hope that Britt or Bowie can be a player that can make RT his job for a number of years, but time will tell.
There seems to be a lot riding on hope along the OL this year in hoping Okung stays healthy, hope that Carpenter gets more consistent, hope that Bailey or Britt can take over the RT spot and Guard.

[HumanCockroach]

IMO the players the Hawks will miss most are GT and Clinton. Both brought a unique aspect to the team with their play, and I'm not convinced either the pass rush at the DT position or the punt return ability. I'm not convinced those skills can be adequately replaced by the young players still on the team, or by players drafted.

[Futureite]

Off the top, I'd say GT, though I think we'll be able to find another effective punt returner and our WR group will be better with Harvin back in the fold. I'd actually like to see Percy do some punt returning as well, seeing how our D won't be giving up many scores for him to get KR chances anyway.

Beyond that, I don't think we'll miss any of the rest. Breno and McQ were 2nd string, at best, who were the best option to start for a beat up OL in 2013. We didn't even try to keep them. That says it all. CC was done. Red got a nice deal in Jax.

We're gonna be fine. Harvin alone goes a long way for our chances of repeating. I think SF will suffer somewhat from Bowman and Smith missing games, the latter of which could be significant time. Gore is nearly done, Justin Smith will be 35. We may see the 49ers only win 10-11 games max this year. I think we win 12-13 again, and take the division.

The Seahawks are still the best team in the NFL.

Hard to say how addittions and subtractions will work for either team, but IMO we are already a much better team than last yr. The O is going to be far better than it was last yr. Yes, losing Bowman and Smith (debateable) will obviously effect our D, but like we discussed we have a ton of young talent coming in and some at least 'capable' backups that played great in Smith's absence last yr. I am worried about that though.

On the other hand, I am very curious to see how Seattle's D-line holds up qith the loss of Red and Clemons. If I am not mistaken, Clemons got 67% of the snaps at LEO - the most on the team. And Red was instrumental in the run game, and was a primary reason Gore eushed for only 14 yds in the NFCCCG. Now you are going to either Hill/Wliiams/Scruggs for Red, Irvin for Clemons, Cassius to sub in for Bennett. It is possible Bennett and Avril may play more snaps, which may effect them.

All in all some pretty interesting changes. Who knows how it wil play out. We ain't stopping at 10 wins though .

[EntiatHawk]

Well Breno seems like the obvious answer to proven otherwise. But I really think that will be okay.

For me Clem is the one I am looking to see how his shoes will be filled. He started to get back into his form at the end of the season.

[HumanCockroach]

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/snapcounts

sorry, Red wasn't instremental in holding Gore to that rushing total, as he wasn't on the field. ( 18 total snaps) Clemmons was on the field quite a bit, and I do worry about replacing his production, however it won't be Irvin manning that position, he will play OLB as has been discussed frequently by Carroll and Quinn. They might slide him to the line on third downs to play the Avril role, but it will likely be a rotation of Avril, Mayowa, Schofield etc.

It will be interesting to see how they play that, but Irvin from all reports isn't in the mix, and Bennet had stolen the lions share of Red's snaps before the playoffs. I liked Red, but he simply wasn't a major contributer the last half of the season, and even less so in the post season.

[NorthHawk]

One of the Defensive UFA's we picked up intrigues me - Jackson Jeffcoat.
I always thought he was someone who makes big plays, and now he apparently has a big chip on his shoulder after not being drafted.
The DL will be different, but it might be better in some ways, too.

[HumanCockroach]

Yeah, I liked the Jeff coat signing, and then there's Marsh as well. It will be the second most interesting group to watch during training camp slightly behind how the receiver core shakes out.

[Futureite]

Tu

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/snapcounts

sorry, Red wasn't instremental in holding Gore to that rushing total, as he wasn't on the field. ( 18 total snaps) Clemmons was on the field quite a bit, and I do worry about replacing his production, however it won't be Irvin manning that position, he will play OLB as has been discussed frequently by Carroll and Quinn. They might slide him to the line on third downs to play the Avril role, but it will likely be a rotation of Avril, Mayowa, Schofield etc.

It will be interesting to see how they play that, but Irvin from all reports isn't in the mix, and Bennet had stolen the lions share of Red's snaps before the playoffs. I liked Red, but he simply wasn't a major contributer the last half of the season, and even less so in the post season.

Ok. I was going off of what Matt Barrows posted (our beat guy) for Sacbee. Maybe Red was in on obvious run downs like 2nd or 3rd and short? I don't know. You change the rotation on either D and things are going to be effected. I expect our D to step back a bit the first part of the season.

[PasadenaHawk]

I too think we will miss G.T. you watch the 2013 highlights and he has so many! I also think Breno would have been nice to keep around for another year, but we will see.

[HumanCockroach]

Tu

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/snapcounts

sorry, Red wasn't instremental in holding Gore to that rushing total, as he wasn't on the field. ( 18 total snaps) Clemmons was on the field quite a bit, and I do worry about replacing his production, however it won't be Irvin manning that position, he will play OLB as has been discussed frequently by Carroll and Quinn. They might slide him to the line on third downs to play the Avril role, but it will likely be a rotation of Avril, Mayowa, Schofield etc.

It will be interesting to see how they play that, but Irvin from all reports isn't in the mix, and Bennet had stolen the lions share of Red's snaps before the playoffs. I liked Red, but he simply wasn't a major contributer the last half of the season, and even less so in the post season.

Ok. I was going off of what Matt Barrows posted (our beat guy) for Sacbee. Maybe Red was in on obvious run downs like 2nd or 3rd and short? I don't know. You change the rotation on either D and things are going to be effected. I expect our D to step back a bit the first part of the season.

Possibly, I don't know yet, and won't have a clue until I see the rotation they use.Bennett was already garnering around 50 snaps a game so I would guess there won't be a lot more than that thrown on his plate,Avrils snap count will be going up, just not sure how much yet. The young guys showed promise, but that is a crap shoot really. There is a lot of them, but how they perform with an increased work load remains to be seen. The depth is there ( at least in terms of bodies) it just remains to be seen how effective that depth is at this point. I'm not overly concerned with the rush defense taking a huge step back, as for the most part the same players are here ( Bennett, Avril, Mebane, McDaniel) but how they rotate might matter. Like I said I'm a little more concerned with the interior rush that was lost ( McDonald) and whether rotationally they can get the same production from guys like Hill etc.

[c_hawkbob]

Red was very much more valuable in previous years that he was last year.

Last year we really loaded up our D-line rotation with a ton of talent and were able to make things work without as great a reliance on Red's ability to anchor and solidify against the rush. We were also so much better offensively that we were playing with a lead so much that that our NASCAR package was supplanting our base run defense package as the most crucial defensive package for us. Red got us to where we are now, but as a defense we've sort of outgrown our reliance on him, whereas in previous years he was easily the most indispensable defender on our team.

[PasadenaHawk]

Red was very much more valuable in previous years that he was last year.

Last year we really loaded up our D-line rotation with a ton of talent and were able to make things work without as great a reliance on Red's ability to anchor and solidify against the rush. We were also so much better offensively that we were playing with a lead so much that that our NASCAR package was supplanting our base run defense package as the most crucial defensive package for us. Red got us to where we are now, but as a defense we've sort of outgrown our reliance on him, whereas in previous years he was easily the most indispensable defender on our team.

Great point. I was going to post previously that Red would have been the biggest loss if it had been a year or two ago, but as you said, we have relied on him less and less.

[briwas101]

Breno.

People can talk all they want about how he is "2nd string" or mediocre, but the FACT of the matter is that the Hawks had 3 years to find someone better and couldn't.

Losing a mediocre player is a really bad thing if he gets replaced with someone worse.

Right now it looks like our weakest unit (OL) will be even weaker in 2014

[I-5]

Poor Chris Maragos was left off the OP...

Having said that, I think Breno's absence will be felt the most, followed by Tate.