The world leader of sports betting it is probably William Hill and even he probably couldn’t have predicted the implosion of the 49ers. Call me skeptical, pessimistic, but I’ll go with downright realistic.…
Jim Harbaugh was not a perfect coach... or maybe he was not the subservient coach the 49ers hoped he would be, but he was a winning coach. He was darn good to his players, and he was largely responsible for the turnaround of the organization. What happens when you dismiss or "mutually part ways" with a coach who by mos standards deserved high praise and a high raise? Most of the top replacement candidates boycott your coaching search. They do not want to be a part of the turmoil.Low and behold, the 49ers coaching search landed on Jim Tomsula. A highly respected defensive line coach, who is woefully under qualified compared to just about every possible evaluation. The 49ers are now in a position of having to prove they know what they are doing - when they hired Harbaugh, there was no question they were putting their house in order. The divergence is uncanny.
To Tomsula's credit he has sought out assistant coaches who have had significant coaching experience - of course those same coaches have burned out elsewhere, otherwise they would not be taking a lesser qualified role with the team - and don't even get me started about the mess of coordinators the team has fallen to. Sure, there's the promising young coach here or there - but overall it's an uninspiring crew.
Of the areas that may have improved over last year:
Ronald Curry and Adam Henry, wide receivers
Steve Logan, quarterbacks
Of course, we welcome back Tom Rathman, running backs coach and former 49ers extraordinaire. Happy the team at least managed to keep him.