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A look at the NFC West and the revamped tight end position in SF

NFL Live breaks down the NFC West.

Yeah yeah yeah. Tell us something we don’t know. We know what kind of player Alex Smith and Frank Gore are. We know Mike Martz will have difficulty in making the offense an overnight sensation. But come one ESPN, give us some real insight, not just something you would think MIGHT happen. Then again, no one knows what’s going to happen. Yet somehow someway, we get caught up in actually watching all this and thinking that these guys’ opinions are better than ours.

Well, with that out of the way, I want to touch on something these guys didn’t get time to touch on. They mentioned how Mike Martz didn’t adjust to the style of play for the Lions last year. Well, I think that will not be the case here. The 49ers have always been a team with great offense. Look at the past offensive legends and you know what I mean.

But in this day and age, I think the offense needs to be just that. I doubt they will want to grind out games, but to make it interesting instead. One thing that I see the team doing is being more aggressive. Martz will give Alex Smith or Shaun Hill or whomever is quarterback the chance to air out some passes. And that may lead to Vernon Davis and Billy Bajema lining up with the wide receivers.

One thing about the complexity of the Martz offense is that defenders have to be on their toes. And if Davis were to be at the wide out position in a five-receiver set, imagine the possibilities. Davis isn’t a receiver like Brent Jones, who would just run down the middle and get those yards. Davis is quicker and stronger, posessing an ability that is like a wide receiver… just bigger.

I am actually thinking that if the team were to do this and make it successful, it really give Davis more opportunities to catch the ball. At the tight end position, we thought he would get more catches, but he didn’t. Some of the blame can go the quarterback and the million offensive coordinators the team has had the past seasons. But now Davis can showcase his talent in this fashion.

“Instead of breaking down and head-faking and doing all these things, we’re going to use his speed,” Martz said. “And I think he understands that really well at this point.”

And if given this great opportunity, we will see more from Davis. He is definitely a talent that cannot be wasted, especially with the way the offense can succeed. My only fear is that if the team gets too much of this, we really lose the value of a great tight end. Good blocking, great receiving up the middle cannot be lost. The importance of a tight end is the fact that they aren’t the main option. Receievers get most of the attention, which allows the tight end to do a block and roll out or even just stay within the line of scrimmage to pick up the small yardages when nothing else is an option.

A new look for the tight ends? I’m all for it. As long as the team can find success through it and still maintain a solid threat at the tight end position, let’s do it!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 10:59 am and is filed under Seahawks, 2008 Season Preview, NFL Live, Rams, 49ers, Cardinals, Billy Bajema, Vernon Davis, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.