-=The Official 49ers Offseason Thread=-
- Thread starter Chree
- Start date
also, i kinda like this hire, i dont believe martz will abandon the run with the niners, Gore will become his marshall faulk, i can see lelie being his holt, he has a fast TE that he never had before in stl or det, and battle can be the slot WR, be his mike furrey.....
im pretty excited actually....
im pretty excited actually....
look man, I'm a niner fan just like you...but thinking our WR core can be compared to anything Martz had to work with in his previous jobs is just rediculous...there is no #1 reciever on our team maybe not even a legit NFL number two...battle is a good slot reciever at best...and I dont even kno what to think of Darrell Jackson....
I still got faith in Alex Smith, and we got Frank and V Davis...offensive line can go either way but the recieving core is one of the worst in the league...
I still got faith in Alex Smith, and we got Frank and V Davis...offensive line can go either way but the recieving core is one of the worst in the league...
Actually Alex Smith might be the man who benefits the most out of Mike Martz' hiring. Martz works well with average QBs (see Bulger, Warner, Kitna; Alex Smith has more physical skill than all of them, Martz might be able to translate that to on-field performance). Smith is not terribly inaccurate, you might be thinking about his horrible performances when he was injured this season. Not to mention Alex Smith is a spread offense QB so Martz' system is a great for him.
To make things clear, I want Shaun Hill under center this season. I just think Alex will improve greatly under Martz if he gets the chance to play.
By the way, look for the Niners to snatch up some receiving talent via free agency, trade or draft. Martz will demand receivers that can run his system.
To make things clear, I want Shaun Hill under center this season. I just think Alex will improve greatly under Martz if he gets the chance to play.
By the way, look for the Niners to snatch up some receiving talent via free agency, trade or draft. Martz will demand receivers that can run his system.
Hostler: 'Not a whole lot I would've done differently'
Prior to the announcing of Mike Martz as the new 49ers' offensive coordinator, I had the opportunity speak with former offensive coordinator Jim Hostler. He was making his first public comments since being fired last week.
I have a great deal of respect for Hostler. This was obviously a difficult season for him, but he never ran and hid. He was always available to speak with the media, and he answered every question - no matter how uncomfortable they might have been.
Here is my unedited Q&A from earlier today with Hostler:
Question: Are there any job opportunities for you right now?
Hostler: I think right now it's waiting to see who gets these (head coach) jobs in this league. I'd like to stay in the NFL. I prefer to be in the NFL. I loved college football when I was there, but I love being in this league and preparing and knowing how hard it is to win a game. I really love that about this league. I think from that standpoint, I have to wait and see what happens with these jobs. There aren't a lot of them out there, so we'll wait and see.
Question: When you look back at this season what sticks in your mind about the way things played out?
Hostler: There are not a whole lot I would've done differently, other than trying to put people in better positions, personnel-wise, and trying to get the ball to people in different situations. I really have no regrets. I gave it everything I had. I learned a lot. The responsibility, the play-calling, those sorts of things, that's the best experience you can get.
Question: Someone in the building told me that you're one heck of a coach but this opportunity probably came too soon for you. Do you agree with that statement?
Hostler: No, not at all. That has nothing to do with it. There are guys in this league who are a lot younger than me and with a lot less experience who are doing it. That had nothing to do with it. The preparation, the background that I have, all of those things -- I've spent a lot of time and effort preparing for this job. I don't feel that way at all. Things happened this year -- some of it in my control, some of it out of my control -- that we just didn't get it done. That's the bottom line. There are a lot of guys with a lot of experience this year that didn't have success, either. So I don't look at it from that standpoint.
Question: How involved was Mike Nolan in the offense?
Hostler: As any head coach, especially with young coordinators, they want to help and tweak and be part of the process. I don't think he was involved any more or less than any other head coach would've been.
Question: It seemed like early on there were a lot of people in your ear. Was that the case? And, if so, did it make it difficult for you to have a clear mind and do your job?
Hostler: I don't think it was the case. I think people went about their business to try to help me and help us succeed as an offense. It never bothered me. No matter what, when I look back on it, I tried to do the best job I could from the standpoint of where we were at and what I wanted to do with the offense. The injuries, the things that set us back, I don't use those as excuses, either. Everything we wanted to do, we did and we tried to execute it as best we could. From the standpoint of looking back at it, none of that was a factor.
Question: How did Ted Tollner's coming aboard affect you? Was it beneficial to you in any way?
Hostler: Other than being around Ted a little bit . . . obviously, during the season trying to get to know somebody, it's impossible - or nearly impossible. The only person you could bring in here to help me during the season in that kind of situation would've been someone who knows me, and somebody who knows my background and was a part of my upbringing. That's about the only way somebody could come in and talk my language and understand where I was coming from. Ted had no chance to do that. Really, for me, Ted was one more process to try to help me to do my job better from a viewpoint that I didn't have. Ted and I became closer as the year went on. I learned a lot from him from the standpoint of how to handle situations. Other than that, he really didn't have an impact on what we did or how we did it.
Question: When Ted came on did you feel like this was how it was going to play out after the season, that there was going to be a change?
Hostler: No. I never thought about that, to be honest with you. I only thought about winning the next football game. I know that's the standard answer, but that's really how it is. I never thought about it twice. My confidence in my abilities never wavered. I know what to do; I know how to do it. Situations sometimes don't allow you to do things and have success, so I'm going to look back and that's going to be part of the process of me developing as a coach. It never crossed my mind that this would be the end of me in San Francisco back when Ted came on.
Question: One of the last games of the season, the TV announcers said you told them that Shaun Hill was the style of QB that you envisioned for your offense. What did you mean by that?
Hostler: I think there are a lot of different styles. He is what I'm used to being with in the West Coast offense. He's a completion guy. He'll move the ball around and those kinds of things. That's basically from the standpoint of me being around the West Coast people. I've been around Chad (Pennington) in New York and that kind of way you play the game. He's a little more along the lines of that kind of background I have. To tell you the truth, those (TV) guys take information and go further with it. I really meant that he (Hill) is more like what I was used to in New York, a little more of the way we played in New York, so it was an easy adjustment for me to play with him as a third quarterback. I spent less time wondering how to play the game or trying to develop a game plan because I was around somebody who played like him for two years. You have to play different with all these guys. Alex (Smith) is different than Trent (Dilfer), and Trent is different than Shaun, and Shaun is different than the two of them. When you play the game, you don't just go in there and think you're going to play the same with all those quarterbacks. It doesn't work that way. They don't do the same things. They don't play the same way. They don't think the same. They don't play at the same speed. You have to cater to what they do best. Shaun was closer to something in my past. I've seen how that is done. It's a little bit easier.
Question: When Alex is the quarterback, how do you try to work that so he can be successful?
Hostler: I think Alex plays more like how we played with Norv (Turner's) system. You have to throw the ball down the field a little bit more. It's less of a completion game and more of an action . . . you have to run the ball and take some shots and throw the ball down the field. That's how we tried to play with Alex. That's how we played with him last year (2006) and Alex had success last year. The problem this year with Alex, obviously, he started the season a little slow. From a success standpoint on offense, not all of that was always his fault. There were a lot of drops, some protection breakdowns, those kinds of things that weren't necessarily his fault. But he's the leader, he's the starting point of the whole thing. We didn't try to do anything different with Alex than we did with him last year. I believe that's the best thing for Alex. I don't believe Alex can play like Shaun, and I don't believe Shaun can play like Alex. From that standpoint, we changed a little bit when Shaun went in there and it looked a lot different to you guys.
Question: Do you still think Alex can be a successful NFL quarterback?
Hostler: Oh, yeah. It's how successful people want him to be, and how fast they want him to be that, and what he's got around him. It's hard to compare him to people who've been here in the past who are Hall of Fame quarterbacks because when you go watch those guys play, there are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that were around him that made those guys successful. That part of the puzzle is not necessarily the best for Alex right now. It's going to take a little bit of time to get the whole thing going, but in my opinion, Alex will be able to play in this league. Will he be a Hall of Fame guy? I don't know that. Only time will tell that. He's not going to be that next year. Those types of things aren't going to happen that quickly.
Question: If you had come back, whichever offensive coordinator is hired, what are the challenges when you have two guys who are so different competing for the same job?
Hostler: It's going to be a challenge. It's going to be an interesting scenario that is going to play out there. It doesn't take an expert to say, 'Wow, Shaun plays a lot different than Alex.' It's just a different game. If Alex completes 22 balls, you're probably going to throw for 350 yards. If Shaun completes 22 balls, you might be at 160 yards. It's just a different world; it's a different way to play the game.
Question: Generally, when you see two quarterbacks compete, aren't they more similar in style than Shaun and Alex?
Hostler: That's hard to say. I don't necessarily believe that. I just think you have to let them do the things they do best. If it was me - and obviously talking about me has nothing to do with this - you got to put them in the positions they do best and go evaluate them.
Question: When you look back on the three seasons with the 49ers, and this past season in particular, what can you take from this experience?
Hostler: Oh, I take a lot, from the starting point of drafting a guy in the first round, obviously with the first pick and going through that experience with the guys who picked him. Going through that process was a hell of an experience. It's one that not a lot of people get the chance to do, and I was part of that. The second thing was being around a different system. Learning Norv's system was a huge experience for me. It probably led to the most growth in my coaching, being around Norv and being around that system and learning a whole different way to look at it and do it. Obviously, the third one, getting the opportunity to do it myself. These past three years have been the best three years probably of my coaching career. Outside of my family, it's been the best time of my life. So from that standpoint, I'm going to take a lot away from here. It didn't end up the way I wanted it to, but, man, did I get a lot out it.
Question: When Mike informed you, how did that go down?
Hostler: Mike's always a very professional man. He just informed me that he felt he needed to go in a different direction. There wasn't a lot of conversation about it. I'm not the kind of who needs to know a whole lot of reasons about what somebody else's opinion is. There wasn't a whole lot of conversation. He's a very professional man. He has always been. He's somebody I'll look back at as somebody I worked with and have a lot of respect for. I tried to do the most I could for him, the best I could, and I think he tried to do the same for me. From a respect standpoint, he approached it in the same way when he wanted to go in a different direction.
Question: Before that meeting, did you anticipate it or did it catch you off-guard?
Hostler: Everybody wants to hear that I was caught off-guard and didn't think I was going to be the one. I didn't think about it, one way or the other. I know how this business is. One year you think you're gone and you stay, and the next year you think you're staying and you're gone. I don't think you can ever anticipate what's going to happen and how people look at it. I just went about my business and prepared for the next day or the next meeting or the next thing we were going to do. I never put a lot of thought into it until it happened.
Question: And now you'll just see what's out there?
Hostler: I've been in this situation before. In this league, we're in it a lot more than not anymore. So you get caught up into the next thing, the next opportunity. It'll be a great opportunity. I'm imagining that I'll land on my feet somewhere and get another opportunity to learn more about coaching in this league.
Question: Will you go to the Senior Bowl to look for those opportunities?
Hostler: Yes. I'll go down to the Senior Bowl and visit with coaches. I've worked with and been around a lot of great coaches who have had success in this league, guys who are still in this league and have great reputations. So I'll talk to all those guys and ask advice and see what happens, and we'll see when all these jobs play out. But that's all part of the process.
Question: After seeing Mike Nolan's press conference and knowing how things went down, do you believe you were used as a scapegoat?
Hostler: That's a question I really prefer not to answer. You guys can take away whatever you want from that deal. I didn't watch his press conference. He said from the beginning - and this isn't an answer to your question - but he said from the beginning that there are no excuses. So I'm not going to throw any of that out there.
Prior to the announcing of Mike Martz as the new 49ers' offensive coordinator, I had the opportunity speak with former offensive coordinator Jim Hostler. He was making his first public comments since being fired last week.
I have a great deal of respect for Hostler. This was obviously a difficult season for him, but he never ran and hid. He was always available to speak with the media, and he answered every question - no matter how uncomfortable they might have been.
Here is my unedited Q&A from earlier today with Hostler:
Question: Are there any job opportunities for you right now?
Hostler: I think right now it's waiting to see who gets these (head coach) jobs in this league. I'd like to stay in the NFL. I prefer to be in the NFL. I loved college football when I was there, but I love being in this league and preparing and knowing how hard it is to win a game. I really love that about this league. I think from that standpoint, I have to wait and see what happens with these jobs. There aren't a lot of them out there, so we'll wait and see.
Question: When you look back at this season what sticks in your mind about the way things played out?
Hostler: There are not a whole lot I would've done differently, other than trying to put people in better positions, personnel-wise, and trying to get the ball to people in different situations. I really have no regrets. I gave it everything I had. I learned a lot. The responsibility, the play-calling, those sorts of things, that's the best experience you can get.
Question: Someone in the building told me that you're one heck of a coach but this opportunity probably came too soon for you. Do you agree with that statement?
Hostler: No, not at all. That has nothing to do with it. There are guys in this league who are a lot younger than me and with a lot less experience who are doing it. That had nothing to do with it. The preparation, the background that I have, all of those things -- I've spent a lot of time and effort preparing for this job. I don't feel that way at all. Things happened this year -- some of it in my control, some of it out of my control -- that we just didn't get it done. That's the bottom line. There are a lot of guys with a lot of experience this year that didn't have success, either. So I don't look at it from that standpoint.
Question: How involved was Mike Nolan in the offense?
Hostler: As any head coach, especially with young coordinators, they want to help and tweak and be part of the process. I don't think he was involved any more or less than any other head coach would've been.
Question: It seemed like early on there were a lot of people in your ear. Was that the case? And, if so, did it make it difficult for you to have a clear mind and do your job?
Hostler: I don't think it was the case. I think people went about their business to try to help me and help us succeed as an offense. It never bothered me. No matter what, when I look back on it, I tried to do the best job I could from the standpoint of where we were at and what I wanted to do with the offense. The injuries, the things that set us back, I don't use those as excuses, either. Everything we wanted to do, we did and we tried to execute it as best we could. From the standpoint of looking back at it, none of that was a factor.
Question: How did Ted Tollner's coming aboard affect you? Was it beneficial to you in any way?
Hostler: Other than being around Ted a little bit . . . obviously, during the season trying to get to know somebody, it's impossible - or nearly impossible. The only person you could bring in here to help me during the season in that kind of situation would've been someone who knows me, and somebody who knows my background and was a part of my upbringing. That's about the only way somebody could come in and talk my language and understand where I was coming from. Ted had no chance to do that. Really, for me, Ted was one more process to try to help me to do my job better from a viewpoint that I didn't have. Ted and I became closer as the year went on. I learned a lot from him from the standpoint of how to handle situations. Other than that, he really didn't have an impact on what we did or how we did it.
Question: When Ted came on did you feel like this was how it was going to play out after the season, that there was going to be a change?
Hostler: No. I never thought about that, to be honest with you. I only thought about winning the next football game. I know that's the standard answer, but that's really how it is. I never thought about it twice. My confidence in my abilities never wavered. I know what to do; I know how to do it. Situations sometimes don't allow you to do things and have success, so I'm going to look back and that's going to be part of the process of me developing as a coach. It never crossed my mind that this would be the end of me in San Francisco back when Ted came on.
Question: One of the last games of the season, the TV announcers said you told them that Shaun Hill was the style of QB that you envisioned for your offense. What did you mean by that?
Hostler: I think there are a lot of different styles. He is what I'm used to being with in the West Coast offense. He's a completion guy. He'll move the ball around and those kinds of things. That's basically from the standpoint of me being around the West Coast people. I've been around Chad (Pennington) in New York and that kind of way you play the game. He's a little more along the lines of that kind of background I have. To tell you the truth, those (TV) guys take information and go further with it. I really meant that he (Hill) is more like what I was used to in New York, a little more of the way we played in New York, so it was an easy adjustment for me to play with him as a third quarterback. I spent less time wondering how to play the game or trying to develop a game plan because I was around somebody who played like him for two years. You have to play different with all these guys. Alex (Smith) is different than Trent (Dilfer), and Trent is different than Shaun, and Shaun is different than the two of them. When you play the game, you don't just go in there and think you're going to play the same with all those quarterbacks. It doesn't work that way. They don't do the same things. They don't play the same way. They don't think the same. They don't play at the same speed. You have to cater to what they do best. Shaun was closer to something in my past. I've seen how that is done. It's a little bit easier.
Question: When Alex is the quarterback, how do you try to work that so he can be successful?
Hostler: I think Alex plays more like how we played with Norv (Turner's) system. You have to throw the ball down the field a little bit more. It's less of a completion game and more of an action . . . you have to run the ball and take some shots and throw the ball down the field. That's how we tried to play with Alex. That's how we played with him last year (2006) and Alex had success last year. The problem this year with Alex, obviously, he started the season a little slow. From a success standpoint on offense, not all of that was always his fault. There were a lot of drops, some protection breakdowns, those kinds of things that weren't necessarily his fault. But he's the leader, he's the starting point of the whole thing. We didn't try to do anything different with Alex than we did with him last year. I believe that's the best thing for Alex. I don't believe Alex can play like Shaun, and I don't believe Shaun can play like Alex. From that standpoint, we changed a little bit when Shaun went in there and it looked a lot different to you guys.
Question: Do you still think Alex can be a successful NFL quarterback?
Hostler: Oh, yeah. It's how successful people want him to be, and how fast they want him to be that, and what he's got around him. It's hard to compare him to people who've been here in the past who are Hall of Fame quarterbacks because when you go watch those guys play, there are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that were around him that made those guys successful. That part of the puzzle is not necessarily the best for Alex right now. It's going to take a little bit of time to get the whole thing going, but in my opinion, Alex will be able to play in this league. Will he be a Hall of Fame guy? I don't know that. Only time will tell that. He's not going to be that next year. Those types of things aren't going to happen that quickly.
Question: If you had come back, whichever offensive coordinator is hired, what are the challenges when you have two guys who are so different competing for the same job?
Hostler: It's going to be a challenge. It's going to be an interesting scenario that is going to play out there. It doesn't take an expert to say, 'Wow, Shaun plays a lot different than Alex.' It's just a different game. If Alex completes 22 balls, you're probably going to throw for 350 yards. If Shaun completes 22 balls, you might be at 160 yards. It's just a different world; it's a different way to play the game.
Question: Generally, when you see two quarterbacks compete, aren't they more similar in style than Shaun and Alex?
Hostler: That's hard to say. I don't necessarily believe that. I just think you have to let them do the things they do best. If it was me - and obviously talking about me has nothing to do with this - you got to put them in the positions they do best and go evaluate them.
Question: When you look back on the three seasons with the 49ers, and this past season in particular, what can you take from this experience?
Hostler: Oh, I take a lot, from the starting point of drafting a guy in the first round, obviously with the first pick and going through that experience with the guys who picked him. Going through that process was a hell of an experience. It's one that not a lot of people get the chance to do, and I was part of that. The second thing was being around a different system. Learning Norv's system was a huge experience for me. It probably led to the most growth in my coaching, being around Norv and being around that system and learning a whole different way to look at it and do it. Obviously, the third one, getting the opportunity to do it myself. These past three years have been the best three years probably of my coaching career. Outside of my family, it's been the best time of my life. So from that standpoint, I'm going to take a lot away from here. It didn't end up the way I wanted it to, but, man, did I get a lot out it.
Question: When Mike informed you, how did that go down?
Hostler: Mike's always a very professional man. He just informed me that he felt he needed to go in a different direction. There wasn't a lot of conversation about it. I'm not the kind of who needs to know a whole lot of reasons about what somebody else's opinion is. There wasn't a whole lot of conversation. He's a very professional man. He has always been. He's somebody I'll look back at as somebody I worked with and have a lot of respect for. I tried to do the most I could for him, the best I could, and I think he tried to do the same for me. From a respect standpoint, he approached it in the same way when he wanted to go in a different direction.
Question: Before that meeting, did you anticipate it or did it catch you off-guard?
Hostler: Everybody wants to hear that I was caught off-guard and didn't think I was going to be the one. I didn't think about it, one way or the other. I know how this business is. One year you think you're gone and you stay, and the next year you think you're staying and you're gone. I don't think you can ever anticipate what's going to happen and how people look at it. I just went about my business and prepared for the next day or the next meeting or the next thing we were going to do. I never put a lot of thought into it until it happened.
Question: And now you'll just see what's out there?
Hostler: I've been in this situation before. In this league, we're in it a lot more than not anymore. So you get caught up into the next thing, the next opportunity. It'll be a great opportunity. I'm imagining that I'll land on my feet somewhere and get another opportunity to learn more about coaching in this league.
Question: Will you go to the Senior Bowl to look for those opportunities?
Hostler: Yes. I'll go down to the Senior Bowl and visit with coaches. I've worked with and been around a lot of great coaches who have had success in this league, guys who are still in this league and have great reputations. So I'll talk to all those guys and ask advice and see what happens, and we'll see when all these jobs play out. But that's all part of the process.
Question: After seeing Mike Nolan's press conference and knowing how things went down, do you believe you were used as a scapegoat?
Hostler: That's a question I really prefer not to answer. You guys can take away whatever you want from that deal. I didn't watch his press conference. He said from the beginning - and this isn't an answer to your question - but he said from the beginning that there are no excuses. So I'm not going to throw any of that out there.
Nolan, Martz speak on a conference call
The conference call is having some technical difficulties. I'll supply a quick rundown when it's over.
Quick update: RB coach Bishop Harris' contract has been terminated, Nolan said. Also, the same with offensive assistant Mark Nori.
bishop wasnt that bad.....
The conference call is having some technical difficulties. I'll supply a quick rundown when it's over.
Quick update: RB coach Bishop Harris' contract has been terminated, Nolan said. Also, the same with offensive assistant Mark Nori.
bishop wasnt that bad.....