(10-14-2024, 05:08 AM)Holger Wrote: Colossal mistakes were made on Defense. Signing Armstead was a risk to begin with, he was injured. He is not playing great. You do not sign a third pass rusher or draft one. That alone should be a reason to fire Baalke. I am not sure what the injury was to Hamilton last year but you should have known that he is not the same player anymore. You play RRH until the 4th quarter in the preseason, you should have known he is regressing. You trusted Antonio Johnson at Safety, or you dont trust him but sign a guy that misses half the season. You hire a DC that wants to play man, whose defense cant get turnovers for that reason when in the past the defense was always shaky but came up with turnovers at opportune moments to safe the day. You draft three run-stuffing linebackers that cant cover in a passing league. You draft Walker over Hutchinson. The defense is giving up 33 points on average the last four games.

Yeah it has been his biggest FA blunder he's made, but he'd actually been pretty good in FA prior to this year.  When you factor in SF asked Armstead to take a pay cut to something that amounted to peanuts for him to stay there, it's way worse.  You don't make that offer to a guy you know is worth significantly more.  It's an insult.  You make that offer to a guy who is aging and injury prone but might have a little gas left in the tank and has already done a lot for your franchise.  Meanwhile, we swing in with some way over the top offer.  I'm sure SF's offer wasn't disclosed to Baalke prior, but it's still a big mistake.  It feels like one of those "we're just this one player away" type moves.  I don't mind bringing him in and taking the swing, but his deal is 3 years/$43.5 Million with a $24M dead cap hit next year and shouldn't have been anywhere near that.  If he doesn't improve as the season goes along, it might be best to just post June 1st him in the offseason to split it up and get it over with.

EDIT: Actually, nah, he's playing for peanuts cash wise next year as well.  The salary really jumps in 2026.  He'll be here next year barring injury.

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