In the wake of Mike Martz's arrival in the Bay Area—where he’ll try to revive the San Francisco 49ers' offense—the biggest question is the obvious one:
Who will be his quarterback?Okay, I guess we’ll have to wait on that decision until Alex Smith is healthy and Martz can see Smith and Shaun Hill throw the ball in person.
Meanwhile, the second most important question is this:
What will Martz do with the highly skilled but enigmatic Vernon Davis?
Martz is notorious for omitting tight ends from his game plans, so his hire naturally raised concerns about Davis, whom the 49ers were giddy to acquire with the sixth overall selection in the 2006 draft. But before we get too worried, there is this to consider: Martz has never worked with so talented a tight end as Davis, a 6’3”, 253-pound player with 4.4-second speed.Martz has said the 49ers are more talented than the Detroit Lions were when he arrived there in 2006, and Davis certainly is one of the Niners' top offensive weapons.
In last season’s discombobulated offense, Davis caught 52 passes for 509 yards and four touchdowns. He should be good for twice that; it all depends on how Martz plans to use him and whether or not Davis can pick up the coach's complicated game plan.
Martz knows one of his biggest challenges will be creating specific packages for Davis so he can get the ball to the tight end.
"In this system, you have so much flexibility within the numbers that you can be creative with a guy like him," Martz told the Sacramento Bee late last month, indicating that the coach does indeed have a plan—at least the beginnings of one—for Davis.
Martz has said he could envision lining up the tight end in the slot and in the backfield. Still it's clear that the coach understands Davis will need time to learn the offense.
Davis had enough trouble finding his way in offenses directed by Norv Turner and Jim Hostler, so it could take even longer to become comfortable with Martz's complex scheme. This tight end is a fantastic athlete, but he has been criticized for dropping passes, running bad routes, and earning frequent calls for illegal procedure.
It's obvious that he will need to be more disciplined if he wants to earn Martz’s trust. And Davis will also have to lose the attitude—by paying more attention to the details and less to what others are saying about him.
But if he can grasp the offense, Martz seems interested in utilizing Davis' immense raw talent."You've got to be careful not to put too much on him," Martz said, "but it's a great opportunity to use him in different venues, so to speak. The system allows that kind of flexibility."
So what does the future hold for Vernon Davis under Martz?
It looks like the powerful player will be incorporated into a dynamic system, giving the 49ers a real chance at a promising season.
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4 months ago
That would be a welcome change in SF. Fans have been ready to give opponents a terrible case of "VD" since he was drafted. Hopefully he can stay healthy and break out in '08.
3 months ago
I never agreed with the pick of VD in the first place.. only because I was a big fan of Eric Johnson. Though I see the problem with Johnson was his injury prone-ness and so I wasn't that pissed off. Yes VD is a freak of nature, in a good way, and I can imagine any team would not be able to pass on such talent at the time.
And yes through these past two seasons, he's slowly proving himself to be a threat.
But with the Martz offense...well like you mentioned it depends on the QB. Yes and no. If we look at the previous QB's Martz has coached, though they're ones with obviously more talent than Smith or Hill, they were no-names prior: Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger. So I suppose with respect to the Martz attack, maybe it won't depend on the qb.
But then the issue is the use of a tight end. Well everyone expects because of his ability, VD should be primary target like an Antonio Gates/Tony Gonzales. And no that shouldn't be the case. He should be a threat, but not the one who will lead the offense. So with that said, I don't is an issue with Martz incorporating him in the Offense. He'd be a great diversion for the defense at best, so in turn would allow deeper passes to the WRs. So what should we be discussing more about? Yes, the WRs.
Recently signed, Bruce, Johnson- and everyone else : Battle, Ashely Lelie, Jason Hill, and uhh.. see that's the thing as a huge 49ers fan I can't remember any of the other 4 or 5 (slot) recievers we have. That's bad. But I suppose now with our recent pick ups, our new starting recievers are Bruce, Battle, and Johnson. So in the end, we just have to wait and see.
2 months ago
"highly skilled but enigmatic Vernon Davis"
Highly skilled? And enigmatic? I don't think it’s all that puzzling to me. I think we are finding out as time passes, that Vernon is a "physical freak" but not that great of a football player. Physicals alone don't equate to greatness on the football field. It requires a lot more than big "guns" to win you some football games. He really needs to learn the basics and fundamentals, learning how to hold onto to the ball and not fumble and so on... Until he learns the fundamentals, he will always be seen as this "physical freak" with some so-called talent. And if Martz and/or Nolan don't realize this, he will become the next great 49er bust.
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