San Francisco 49ers: Who Should Play in the Week 17 Matchup with Arizona?
The San Francisco 49ers’ Week 17 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals is, for most intents and purposes, meaningless. The 49ers aren’t going anywhere in the playoffs, and their draft spot is pretty well locked up as being somewhere between 13 and 16.
When you take into account the fact that the draft is an inexact science, there’s not enough of a difference between the two picks to make it worth tanking the game. They could take some solace in knocking the Cardinals out of the division race, but that just helps the rival Seattle Seahawks, so there’s not even much schadenfreude to be had.
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So, if a win doesn’t help the 49ers in any way, and a loss doesn’t significantly help the 49ers, what would help the 49ers? The answer is simple—this game needs to serve as the first preseason game for 2015.
While it looks more and more likely that Jim Harbaugh won’t be around for that game, there’s still every chance that some of these players will be playing for some of these coordinators. Even if an outside coach comes in, it would be best for the franchise to audition the players who will be sticking around next season.
With that in mind, here’s who I want to see play most of the Cardinals game, and what I want to see out of them.
Quarterback
I was briefly tempted to advocate starting or at least seeing plenty of playing time for Blaine Gabbert. After all, the 49ers will probably need to bring in multiple quarterbacks in 2015, so we might as well see what Gabbert has to offer, right?
Then, I remembered that Gabbert is one of only 12 quarterbacks with a negative DVOA with no pressure from 2011-2013, per Football Outsiders, so we’ve seen enough of him already.
So, back to Colin Kaepernick. What we saw in the San Diego game was everything we love and hate about Kaepernick in a span of about three snaps. He had a beautiful throw to Vernon Davis for a long touchdown, which was brought back by a penalty. He had a woeful sack-fumble which resulted in a touchdown for San Diego. He finished it off with the second-longest touchdown run in 49ers history.
Kaepernick’s legs accounted for San Francisco’s two best plays of the day, and had that touchdown pass not been called back, it would have been three out of three. Those are promising signs—that’s two games in a row where Kaepernick has begun to pull himself out of what’s been a six-game slump.
I want to see him moving around and throwing it against Arizona’s tough defense. We saw what a mobile quarterback could do against them on Sunday night with Russell Wilson having a phenomenal game; I want Kaepernick to put up at least half of those numbers.
Running Backs
This is probably Frank Gore’s last game with the 49ers. A free agent after this season, Gore will be 32 next season and is putting up the worst numbers of his career. It’s been a slow, gentle decline, but it’s hard to see the 49ers re-signing him. Thus, I hope Gore gets a touchdown and one last cheer from the home crowd.
However, assuming he’s healthy, this should be the first game where Carlos Hyde gets the majority of snaps in the running game. The passing of the torch, as it were.
The 49ers didn’t use a second-round pick on Hyde to keep him on the bench; he’s the future of the 49ers' running game. Stick him in the backfield with Bruce Miller and run forward. I want to see a career high for Hyde in this game; it currently sits at 55 yards against Seattle two weeks ago.
Receivers
Michael Crabtree is a free agent after this season, and I honestly cannot see the 49ers re-signing him. I don’t even think it’s a very hard decision—the 2012 season, his one great year, seems further and further away every game, and he’s yet to top 100 yards in a game this season. For the kind of money he’s likely to demand, I’d go a different way with the position.
Starting in place of him, I’d like to see Bruce Ellington. He hasn’t even had 100 snaps on offense yet, and he’s only been thrown to 11 times all year long. He put up two touchdowns on Saturday, though, making it his best game of the season. I’d like to see more—what is Ellington capable of doing, and how will he sync up with Kaepernick. Ellington has upside, and I’d like to see how it translates on the field.
Line him up alongside Anquan Boldin and, if healthy, Stevie Johnson. Those three, plus an early-round wide receiver, are probably the basis of San Francisco’s 2015 receiving corps. Let’s see what they can do.
At tight end, meanwhile, if either Vance McDonald or Derek Carrier or Garrett Celek were healthy, I’d want to see what they could do at tight end, considering Vernon Davis has given the 49ers almost nothing this season.
He’s a potential cap casualty at the end of the year, and honestly, there hasn’t been much reason not to cut him, at least this season. I still think it’s more likely Davis turns it around than it is Asante Cleveland becomes the next star tight end, so I suppose you trot Davis out there one more time and see if he can put anything up.
Offensive Line
The most interesting decision to be made in free agency on offense is about Mike Iupati. You can count the better run-blocking guards in the league on one hand—possibly even one finger, giving credit to just Marshal Yanda. That’s a great asset to have.
On the other hand, Iupati is not a great pass-blocker. Pro Football Focus (subscription required) has recorded him allowing seven sacks, two QB hits and 22 hurries this season, and that’s not terribly out of line with his career averages. It can be argued, then, that Iupati is the best one-dimensional guard in football.
That’s worth re-signing, I think, so I want to see him in action again in Week 17. Besides, against a tough defense like Arizona, you don’t want too many backups in if you do want to evaluate players such as Ellington and Hyde. So Iupati, alongside Joe Staley and Alex Boone, should definitely get the start.
The other two positions are less clear to me.
Marcus Martin limped off several times against the San Diego Chargers, so if he’s not fully healthy, I wouldn’t want to rush him back out there. Maybe the 49ers will see what Dillon Farrell can do at center. He’s only had a few snaps this season, but I’d rather see him out there than see Martin get a long-term injury.
The same concept applies with potentially starting Jonathan Martin over Anthony Davis—if Davis isn’t 100 percent, there’s no reason to put him on the field.
Defensive Line
Will Justin Smith retire at the end of this season? It’s been rumored that he might, as Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reported, but as long as he continues to perform at a high level, he can stay on the team as long as he wants, in my view.
Retiring would save the 49ers about $4.2 million against the salary cap, according to Spotrac, which would be nice, but I’d rather have the player. If this is his last game, let him go out with multiple sacks. If it’s not, let him stay in tune for next season.
The future comes at the other defensive end position, where I want to see Tank Carradine get the start over Tony Jerod-Eddie. Carradine’s come along much slower this season than fans had hoped, but he’s been getting more and more work as the season has wound down. It’s time for him to get his first NFL start, with Quinton Dial next to him at defensive tackle.
Linebackers
Ahmad Brooks missed the San Diego game with a thumb injury. Considering the various issues Brooks has been involved in throughout the year, from benching himself to missing team meetings, his lack of significant impact in the pass rush, and the $6.6 million in savings the 49ers could get from cutting Brooks next season, according to Spotrac, I expect him to miss the 2015 season in San Francisco, as well.
That means more starting time for Aaron Lynch! Before Chris Borland came on like gangbusters in the second half of the season, Lynch was in line to be San Francisco’s top rookie, and most teams in the league would love to have a defensive rookie like Lynch on their squad.
He didn’t start against San Diego, though he played about half the snaps with Dan Skuta. I’d like to see him get more of that in Week 17, in a dry run for him as a full-time starter ahead of Brooks. Put him opposite Aldon Smith and watch the pass rush fly.
With all the injuries to the interior of the linebacking corps, there’s no decision to be made there—the 49ers should start Michael Wilhoite and Nick Moody and try to get out of the season in one piece.
Defensive Backs
Because Jimmie Ward has long since left for the injured list, there’s nothing to mess around with at safety. Eric Reid suffered a concussion against San Diego, so I’d keep him on the bench for Week 17 and instead start Craig Dahl and Antonie Bethea.
At cornerback, things get interesting. The 49ers have two free-agent cornerbacks in Chris Culliver and Perrish Cox, and both of them are worth considering for new contracts.
Culliver, after missing the entire 2013 season due to injury, has put up a fantastic season, allowing an opposing quarterback rating of just 74.9 with three interceptions. Cox, forced into a starting role, thanks to Tramaine Brock’s injury, started off very strong and then tailed off as the season went along. Culliver is probably San Francisco’s second free-agent priority, with Cox more distantly down the line.
I want to see if Cox is more the player he was at the beginning of the year or the end, so I want to see plenty of him in this game.
I also want more snaps for rookie Dontae Johnson, who started the last two weeks and looked fairly good. He struggled a little bit against Philip Rivers on Saturday, allowing seven receptions on eight targets, but he’s been pretty solid for a fourth-round pick this year. I’ll want to see more of him for evaluation purposes, too. I’d suggest starting Culliver and Johnson, with Cox coming in on the nickel.
Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers. Follow him @BryKno on Twitter.
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