Fact or Fiction for San Francisco 49ers' Biggest Offseason Question Marks

Some of the San Francisco 49ers’ offseason question marks aren’t really question marks.

Like the running back position. Some might say it’s a question mark because the 49ers lost future Hall of Famer Frank Gore this offseason. If you look closely, though, you will find the Niners actually improved their running back group this offseason.

But they didn’t improve their cornerbacks. The starters are injury-prone. If they’re injured during the season, you might see the Niners play cornerbacks you’ve never heard of. The Niners have a cornerback issue—that’s a fact.

With that in mind, let’s play “fact or fiction” with five of the Niners’ biggest perceived question marks this offseason.

Fact: OTA Standout DeAndrew White Is a Factor at Wide Receiver

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Last season, the Niners’ top three receivers—Anquan Boldin, Michael Crabtree and Stevie Johnson—were all slot/possession receivers. They did not complement each other.

Crabtree and Johnson left during free agency, and the Niners replaced them with Torrey Smith and Jerome Simpson. Now, the Niners’ No. 2 and 3 receivers are deep threats who line up outside the numbers and complement the No. 1 receiver in the slot—Boldin.

Smith and Simpson played well during OTAs and minicamp, but DeAndrew White played better. He was the Niners’ best deep threat.

White is an undrafted rookie from the University of Alabama, and he’s fast—faster than Smith and Simpson. But speed isn’t White’s only skill. He is agile with the ball in his hands, fights for the ball when it’s in the air, has great hands—he didn’t drop a single pass during team drills—and plays special teams.

Don’t be surprised if White makes the team and earns a role on the offense next season.

Fiction: The 49ers Have Gotten Weaker at Running Back

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Conventional wisdom says the 49ers got worse at running back this offseason after losing the franchise’s all-time leading rusher, Frank Gore.

Here are four reasons why conventional wisdom is wrong in this instance:

1. The 49ers are incorporating zone blocking into their running game, and Gore is not a zone runner. He’s a gap-scheme runner—that’s what he has been running since college at the University of Miami. He has impeccable instincts and timing when it comes to gap-scheme running plays like counters and whams.
2. Gore was one of the slowest players on one of the slowest offenses in the NFL last season, and the Niners want to get faster.
3. Carlos Hyde is better than Gore. The former is 23 and fresh, while the latter is 32 and worn down. If Gore had returned to the Niners for 2015, he probably would have been Hyde’s backup.
4. The 49ers only had two good running backs last season: Gore and Hyde. Kendall Hunter tore his ACL during training camp, so the Niners’ didn’t have a change-of-pace scatback. But Hunter is healthy now, and the 49ers signed veteran scatback Reggie Bush this offseason. So the Niners will have three quality running backs in 2015—not just two.

Fact: The 49ers Have Big Issues at Cornerback

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The starting left cornerback, Tramaine Brock, is entering his sixth season in the NFL and has started only nine games. He missed 13 games last season with toe and hamstring injuries, and he missed OTAs and the first two days of minicamp this offseason with another hamstring injury.

Is Brock injury-prone?

The starting slot cornerback, Jimmie Ward, missed one game last season with a hamstring injury and seven games with a broken foot. He’s still rehabbing the foot, which he also broke before he got drafted.

Is Ward injury-prone?

The starting right cornerback, Shareece Wright, missed OTAs and minicamp with an undisclosed injury. In the past two seasons, he was flagged 20 times as a member of the San Diego Chargers' secondary.

Is Wright a liability?

The No. 1 backup, 2014 fourth-round pick Dontae Johnson, gave up a passer rating of 106.3 last season, according to Pro Football Focus. He has also been getting torched during practices this offseason.

Is Johnson a liability?

The one cornerback who has shown promise so far this offseason has been rookie fifth-round pick Keith Reaser. He missed his rookie season because he tore his ACL as a senior in college, but he’s healthy now and dominating the Niners’ wide receivers.

Is Reaser the only reliable cornerback on this team?

Fiction: The 49ers’ Offensive Line Has Gotten Worse Since Last Season

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

This offseason, the Niners lost their two first-round picks from 2010—right tackle Anthony Davis and left guard Mike Iupati.

In their prime, those two were among the best offensive linemen in the NFL. But Iupati told reporters this offseason he played through a broken foot last season, and Davis missed nine games due to various injuries.

Iupati and Davis were good run-blockers when they played in 2014, but they were flat-out liabilities in pass protection. They surrendered 10 sacks between them, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Niners gave up 52 sacks last season, so pass protection was the offense’s biggest issue. It might be less of an issue next season with Iupati and Davis gone.

Fact: Justin Smith’s Retirement Will Hurt the Defense

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

In 2014, the 49ers defense racked up just 36 sacks—tied for 12th-worst in the NFL. Pro Football Focus gave the Niners’ pass rush a plus-3.0 grade—10th-worst in the NFL.

And that was with Justin Smith, who played all 16 games last season. He retired this offseason. How can the Niners replace him?

They have players like Glenn Dorsey and Quinton Dial who can replace Smith in the base defense as run defenders. And they have players like Darnell Dockett and Tank Carradine who can replace Smith as a one-on-one interior pass-rusher in the sub-packages.

But the Niners don’t have anyone who can replace what Smith did for the other pass-rushers. He made them better.

Smith would tie up two, sometimes three offensive linemen and create a superhighway down the middle of the pocket. The outside linebacker would loop around the inside, cruise through the superhighway and sack the quarterback. That’s how Aldon Smith got a lot of his sacks—on “stunts.”

Without Justin there to free up Aldon, the 49ers might have to blitz more frequently than they did in the past few seasons. The more they blitz, the more they'll expose their shaky cornerbacks.

All practice observations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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