49ers Are Erring In Rushing Crabtree Onto The Field

Michael Crabtree hasn’t played one snap of pro ball and I’m already sick and tired of talking about him.

The endless speculation over whether he’ll start or not, how much action he’ll get, how he’ll perform, and ultimately, what kind of impact he’ll have on what’s been so far a fairly lifeless 49ers “offense” has worn me out.

It’s almost enough to wish that the 10th overall pick out of Texas Tech and his reality-challenged agent would’ve kept their heels firmly planted in the dirt for a few more weeks, just to spare us from the all this senseless hype.

It’s true that their front office is desperately looking for someone—anyone—that they can promote to be the face of the team besides head coach Mike Singletary, but for the sake of both the 'Niners in general and Crabtree specifically, we all need to collectively take a step back and let the kid breathe, regardless of the predicament he put himself in by missing the alarm clock on his maiden campaign by about ten weeks.

Like it or not, after having missed so much time, Crabtree’s first season will almost certainly be a wash.

No matter how much gobbledygook offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye feeds you about Crabtree’s preternatural ability to “conceptualize the offense,” as though the rook was football’s answer to Wayne Gretzky or a savant on par with Manny Ramirez, it would be in everyone’s best interests to temper expectations.

Ten weeks behind is ten weeks behind—for anyone—and Crabtree’s already playing a position that’s notorious for being tough for rookies making the transition from college.

He hasn’t played a game—meaning he hasn’t been hit—in over ten months.

The spread offense he dominated the Big 12 Conference with is far different than the one the 49ers run. The Red Raiders like to stretch defenses out with four or five receivers at a time. San Francisco has not used more than three wideouts in any play from scrimmage all season.

That doesn’t mean Crabtree can’t or won’t be successful in this offense; just not right away. 

Singletary certainly isn’t doing the rookie any favors by throwing him into the fire and saying things like he “expects” the young man to make plays right away.

Maybe, it’s his way of punishing Crabtree for missing all this time. Or perhaps, it’s a motivational ploy. The view from here though is that it’s a horrible idea and yet another example of Singletary being out of his element when it comes to the offensive side of the ball. 

While Singletary is a fine coach-in-the-making in the current NFL paradigm of head coaches as CEOs and figureheads who leave all the scheming and strategizing to the coordinators, the 49ers will never advance to contender status as long as he is this rudimentary in his offensive philosophy.

With someone as valuable to the organization as Crabtree, you simply can’t “throw him in there and see what happens,” not after all the energy you spent just to sign him. It’s just doing both Crabtree and the team a big disservice.

Obviously, the team and the fans have grown impatient in waiting to see what they have in their prized receiver, but both camps can afford to wait a couple weeks more.

In rushing Crabtree to one of the top three spots on the team’s depth chart, Singletary has alienated three other receivers that have worked hard for him—and in the case of Brandon Jones, fractured a shoulder for him.

The disgruntled Jones, who muttered on Wednesday that he’s on the team “to be a receiver, not some special teams helper,” was very gruntled indeed last February, when the 49ers signed him to a five year, 16.5 million dollar contract, but the aforementioned injury he suffered early in camp, along with him not being able to see eye-to-eye with certain offensive coaches, has left Jones out of the loop.

Much has happened since Jones signed.

Veteran Isaac Bruce returned to the fold, when it wasn’t always a given that he would. Crabtree fell to the tenth slot in the draft, which almost no one (and surely not Eugene Parker, Crabtree’s agent) saw coming.

Jones has been active the past two weeks, but has hardly seen the field and still has as many receptions on the year as Crabtree, a stat that’s certain to change—and not in the way Jones would prefer—this Sunday at Houston.

It sends a bad message to the veterans on the team who have sacrificed and done everything the coach has asked for Crabtree to be given the penthouse apartment from the jump.

Singletary said the only message he's sending is that "the team wants to win."

If that's the case Jones not only deserves a shot to show what he can do, but at this juncture he’s far more likely to contribute than Crabtree can anyway.

Jones contract may not be as prohibitive as Crabtree’s but it’s certainly not chump change either. Does the team really want to write him off as a total loss this early?

One thing we know as gospel: Crabtree will not be the best receiver on the field at Houston. That distinction goes to the Texans’ beastly Andre Johnson, who may or may not be of this world.

In his conference call with the local press Johnson admitted it took him his whole rookie season to not just feel comfortable with the offense he was in but to understand the pro game itself. Also, he had the benefit of being with the Texans from day one of training camp that year, so take that for what it’s worth.

Again, this isn’t a prediction that the Crabtree Era will be a disaster. It’s far too soon to hazard a guess on that. The way the 49ers are handling his debut game however, is a disconcerting omen.

It could be worse, of course.

At least they didn’t draft Darius Heyward-Bey.