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San Francisco 49ers: Playoff team with new offense?

By Brian Spaen

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It won’t come as a surprise to many when Michael Crabtree moved on from the San Francisco 49ers after a dismal season and not liking what the future had in store for the franchise. The real surprise came in him going across the bridge to the Oakland Raiders. With some big weapons now gone on the offensive side of the ball, is there still a decent shot that they can get back into the playoffs?

Back in 2009, the Raiders passed on Crabtree and instead picked Darrius Heyward-Bey. Projected as a late first-round pick, he was instead the seventh overall and never lived up to that hype. Four years later, the Raiders released him. Flash forward to today, and the Raiders finally got the receiver they probably shouldn’t have passed on in the first place.

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Now, Crabtree is in the position to either resurrect his career or do like many other players do and become irrelevant when they get to Oakland. It’s a pretty big gamble for the former Texas Tech receiver, but he showed no sign of returning according to Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com, who cited that he wasn’t in favor of the direction that the owner and general manager were going.

"It was clear Crabtree had no intention of returning to the 49ers under any circumstances despite the coaching change. Certainly, the words of general manager Trent Baalke and CEO Jed York that the 49ers were intent on being a running team weren’t exactly what the wide receiver wanted to hear."

Considering that Colin Kaepernick is putting in the work to become a better overall quarterback, it would have been best to wait and return to the 49ers. Instead, the team will now have Anquan Boldin, the newly signed Torrey Smith, and whoever they likely pick in the first couple of rounds in the 2015 NFL Draft.

On top of that, the offense also loses their reliable running back, Frank Gore. Speaking of teams losing out on who they could have drafted, the 49ers obtained Reggie Bush during the offseason. San Francisco was part of the infamous “Reggie Bush Bowl” in late 2005 against the Houston Texans thanks to their ineptitude of that year. However, they were the winners, or losers if you want to look at it that way, and that paved the way for the New Orleans Saints to have the second pick in the draft.

That’s significant because the Texans ended up using their top pick in the draft on Mario Williams, which led the Bush going to the Saints. Again, like the Raiders passing up on Crabtree, the 49ers didn’t miss out on a star NFL player but lands on their doorstep toward the end of his career.

A bigger focus in the running game will be if Carlos Hyde can take a bigger chunk of the running game and what Kendall Hunter is capable of after being forced to sit out all of last season. Nothing will replace Gore, but there’s still enough talent to have production there and both Baalke and Jim Tomsula have hinted that the team will be going back to a run-first attack previous to last season.

Dec 28, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) signs his jersey after the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi

With all the changes, question surrounds if the offense will be improved enough to help the 49ers reach the postseason this year. The good news is it can’t get worse than it was last year. Kaepernick put all his focus on Boldin and his lack of skill at being a pocket passer was clear. Now that he’s tuned his game, that will be just as intriguing to watch as what the running attack will be.

Fans have to hope that the offense improves dramatically. Last year, the 49ers still were in contention to make the postseason until well late in the regular season with two losses to the Seattle Seahawks and a bad loss to the Raiders. That’s because the defense helped out when the offense lacked, but with so many key defenders gone and the leader of the group — Vic Fangio — out of the picture, there’s going to be some obvious setback looming.

Another problem will be their competition, like the NFC West that will see improvement everywhere. They’ll have to hope that the Seattle Seahawks suffer a Super Bowl hangover, or the Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis Rams don’t improve like expected.

There’s a chance that if Kaepernick really does prove that he’s a better overall passer and checks down receivers instead of sticking to a familiar target, they can flirt with postseason hopes. If Hyde, Hunter, and Bush can combine to keep the 49ers on the field and shorten the game, that will help even more. However, don’t be making any potential plans next January until we see the unit in action.

Next: 49ers: Danny Shelton should go in first round

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