Updated: Biggest Individual Surprise of the Year

There was one of these done in October. Safe to say -- much has changed since then. Injuries, quality of opponents and the emergence of a few more names.

Who is your single biggest surprise player this year? I suppose "biggest "surprise" doesn't necessarily have to be a positive development. Lots of options.

Arik Armstead went from Kwame Harris status to NFL elite. NO ONE predicted that.

Hard to beat that turnaround!

It's gotta be AA. For me it went from "lol they took his 5th year option" to "they should probably franchise tag him".

Originally posted by thl408:
It's gotta be AA. For me it went from "lol they took his 5th year option" to "they should probably franchise tag him".

I just heard John Middlekauff on the TK Show podcast say that some of his Niners contacts are legitimately debating who to keep between Armstead and Buckner. True or not -- the improvement has been something else.

It's Arik.

Jimmie Ward has been elite as well as AA.

It was AA, but its quickly becoming Bourne. I would also put Mosely in the running.

I also though Bosa would be good, but he's exceeded expectations.

Not sure how Ward is not in this poll! If I had to list my top five it would be:

1. Jimmie Ward - I didn't think he would be good even if healthy.

2. Ahkello Witherspoon - I was ready to move on from him too, never expected him to start playing elite. He's been disrupting passes, getting picks or near picks. Outside of the past 2 games, his tackling improved, tracking the ball improved, and covering without getting PI improved.

3. Daniel Brunskill - I thought he'd be average at best. He's been far better than that and has proven to be a legit starting caliber OL.


All the others in the poll I'm not really surprised by. I know they had the talent and ability and wasn't writing any of them off yet, especially with better supporting casts around them. Even Moseley, I saw something that popped out to me in both pre-seasons that made me think this guy is a hidden gem. Although, you can't just go out and shout something like that here without being instantly berated by the naysayers...

It has to be Armstead, however, his very good play last season should have been a good indicator of what was to be. Last year was covered over by skepticism based on prior years.

Jimmy Ward should be in play as well and for the same reason.

To me, the biggest surprise was Brunskill. This UDFA pickup going from camp fodder to the highest-rated OL on the team is HUGE. Without him, we might be talking about BDN instead of Jimmy.

A lot of good surprises.

Ward not being on the list surprised me.

He definitely changed my mind about him.

Ward not being on IR stands out to me!

D.J Jones!!!!

and it ain't even close!

AA, he's played himself into a nice contract next year.

AA. He was a laughing stock and now looking at a phat deal.

Gotta be Witherspoon

Remember last year when we played GB and Aaron picked on Witherspoon all night and made him look like Nnamdi Asomugha on the Eagles.

That game made me lose all Faith in him...but this year...sheesh he look like Nnamdi from the Raiders