Impact of not having Buckner

I'm going to argue that losing Buckner is much larger than we expected. What he brought to the field, but what he meant in the locker room and the identity that he help personify.
I know Kinlaw has raw potential but there are intangibles that cannot be replaced.

It's hard with salary cap, but I feel Buckner should have been kept and our defense that was last season, won't be again.

Originally posted by rtj03:

I'm going to argue that losing Buckner is much larger than we expected. What he brought to the field, but what he meant in the locker room and the identity that he help personify.
I know Kinlaw has raw potential but there are intangibles that cannot be replaced.

It's hard with salary cap, but I feel Buckner should have been kept and our defense that was last season, won't be again.

I miss Bosa more. If we don't lose him and half the other starters on defense we may not be having this conversation. I love me some DeFo but the defense hasn't been our teams biggest problem. We're 3rd in ppg allowed so need to get the offense going.

Sure Buckner>Kinlaw at the moment but what is hurting us more is the injuries to Bosa, Thomas, Blair, Taylor etc.

For the record our run D looks better than last year

Originally posted by GangstaGangsta:

Sure Buckner>Kinlaw at the moment but what is hurting us more is the injuries to Bosa, Thomas, Blair, Taylor etc.

For the record our run D looks better than last year

Yep. The way our luck has gone this year, we would have mortgaged the franchise to keep Buckner and he would have picked up a season-ender.

Originally posted by GangstaGangsta:
Sure Buckner>Kinlaw at the moment but what is hurting us more is the injuries to Bosa, Thomas, Blair, Taylor etc.

For the record our run D looks better than last year

Agreed

I thought there was a thread like this after the Cardinals loss

Buckner would have prevented JG from being injured or made Mullens not crap the bed?

Bad QB play from our backup is the reason we are 2-2 instead of 3-1

I dont think its the loss of bucker. I do think its the s**ty offensive line play and injuries. Shanahan's uninspired play calling isnt helping.

Originally posted by JoseCortez:
I dont think its the loss of bucker. I do think its the s**ty offensive line play and injuries. Shanahan's uninspired play calling isnt helping.

i think this is about the size of things. oh and nick coming down from the johnny unitas throne some had him on

Come on people...

We saw this defense with Buckner, Armstead and almost every player still on this team in 2018 outside of Bosa, Ford and Greenlaw.

Losing the type of pass rush we just lost with no Bosa and Ford it leaves major holes. Buckner was a great player but Kinlaw has been playing very well, DJ Jones has been playing very well. Our issues have not been due to the play of the interior guys.

If Bosa and Ford are out there with the current group this defense would be dominant.

The dropoff from Bosa/Ford to Hyder/Jordan is the biggest hurt on the defense at the moment. Having to play Dontae Johnson is probably next. The defense has nice stats right now, but I think that's mainly from playing bad QBs. I'm scared to think what a top QB would do to the current 49ers defense.

Kinlaw isn't Buckner, but he's closer to Bucker than Hyder is to Bosa. As far as the intangibles that Buckner brings that's a legit concern. Warner seems to have emerged as the leader of the defense to help make up for it.

But on the flip side...


With the exception of the Cardinals game

No team has passed over 200 yards
No team has had a 100-yard rusher (including the Cardinals)

No hundred yard receiver (Cardinals exception)

Number of sacks are down overall but quarterback pressures the same time last year are up with the same amount of blitzing.

Not to mention better run defense which was a huge problem all of last year especially in the Super Bowl as we all know.

And to top it all off for the team to have the 3rd or 4th ranked total defense with a ton of backups playing says a lot.

I miss Buckner as well but if a team benefits more overall in his absence I can accept it.

There's more I can add but keep in mind if the team can play well regardless of who is out there it just goes to show how effective the defensive system is.

Originally posted by rtj03:
I'm going to argue that losing Buckner is much larger than we expected. What he brought to the field, but what he meant in the locker room and the identity that he help personify.
I know Kinlaw has raw potential but there are intangibles that cannot be replaced.

It's hard with salary cap, but I feel Buckner should have been kept and our defense that was last season, won't be again.

I guess I don't understand. Have you watched any of the games this year? Why do fans expect the same performance out of back up/practice squad players? Good lord if the team was healthy you wouldn't even notice Buckner was gone. To be honest he would probably be hurt right now as well.

By the way, $84 million over 4 years. Lest we forget.

I'd love to have Bucker, but he isn't worth $20,000,000 with a salary cap. Donald gets $21.5 and he is a game wrecker, and Buckner isn't too me. I'm also not a fan of Pac 12 defensive players in general (because they don't play much defense like the Big 12) so I was surprised years ago they took Oregon players in back to back years. I wish they could have traded AA instead of Buckner. I feel Kinlaw is better than Buckner as rookie, and I think he has way more upside. Also, I was never a fan of Buckner versus the run.