Worst team in NFL history: 2005 49ers

Originally posted by DrEll:

Originally posted by zeppfan1:

Originally posted by DrEll:
1999 was by far the worst. Especially for us fans that grew up in the glory years of the 80s/90s. It was the first time in my (our) life that we saw the team become awful and it hurt to watch them crumble. I think the realization hit when we got trounced by the St Louis Rams, after beating them in 25+ straight games.

The drafting of Alex Smith (and missing out on Rodgers) was the worst decision this franchise has made in its stories history. In essence we could have been a dynasty matching the Patriots pound for pound in the 2000s and 2010s. Instead Alex ended up being primarily a bust for us, and even Rodgers only accomplished one SB title in GB because front mgmt over there has no clue how to draft or sign players.

'99 was really bad, especially with Steve Stenstrom at the helm. But that team did offer some hope after Garcia was reinserted as the starter. The offense put up some big numbers at the end of '99. There was 0 hope in '04. I agree though, after years of dominance, it was hard to watch the team struggle after young got knocked out.

Please….don't remind us

He might be the worst starting QB in 49ers history, at least for starting consecutive games.

1999, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 were all pretty terrible years for one reason or another. We've had a lot of them over the last 2 decades. 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2017 were also not great, but some of them at least showed some promise for the future (which usually didn't pay off) or we were just mediocre rather than completely terrible.

IMO, 1999 might be the worst because it was the first time that the team looked like complete crap for fans that are younger than 45ish.

2004,2005,2015,2016 were probably the worst actual teams, but I had no expectations for them going into the season.

2010 was frustrating because Singletary was a moron with how he managed the QB situation and probably cost us 3-4 games from that alone. A halfway decent coach would have gotten that team to the playoffs which we saw a year later with Harbaugh.

2007, 2014, 2018, 2020 were the most disappointing because I expected the team to be good going into the season.

In 2007, the team had some hype after a good finish to 2006 and then Alex got injured in week 4 and the way Nolan handled it made it clear that he wasn't the answer. I was at the game in 2007 against the Seahawks when Alex got injured early and had to watch Trent Dilfer throw wounded ducks for 3 hours. Worst in-person experience ever.

2018 was so disappointing after the exciting finish in 2017, there was a lot of hype coming into the season and the Jimmy injury was so deflating.

The worst seasons are the ones where it becomes clear that the current coaching staff / roster construction is not going to work and it feels like it could be years before the team becomes good again. Especially when you really believed that we had the right head coach to become a consistent winning team again. 2021 was starting to feel like that after the 2-4 start. Thank goodness we've turned it around.

At least we drafted Gore that season. If only we took Aaron Rogers instead of Alex Smith.

Rogers with Gore would have been so lethal.

SMH what a blunder

Oh so you mean the year when the Niners wanted to draft Matt Leinhart number 1, he stayed in college so the Niners got to pick betwee Aaron Rodgers and Alex Smith. The year Mike Nolan liked how Alex Smith held a car door open for his mom, so he felt he was a better fit than "cocky" Aaron Rodgers??

It makes me sick to my stomach that when the Niners needed a franchise qb, they whiffed oh oh oh so bad

Originally posted by 9erred:
Oh so you mean the year when the Niners wanted to draft Matt Leinhart number 1, he stayed in college so the Niners got to pick betwee Aaron Rodgers and Alex Smith. The year Mike Nolan liked how Alex Smith held a car door open for his mom, so he felt he was a better fit than "cocky" Aaron Rodgers??

It makes me sick to my stomach that when the Niners needed a franchise qb, they whiffed oh oh oh so bad

a lot of teams whiffed

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
At least we drafted Gore that season. If only we took Aaron Rogers instead of Alex Smith.

Rogers with Gore would have been so lethal.

SMH what a blunder

or it would just be the same... nothing guarantees we get the same rodgers

Revisionists, our revolving door of OCs and Mike Nolan would've ruined Aaron Rodgers too (and he wouldn't have rode bench for a HOFer like Brett Favre)

Originally posted by 49ersRing:
1999, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 were all pretty terrible years for one reason or another. We've had a lot of them over the last 2 decades. 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2017 were also not great, but some of them at least showed some promise for the future (which usually didn't pay off) or we were just mediocre rather than completely terrible.

IMO, 1999 might be the worst because it was the first time that the team looked like complete crap for fans that are younger than 45ish.

2004,2005,2015,2016 were probably the worst actual teams, but I had no expectations for them going into the season.

2010 was frustrating because Singletary was a moron with how he managed the QB situation and probably cost us 3-4 games from that alone. A halfway decent coach would have gotten that team to the playoffs which we saw a year later with Harbaugh.

2007, 2014, 2018, 2020 were the most disappointing because I expected the team to be good going into the season.

In 2007, the team had some hype after a good finish to 2006 and then Alex got injured in week 4 and the way Nolan handled it made it clear that he wasn't the answer. I was at the game in 2007 against the Seahawks when Alex got injured early and had to watch Trent Dilfer throw wounded ducks for 3 hours. Worst in-person experience ever.

2018 was so disappointing after the exciting finish in 2017, there was a lot of hype coming into the season and the Jimmy injury was so deflating.

The worst seasons are the ones where it becomes clear that the current coaching staff / roster construction is not going to work and it feels like it could be years before the team becomes good again. Especially when you really believed that we had the right head coach to become a consistent winning team again. 2021 was starting to feel like that after the 2-4 start. Thank goodness we've turned it around.

You left out all those terrible teams from the mid to late 70s prior to Walsh's arrival. Before that the Niners had always been a pretty decent team with a lot of talent. Just not enough to make it to the big one. Those late 70s teams were a constant run of bad QBs, new coaches and ownership issues.

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
At least we drafted Gore that season. If only we took Aaron Rogers instead of Alex Smith.

Rogers with Gore would have been so lethal.

SMH what a blunder

or it would just be the same... nothing guarantees we get the same rodgers

First ballot HOF talent is first ballot HOF talent. Its nice to believe we would have "screwed up" Rodgers. As if a QB is supposed to be that mentally weak.

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
At least we drafted Gore that season. If only we took Aaron Rogers instead of Alex Smith.

Rogers with Gore would have been so lethal.

SMH what a blunder

or it would just be the same... nothing guarantees we get the same rodgers

First ballot HOF talent is first ballot HOF talent. Its nice to believe we would have "screwed up" Rodgers. As if a QB is supposed to be that mentally weak.

It doesn't work that way. Everyone's current situation was due to their path in life

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
At least we drafted Gore that season. If only we took Aaron Rogers instead of Alex Smith.

Rogers with Gore would have been so lethal.

SMH what a blunder

or it would just be the same... nothing guarantees we get the same rodgers

First ballot HOF talent is first ballot HOF talent. Its nice to believe we would have "screwed up" Rodgers. As if a QB is supposed to be that mentally weak.

It doesn't work that way. Everyone's current situation was due to their path in life

Nah. You can get away with that thought with average or system quarterbacks, but not generational talent. According to that philosophy, every great QB eg Montana, Brady, Marino, Elway would have all been busts if the chips hadn't fallen their way with respective teams.

Rodgers is a first ballot HOFer. It's MORE likely that he would have made Nolan and Singletary look better than they were and with Harbaugh this team would have been a dynasty competing with Patriots for dominance in the 2010s.

We botched this BAD by going with Alex Smith. But I get the defensive mechanism some fans employ by thinking that if the roles were reversed and we had picked up Rodgers, he would've been a bust and maybe Alex Smith a HOFer if he sat behind Favre.

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
At least we drafted Gore that season. If only we took Aaron Rogers instead of Alex Smith.

Rogers with Gore would have been so lethal.

SMH what a blunder

or it would just be the same... nothing guarantees we get the same rodgers

First ballot HOF talent is first ballot HOF talent. Its nice to believe we would have "screwed up" Rodgers. As if a QB is supposed to be that mentally weak.

I will say this though, his mechanics coming out of college were nothing like you see today. If he had to start from day 1 like he did here, who knows.

Originally posted by Bigfishrider:
The '78 team committed 63 turnovers, and they fumbled 56 times, 10 of which came in a single game against the Lions. All those are still NFL records.

When you run out of quarterbacks, and are forced to line up Freddie Solomon under center in the last game of the year......yeah that's bad. Would have been interesting to watch though.

Dwight Clark said in an interview that the '79 team was the best 2-14 team ever, even though they lost a ton you could see a good offensive framework, and the players felt good things were ahead.

Thank God I was born 10 years later. I thought I suffered through some bad years, but that '78 team just sounds good awful. Lol

Originally posted by DrEll:
Nah. You can get away with that thought with average or system quarterbacks, but not generational talent. According to that philosophy, every great QB eg Montana, Brady, Marino, Elway would have all been busts if the chips hadn't fallen their way with respective teams.

Rodgers is a first ballot HOFer. It's MORE likely that he would have made Nolan and Singletary look better than they were and with Harbaugh this team would have been a dynasty competing with Patriots for dominance in the 2010s.

We botched this BAD by going with Alex Smith. But I get the defensive mechanism some fans employ by thinking that if the roles were reversed and we had picked up Rodgers, he would've been a bust and maybe Alex Smith a HOFer if he sat behind Favre.

I don't think Rodgers would have tolerated what Smith put up with. I am not saying that Smith would have been a HoFer, but I do believe that Nolan & Co would have ruined Rodgers.

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:
Revisionists, our revolving door of OCs and Mike Nolan would've ruined Aaron Rodgers too (and he wouldn't have rode bench for a HOFer like Brett Favre)

Harbaugh and company would've saved him in 2011