THE PIPER STILL WAITS

Niners appear to have avoided making the "tough choices" again; or did they?

February 16, 1999 (NHS) -- With the deadline to reach salary cap compliance come and gone, the Niners appear to have escaped the widely-anticipated purge due to their salary cap problems. Instead, once again, a number of players stepped up to have their contracts restructured thanks to the usual collaboration of management and 49er-loving agent, Lee Steinberg, and the losses due to cuts and the expansion draft seem minor at best. Still with the team, as of this writing, are Merton Hanks and Kevin Gogan, who were rumored to be the prime candidates for salary-cap casualty. After all the blather from Steve Mariucci and Bill Walsh in the last few weeks about the team having to make some "tough choices", they appear to have come out in much better shape than could have been expected.

However, a closer look at the situation may paint a different picture.

When the Cleveland Browns seemingly showed no business sense whatsoever in taking Antonio Langham from the Niners in the expansion draft, thus saving the Niners three million in cap money on a player that was an unqualified bust and would have been released, the masses were appalled. However, despite Walsh's big act to the contrary (he feigned surprise when hearing the news, asking for "30 seconds of silence" then "a steak dinner" to celebrate), it is apparent that this move was only part of a bigger agreement between Carmen Policy of the Browns and his former cronies at Niner Central. The Niners shipped Roy Barker and Irv Smith to the Browns, in exchange for, well, nothing. Why this merits a steak dinner, we have no idea. You'll have to ask ol' senile Bill.

While the loss of Barker and Smith and the release of other luminaries such as Marquez Pope, Terry Kirby and Kirk Scrafford, looks fairly nondescript, when one takes the bigger picture into account, namely the depth at each position, the Niners don't look so hot. Beginning with the defense, where San Francisco finished 23rd in the NFL last season, it is obvious the team is hurting. The linebacking corps is decent at best with the aging Ken Norton, overrated Lee Woodall, and systemically-challenged Winfred Tubbs, and after that, it all goes to hell.

The defensive line is a shambles with the loss of their two starting ends, Barker and Chris Doleman, who retired. At tackle is Bryant Young, coming off a devastating leg injury, and the eternally mediocre and sometimes drunk Junior Bryant. The only other guys on the line are the equally mediocre though less drunk Brenston Buckner, and the oft-injured trade bust Gabe Wilkins. This is not a unit that will stop any opposing running backs or get to the passer with any regularity. The lack of a pass rush is doubly distressing when given the complete mess that is the defensive backfield. But, hey, there's talk of bringing back Charles Haley again, who laughably according to the "experts" was "effective" in his playoff return. If Haley can refrain from calling Steve Young a "whiner" and a backstabber and continue to gloss over the fact that he accused the 49er organization of corruption by lying and scheming to end his career there (all from his latest book), perhaps they can shoot up his aged, weakened back with enough painkillers so he can rush the passer "effectively" again.

Turning to the defensive backfield, unless Pope resigns at the minimum --which is unlikely but certainly not unheard of for spineless Niner players --the corners consist of the pedestrian Darnell Walker and, well, no one. That's not entirely true; there's R.W. McQuarters, who has been compared to Deion Sanders. Unfortunately that comparison is for attitude, not talent. At safety are Tim McDonald, who is nearing the age of 60, and Hanks, who has been repeatedly exposed the last two years as an overrated pencil-neck who can't tackle anyone larger than his own 145-pounds-when-sopping-wet frame.

Given this motley assemblage of "talent" on defense, the Niners can't expect to be holding many teams under 20 points a game next year, except maybe the standard crap they'll face within their division. With few free-agent dollars available because of lack of cap space, the team will have to fill in the many gaps in the draft, where their best picks will be a first- and a third-rounder. That won't be near enough to build a serviceable defensive unit.

Offensively, the team looks better, but not by much. The Niners slapped the franchise tag on Terrell Owens, thereby almost assuring he'll be in a Niner uniform next year. Too bad for them it also assures Owens of being among the highest paid receivers in the NFL, and given Rice's fat contract, it means the 49ers will now have a huge percentage of their cap money in just two overpaid receivers.

It looks like J.J. Stokes will test the free agent market and possibly make his home elsewhere next year. Jerry Rice will be 37 and nothing more than a pedestrian receiver. The 49ers lost Irv Smith, who was a better receiver than Greg Clark. Add to the mix the fact that Steve Young will be 38 and is one big hit away from missing half of the season or ending his career, and the Niners are walking on eggshells as far as their passing game is concerned.

As usual, the line won't be anything more than mediocre, and depth has been lost as the team finally gave up on Jamie Brown. Scrafford will be spending the season on his fat can watching TV, assuming his neck is strong enough to even hold up his head anymore. If Garrison Hearst comes back completely from his broken leg, the running game could be effective against weaker teams again, but overall, the Niners aren't likely to come close to the offensive numbers they put up this year. Combine that with the mess of a defense, and you've got a team that should be no better than 8-8.

Unfortunately, though, one has to take into account the current state of the NFC and, of course, the NFC West in particular. The NFC isn't exactly brimming with great teams. Sure, the Vikings had a stellar year, but one injury to Randall Cunningham and they become a big question mark. Green Bay has fallen, as has Dallas, and Atlanta has only been atop the mountain for one year. Can they do it again? Not if Chris Chandler goes down. Given the six guaranteed wins the Niners will get in their division against the Rams, Saints and Panthers, San Francisco merely has to go 4-6 -- that's .400 ball -- over the rest of the schedule to get their annual 10 wins and qualify for the playoffs again. If the team were thrown into the fray that is the AFC East, they probably would be lucky to break .500 overall, but fortunately for them, their decline has coincided with a downward trend in the NFC, most notably their miserable own division the last five years.

Also, like the leaping of the lemmings, there is also the impending annual free agent "I want to play for the 49ers for free" blitz yet to come. You know what we mean -- the batch of free agents that surface every year who turn down extra millions from other teams for the chance to play with the 49ers because they want a chance at a ring and have bought into the hype that the 49ers somehow "treat their veterans better." Now, we know that's all bunk -- the 49ers can't even claim to be the best bet from the NFC West, let alone the entire conference, to make the Super Bowl -- but when Lee Steinberg is whispering in your ear how great the 49ers are (leaving out because they've made him a fortune over the years), how is a simple NFL player supposed to argue?

But there are signs this little comfy niche they've enjoyed may not surface this year. Besides the ownership turmoil and lack of stability that players crave, the other free agent myths are being painfully exposed at an amazing frequency. The last memorable free agent that used the phrase "they treat their veterans well" verbatim was Rod Woodson. We know how well he was treated. And Walsh's recent congratulatory belching over the departure of Langham shows once again the truth that we've known for years; not only do the 49ers not treat their players any better than any other team, but they often lack the ability to show even a modicum of common decency and respect for a departed veteran. Even a 49er-puppet like Gogan, who the 49ers continue to publicly dangle as salary-cap fodder, is publicly complaining: "I'm disappointed in the situation. You go to the Pro Bowl a couple of years and give the team all you have ... It's hard to understand how I got in this situation."

What does Gogan find hard to understand? How since he put on a 49er uniform he got to be so overrated that he made the Pro Bowl twice? Or that "the 49ers treat their veterans well" is yet another myth? Wake up, Kevin. The 49ers are the kings when it comes to stabbing a player in his back after he's given them all he has.

Naturally, no matter what happens, the media will bend over backwards to talk about the great 49er organization -- as long as they keep winning meaningless games -- but as we've pointed out, for a long time their winning has had little to do with the Niners and a lot to do with the chaff around them. But even the press seems to be taken aback a bit by recent developments. The Smith/Barker for nothing trade was briefly reported on in Saturday's San Jose Mercury in a cold and unopinionated fashion, then no 49er news made Sunday's or Monday's editions -- a deviation from the usual banter from a bevy of loving columnists pursuant to any other 49er move. Guess if they don't have anything nice to say, they don't say anything at all.

Still, the fact remains that after years of deficit spending, at least 12 players were willing to step up and restructure their contracts in the hopes that the farce can continue a bit longer, avoiding the massive purge we were promised was to come. So the Piper waits, off to the side, his hand out, his foot tapping, wondering when he will finally receive his due. Years of mortgaging the future and deficit spending to beat the salary cap have led to this point, the point where the Niners were going to have to pay the Piper, to make the tough choices to get under the cap figure. On the surface, it may not seem like he is going to get his payment, as the Niners give the impression of having cheated the reaper yet again. But a little focus reveals that, come time for opening day -- when the Niners have nothing more than average talent and no depth whatsoever -- the Piper may be smiling somewhere, counting his coins.

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