Mike Singletary Has a Plan for the 49ers, and It Doesn't Involve Mike Martz

On Sunday, the mustache-wearing 49ers will close out their regular season against the Washington Redskins, with the hope of finishing the season on a hot-streak. If they should pull out the win at home, the 49ers will close the season on a 5-4 run under interim head coach Mike Singletary, after starting the season 2-5 under Mike Nolan. If only Nolan would have inspired his team by dropping his pants once or twice, the season may have gone a different direction. Or perhaps not.

Regardless, there seems to be plenty of good news for Singletary, as Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee points out that the team may be ready to name him its head coach, removing that pesky interim tag, as soon as Sunday's game with Washington ends. The thinking is, according to Barrows, that if a number of teams fire their current head coaches, Singletary could be a wanted man, and the 49ers don't want to let that happen.

Barrows also reports that Singletary met with the top brass in the San Francisco organization this week, and laid out his blueprint for returning the 49ers to relevance in the NFL. A blueprint that does not include offensive coordinator Mike Martz.

Apparently, Singletary doesn't like Martz and his pass-first, J.T. O'Sullivan is the best quarterback ever style of play, and instead prefers to play a ball control, three-yards and a cloud of dust, smash-mouth offense.

During the Martz years, the 49ers offense ranked 24th in terms of total yards, while finishing 23rd in terms of points, an improvement over the No. 32 ranking the team had in both categories a season ago. I suppose improvement is a good thing. Though, in this case, not quite good enough.

The most costly gaffe of the year, however, may have been his desire to turn O'Sullivan into his San Francisco version of Kurt Warner, even though he had a quarterback that had performed better on the field the previous season -- as well as this season -- in Shaun Hill .

Of course, Martz never coached Hill in a previous city, so, that's as good a reason as any to keep him on the bench. Wait, what's that? It isn't? Who knew?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-24-2008 @ 3:40PM

Tom said...

If the 49ers do not sign him to be head coach, I hope he will sign with the Cleveland Browns. He is exactly what they need!

12-26-2008 @ 11:38AM

eric said...

we need a coach like dick lebeau or rex ryan and jim shwartz to run that 3,4 defense i do like mike singletary but they need someone to take care of that secondary that has the most experience of 40 years giving up plays because no pressure from the front line need a better d line coach eric from philly

12-24-2008 @ 5:45PM

A.J. said...

Martz definitely needs to go...not just because of the ineffectiveness of his system and its tendency to keep the ball away from the most talented guys on his offense, but because of his dishonesty and blatant nepotism in benching Shaun Hill for J.T. O'Sullivan AND conspiring with Mike "I-must-wear-a-suit-to-my-home-games-because-I'm-too-good-for-anybody" Nolan to keep Hill on the bench even a couple of weeks longer by telling everyone that wanted him to start that he had an arm injury. That's criminally dishonest, not to mention detrimental to the football team. I thought that, once this was uncovered, Martz and Nolan should have been fired straightaway without pay. But I suppose it satisfies me to see Martz get booted after this game, and I hope he never finds work in the NFL again.

I'm a big fan of Mike Singletary. He's probably part of the reason that Patrick Willis is so damn good, but aside from that, he doesn't have that 'too-cool-for-school' approach that I saw in Mike Nolan. Singletary cares more about winning than how good he looks on the field. If showing your players your ass will get them to cooperate with you, then by all means, turn the other cheek. Grow mustaches (even though the Redskins will probably win that game) - handlebars, in fact, if you think it'll improve team morale. Singletary comes from an age where it wasn't about the money. It was about going toe-to-toe with a guy with the other uniform and knocking him the hell out. If Warner retires or can't duplicate the success of last year, I would not be surprised if the 49ers were serious contenders for the division title in 2009.

Eric said...

My name is Eric from philly i,ve been a 49ers fan for 25 years and mike singletary is good but i think that we need someone like dick lebeau of the steelers or jim johnson of the eagles rex ryan of the ravens jim shwartz of the titans greg spangnuola of the giants. the niners secondary has almost 40 years of experience and giving up the most plays. i think they need a better defensive line coach. i would keep mike martz around another season to see how they do with that offense. offensive coordinators hard to come by at this point and the niners been through too many coordinators in the last four years. 49ers will never get anywhere with one year coordinators and besides it takes time to know a system get rid of martz you have to get the guys to know another system

joaquinportillo said...

a few notes:
-this is martz's first year in sf, not his second.
-i thought jto was the best qb coming out of the preseason, but clearly he's not regular season ready. personally, i'd like the 49ers to go with hill and alex smith next year.

12-24-2008 @ 5:48PM

AdamGretz said...

Fixed.

12-25-2008 @ 6:39PM

bunny said...

I really hope they bring back Mike Singletary..he has turned them around.i think he can bring back the glory days when they were winners..I would like to see Alex Smith stay also..he said he would take a cut to remain with the Niners..i know he has not lived up to a #1 pick but hopefully if he is healthy he can become a winner..So good luck to the Niners for next year..Beat the dead skins this weekend