San Francisco 49ers: Should They Have Re-Signed Randy Moss?

Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Randy Moss (84) against the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

On the year, the San Francisco 49ers are 3-2. This is not at all a bad start, considering that they had to battle the Colts and the Seahawks, two of the better teams in the NFL. A major problem, however, continues to be the holes that Mario Manningham and Michael Crabtree leave in the Niners’ receiving area. With this is mind, the off-season question comes up again. Should the Niners have re-signed Randy Moss?

A legend himself, Moss was becoming old, but he had a terrific season with the 49ers. He really ingratiated himself with the offense, and fit into the flow nicely. He and Kaepernick were seeing eye-to-eye at the end of the 2012 season. Unfortunately for the Niners, they had decided not to re-sign Moss by the time that Crabtree suffered an Achilles injury.

The Niners may have found their mojo a bit here, but what many don’t realize is the very weak receiving game that the Niners are running. Other than a couple of nice dump-offs to Vernon Davis and Anquan Boldin, Kaepernick didn’t have a huge game in terms of passing yards against the Texans. Rather, he would just hand the ball off, and the running backs were doing their jobs.

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it right? Well, the problem with this philosophy is that teams are going to learn that San Francisco doesn’t have much of a receiving game until their better receivers return to full health. They are going to force the Niners to make some tough decisions by closing all the gaps on the line of scrimmage, and forcing Kaepernick to through to some of his wide receivers. Boldin, however, won’t be open all the time. Moss may be old, but he can sure can the job done, and is a legitimate wide receiver as opposed to some of the Niners’ other options.

The only terrific game that Kapernick has had so far was the opener against the Green Bay Packers, where he stuffed the stat sheet with a good 412 yards. Since then, however, he has had under 200 yards every game. Against the Seahawks and the Colts, where the Niners were destroyed and almost completely shut down, it would have been nice to have Moss in the rotation to catch some of the long passes, an area where Kaepernick specializes in.

It seems like history now, but the poor passing yardage of Kaepernick really brings this question up again. Moss was a solid player for the Niners last year, and he sure could have helped them this year, as they are missing two of their better wide receivers. When those two came back, the Niners would have been even deeper. They could have had the start everyone though they would at 5-0, or 4-1, but instead, find themselves one game over .500 at 3-2.

Should the Niners have re-signed Moss?