San Francisco 49ers: Reload or Rebuild?

Once Jim Harbaugh moved on from being head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, GM Trent Baalke made a comment saying: “This isn’t a rebuild situation. This is a reload situation.” How true is that statement?

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With everything that has happened this past season, 49ers’ fans are not happy with the front office of the organization. There has been fierce opposition to just about every move that the management has made since before and after the “mutual parting of ways” of the team and Harbaugh. So it isn’t surprising that the fans aren’t believing anything that comes out of both Baalke and owner Jed York’s mouths.

Many fans believe that the 49ers are preparing for another rebuilding stage after just enduring one for ten years, a few years earlier.

I can sympathize with fans because I am one as well, and even I have been irked and have wondered about what the front office is doing. But the 49ers rebuilding? I just don’t see it.

If you take a look at the 49ers’ roster, it’s hard to imagine that this is a roster that is in a rebuilding stage.

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Despite the down year, the 49ers still have a roster riddled with all pros and pro bowlers. No team with players like Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, Aldon Smith, Eric Reid, Antoine Bethea, Anquan Boldin, Vernon Davis, and Joe Staley is in a full on rebuilding mode.

Despite his flaws, Colin Kaepernick is still a good quarterback, and is not the type of player that a team rebuilds with. When you think of a rebuilding team, you think of a team with little-to-no talent and young potential guys along with over-the-hill veterans, that are quarterbacked by someone like Chad Henne or Charlie Whitehurst (no offense). Not a team that just came off three straight NFC Championship appearances and filled with good to great players in their primes.

It’s a fan’s job to second guess everything that the management of team does. It comes with the territory. But sometimes, the team is right.

I agree with Baalke that the 49ers aren’t rebuilding. They are essentially reloading. I understand the distaste that the fans have in their mouths, but if you remove all biases, then one can see that where Baalke is coming from.

This isn’t to say that the 49ers are going to be back right where they were a couple seasons ago, but the team deserves a chance to show that they are making the right decisions and headed in the right direction.

If hiring Jim Tomusla is a wrong decision and the 49ers fall flat on their faces, then we will be able to call for Baalke and York’s jobs, but for now, the deserve a chance to prove that they know what they’re doing.