When healthy we have one of the better lines in the NFL.
Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson all play behind lines that are significantly more limited than ours.
On defense, Allen and Ioannidis are the START of a good line.
Young, coachable players with upside.
What the team needs is 2-3 more DL from the draft to fill out the starting unit and provide that first line of depth when there are injuries.
After Jonathan and Matt got hurt there was no one left up front that scared anyone.
Terrell McClain and Stacy McGhee were reaches in free agency as guys that could come in and make an impact.
These guys are spot starters/rotation guys who are effective 20-25 plays a game.
Over 16 games they are not frontline performers yet we paid them like starters.
That was a clear mistake in free agency.
So, I see an OL that should be fine in 2018 and a DL that could be markedly better with the two youngsters back and a couple of wise investments in the offseason.
What we need IMO most of all is skill players.
On offense we don't have a franchise back. One of the reasons Goff has been so successful is the presence of Todd Gurley.
At wide receiver and tight end we have a lot of maybes and possibles.
Josh Doctson has not shown he is near arriving as a truly consistent playmaker.
Jamison Crowder has failed the test in showing he is capable of moving out of the Garçon/Jackson shadow to be a top threat on his own.
I don't think we should move on from these guys just yet, but we can't count on them to be the starters next season and give them a pass either.
At tight end we need to reshuffle the cards.
We in essence are starting 33 year old Vernon Davis. He is the only tight end that ends up being both healthy and productive over 16 games.
Sprinkle is a rookie with size and some upside so he's fine as the
#4 .
Niles Paul has to go. We are paying a clear
#3 TE almost $2M a year. He doesn't make plays in the passing game and is the best of a horrible group of blockers at the position.
We need to find a backup TE that can help on Teams for less.
The team needs to give serious thought to bringing Reed back. There isn't a more injury prone player in the NFL. He came to camp hurt!
For the money we aren't getting anywhere near fair value.
I haven't checked on his contract details but we need to give at least some thought to moving on from him.
We need to bring in a veteran blocking end at the very least here if we keep Reed for another year.
Finally, at outside linebacker we have invested heavily in draft picks and cash for Kerrigan, Smith, Murphy, Anderson and waited two years for Galette.
Unfortunately we still don't have that dominant outside rusher that causes offenses to change their game plan to account for him.
Kerrigan is a 100% effort guy that takes advantage of his opportunities to use his smarts and guile to beat people.
He schooled the Giants' RT a couple of weeks ago.
But in games against the Eagles and Cowboys he didn't really impact those contests when facing pro bowl caliber tackles.
We need a guy that can win one on one against the better OL the way Miller or Beasley does.
Without that player and a competent nose tackle there is no point in running a 3-4 or even lining up in it a certain percentage of the time.
We need to be able to stop the run, which again we didn't do against Dallas or the Eagles.
We didn't even slow down Dallas' backup rusher Alfred Morris.