The Front Office: Adam Peters and Roster Construction

[skinsinparadise]

I think it was pretty easy for the fans to be negative about the team and correct for 30 years, because the people running the team were pretty bad and the teams were pretty bad for basically 30 years. If you just bet on "they don't know what they're doing" you hit a whole lot more than you missed from 1993 - 2023.

There were a lot of roster questions in 2024 also. WR2 was a question, backup center was a question then also. A lot of folks questioned brining in so many veterans with injury concerns (Ertz, Ekler, etc.). And it worked out just fine. Now, there are some folks who are trying to retroactively say "easy schedule and Daniels was responsible for all of it" and downplaying the overall roster construction. But one way or another, the team made it to the NFC Championship game, and won 2 road playoff games.

So sometimes fans are right, sometimes they are not. Sometimes FOs are right, sometimes they are not.

Unpopular opinion (for reasons I don't quite understand) : we would have been in playoff contention last year if not for the ridiculous number of injuries.
- Starting QB for 10 games
- Starting RB for virtually the entire season (Ekler)
- Starting TE for more than half the season (Ertz)
- Starting WR for 8-9 games (McLaurin)
- WR2 for virtually the entire season (Noah Brown), + Deebo (whatever position he was) for a game plus several others limited, McCaffery for half the season, Lane for the end of the season. Every one of the projected WRs either ended up on IR or missed games.
- Every starting DE
- Backup QB for the end of the season
- Starting Safety for much of the season
... More than I can't think of off the top of my head.

There's no way to really overcome all of that. If they suffered average injuries, I think they could absolutely have won 10 or so games.

I'll hear you out that the roster was put together counting on some guys with injury history, the most notable was Noah Brown. That was an obvious mistake to count on a guy who gets injured a lot. But you can't say the same for every guy who got injured.

They were remarkably thin at certain positions in 2025, and some of us dumb fans were pointing it out all summer. Then, lo and behold, those exact positions blew up in their face. So they don't get much sympathy from me on that front. And even when Jayden played, they had a losing record. So no, I don't buy that they were a playoff team if only he'd stayed healthy. Quinn's actions acceded they weren't well coached. And they had stronger competition than 2024.

The season before was almost the polar opposite. They had the weakest schedule in the NFL, remarkable injury luck, and won a bunch of games at the very end. As one personnel guy colorfully put it afterward, they had a horseshoe up their butt.

My guess is the truth about that roster was somewhere between those two seasons. In 2024, almost everything broke their way. In 2025, almost everything broke against them. But I also think Peters left the roster vulnerable enough at certain spots that if things didn't break right, there was a real chance the dam would break. And it did.
That's basically where I am on Peters overall: so-so thus far. I don't think he sucks at his job. I also don't think he's proven he's great at it.

When people explain that there's a method behind what Peters does, I don't disagree at all. Of course there is. He's not throwing darts at a board. He has a philosophy and a rationale behind his decisions. The question for me isn't whether he has a plan. It's how good is he at evaluating players and executing that plan? So far, IMO, the results are a mixed bag.
And that's pretty consistent with how I've reacted to his moves in real time. I've defended some, questioned others, liked some immediately and disliked others immediately. I haven't been sitting here waiting for things to go wrong so I can criticize him.

For me to get to the point where I think, I'm not crazy about this move, but Peters has been right often enough that I'll trust him on it, he has to earn that level of confidence through his decisions. He hasn't done that for me yet.
Does Peters need me or any other fan to trust him? Of course not. The person whose confidence ultimately matters is his boss.

But from a message-board standpoint, where we're all just giving our opinions as fans, he's not someone whose decisions I reflexively trust. I don't reflexively distrust them either. I can go either way depending on the move.
So if the argument is simply, "Peters isn't an idiot and there's a logical thought process behind what he does," then there's really nothing for us to debate. I agree. My question is whether his evaluations and decisions are ultimately good enough. That's the part I think is still very much TBD.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

I am curious to know if Peters quotes about the Edge/WR spots in 2025 sound eerily similar to IOL in 2026.

Hopefully it's different, and he's not just closing his eyes and hoping it will all work out.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

The season before was almost the polar opposite. They had the weakest schedule in the NFL, remarkable injury luck, and won a bunch of games at the very end. As one personnel guy colorfully put it afterward, they had a horseshoe up their butt.

You continue to minimize the accomplishments of 2024 in order to make a point for 2025. I personally don't minimize their accomplishments at all. Even with the easy schedule, they won TWO road playoff games against division winners. One against the #1 seed in the NFC on the road, which was a 15-2 regular season team. Again, that doesn't just happen. You play the teams on your schedule when you are scheduled to paly them. And they won 14 games in 2024. With a first year HC and rookie QB. Nobody should minimize that accomplishment, and I think Daniels, Quinn and Peters should all get a ton of credit for putting that season together. I personally don't think the accomplishments should be hand-waved with "easy schedule" and "they were lucky."

(As an aside, before the season, their strength of schedule was ranked about middle of the road. Based on 2023 opponents wins/losses, it was exactly 16th. You can find a variety of different advanced metrics, but all of the ones I found are somewhere middle of the pack. It didn't turn out that way, which is why I keep shouting that listening to any pre-season strength of schedule analysis is a complete waste of time. But I digress.)

The part I don't disagree about is Peters has a mixed bag of results.

What's interesting is I think he gets heat for some things he doesn't deserve, and doesn't get heat for things he should.

I get the center angst. I also think they'll eventually add somebody. (They haven't as I'm writing this.) If Allegretti is healthy and plays well, then maybe they are playing with fire, but it might work out. We'll just have to see.

I'm still really concerned about CB.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

I'm still really concerned about CB.

I'm more concerned about safety honestly and feel oddly calm with CB. (This is reliant on Oweh and Chaisson not being hurt)

The Flores scheme likes safeties with unconventional skill sets.

Sonny Styles coverage ability helps a lot. But maybe we still need a safety more than we realized.

 

[DWinzit]

I still wish we had a good single high safety, due to their versatility, Jones can use him all over the place.

 

[Boone]

I’m open to great things happening this season. I’m not predicting great things because logic says having replaced both coordinators and essentially starting over on both offense and defense is not an easy thing to do. But Jayden always gives us a chance to exceed expectations. What I’m not really open to is the argument that this regime is ‘new’ and therefore expectations should be lowered and grace given.

This is the third season for these guys. Whatever happens, they own it and there should be no excuses. It’s the NFL and teams go from has been to dangerous in 3 seasons or less. We need to see signs of major growth and if we don’t it is not unreasonable to consider more changes.

I hope we will continue to be patient if there are signs of progress. On the other hand, I really don’t want to hear how unfair and unrealistic fans are if there aren’t.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

I still wish we had a good single high guy, due to their versatility, Jones can use him all over the place.

Unfortunately those guys are not common, and are really hard to identify in the draft.

Loads of college single high prospects just can't do it at the Pro level.

 

[DWinzit]

Unfortunately those guys are not common, and are really hard to identify in the draft.

Loads of college single high prospects just can't do it at the Pro level.

I get that. There were a few guys that projected early in the draft this year and last. I was hoping the cards would fall for us but they didn't or we chose to fill other positions. That doesn't stop me from wishing we had one of them

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I am curious to know if Peters quotes about the Edge/WR spots in 2025 sound eerily similar to IOL in 2026.

Hopefully it's different, and he's not just closing his eyes and hoping it will all work out.

Look. EVERY SINGLE DE on the initial 53 who was expected to play ended up on IR. Armstrong, Wise, Jean-Baptiste. I think maybe a couple of other backups. There was some depth, and all the depth got depleted because no team can absorb if the entire starting rotation and depth all end up on IR.

Same with WR. There were 5 WRs on the opening day 53:
- McLaurin: Missed more than half the season, and basically the entire competitive part of the season.
- Noah Brown: Missed all but 2 games
- Deebo: missed a game and was limited in several others
- McCaffery: Broke his collarbone and missed more than half the season
- Lane: Mostly healthy, but ended the season on IR.

When you have 2 WRs go to IR for the majority of the season, another end the season on IR, your #1 WR misses more than half the season, there is just no amount of depth that can make up for that. Even if they had DBrown and OZ on the PS they could elevate, would that have helped anything?

Should they have kept OZ/DBrown or signed another guy instead of keeping Noah Brown? Yes. But in the end, with this level of injuries, would it really have mattered? Not sure.

FWIW, I think the depth at Center is worse than anything we saw last year. At WR and Edge last year there WAS depth. We ran through the starters AND the depth.

Having a 6th round rookie as your primary backup at any position is playing with first.

I'm concerned about CB also because when the ball is in the air, zone turns into man. And you need CBs who can cover and break on the ball to shut down quick game. The way you beat pressure is with quick game and running the ball. Outside CBs are going to have to cover tight early in the play or else we'll get nickel and dimed to death.

I'm interested in Safety. I want to see what that looks like in game situations before drawing any real conclusions.

 

[Boone]

Brother Om has made a lot of the same points you make Voice and they are valid ones. I don’t think our 2025 WR corps was all that to begin with … Deebo was a nice addition but then we turned around and let him walk after giving up a 5th rd pick to get him and he had a reasonably good season for us. Noah Brown? I have no idea what gave us confidence he would stay on the field since he never had before… we let our 2nd best WR (Zaccheus) walk for chump change…

But your overall point, that mass injuries almost everywhere, derailed the 2025 season. The McLaurin holdout and subsequent injury may have been much more of a big deal than we want to admit… but keep in mind that was probably entirely avoidable if AP hadn’t wanted to prove some point and *win* that negotiation.

Generally speaking though I think most teams would’ve struggled to win in 2025 with the injuries we had.

It’s been a year and while we have already had some injuries, we can’t keep using that as an excuse. It’s time to start showing something. If 2026 is no better it will call into question the talent at the top of the org and frankly it should.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

This is the third season for these guys. Whatever happens, they own it and there should be no excuses

This is the golden point.

It's year 3. With a top 5 QB.

It's put up or shut up time.

 

[RedWolf]

I don't think Sonny Styles is going to light up the league. I think he will have highlights and lowlights but will definitely need a full season to develop, at least

 

[DWinzit]

Brother Om has made a lot of the same points you make Voice and they are valid ones. I don’t think our 2025 WR corps was all that to begin with … Deebo was a nice addition but then we turned around and let him walk after giving up a 5th rd pick to get him and he had a reasonably good season for us. Noah Brown? I have no idea what gave us confidence he would stay on the field since he never had before… we let our 2nd best WR (Zaccheus) walk for chump change…

But your overall point, that mass injuries almost everywhere, derailed the 2025 season. The McLaurin holdout and subsequent injury may have been much more of a big deal than we want to admit… but keep in mind that was probably entirely avoidable if AP hadn’t wanted to prove some point and *win* that negotiation.

Generally speaking though I think most teams would’ve struggled to win in 2025 with the injuries we had.

It’s been a year and while we have already had some injuries, we can’t keep using that as an excuse. It’s time to start showing something. If 2026 is no better it will call into question the talent at the top of the org and frankly it should.

One thing regarding Terry's holdout, it would have been marginalized if AP had been able to bring in a more legit WR room. Terry had the team by the balls because without him on the roster, we had a dearth of higher caliber receivers

 

[Boone]

I don't think Sunny Styles is going to light up the league. I think he will have highlights and lowlights but will definitely need a full season to develop, at least

I mean, let's just call him Bunny Styles if we're going to misspell player names.

But it's all good Bedwolf.

 

[skinsinparadise]

You continue to minimize the accomplishments of 2024 in order to make a point for 2025. I personally don't minimize their accomplishments at all. Even with the easy schedule, they won TWO road playoff games against division winners. One against the #1 seed in the NFC on the road, which was a 15-2 regular season team. Again, that doesn't just happen. You play the teams on your schedule when you are scheduled to paly them. And they won 14 games in 2024. With a first year HC and rookie QB. Nobody should minimize that accomplishment, and I think Daniels, Quinn and Peters should all get a ton of credit for putting that season together. I personally don't think the accomplishments should be hand-waved with "easy schedule" and "they were lucky."

(As an aside, before the season, their strength of schedule was ranked about middle of the road. Based on 2023 opponents wins/losses, it was exactly 16th. You can find a variety of different advanced metrics, but all of the ones I found are somewhere middle of the pack. It didn't turn out that way, which is why I keep shouting that listening to any pre-season strength of schedule analysis is a complete waste of time. But I digress.)

The part I don't disagree about is Peters has a mixed bag of results.

What's interesting is I think he gets heat for some things he doesn't deserve, and doesn't get heat for things he should.

I get the center angst. I also think they'll eventually add somebody. (They haven't as I'm writing this.) If Allegretti is healthy and plays well, then maybe they are playing with fire, but it might work out. We'll just have to see.

I'm still really concerned about CB.

Lol, I think we’ve debated this specific topic about 100 times at this point. I’m not trying to minimize one thing to maximize another. I’m just expressing how I see it and explaining why.

If you think I — and some others who see it similarly — have it backwards when it comes to Peters, that’s cool. We’re allowed to come away with different conclusions.

I have my own thoughts about what I like and don’t like about what Peters has done. I also think some of the nuance in my position gets lost when you characterize my argument, but if I’m not communicating it clearly enough, that’s on me.

At some point, we can just agree that we see Peters differently and see how it plays out. I get your point at the moment is you agree its mixed with Peters but I and some others got the wrong take on what has been good or bad -- that's cool.

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[RedWolf]

I mean, let's just call him Bunny Styles if we're going to misspell player names.

But it's all good Bedwolf.

I use the microphone and I didn't check, my bad.

Sorry Bone 😱

Lobo de la Cama? Me gusta! 🤣

 

[Boone]

That’s Big Bone to my friends

 

[NoCalSkins]

Regardless of what Adam Peters says to the media and/or fans regarding the roster going into this season, I am assuming based on how he felt about the roster when he was first hired was behind closed doors he thought this was a long term roster building project. You don't go from valuing barely 3 players as starters from the previous regime to a championship contending caliber team in a few seasons. You can bring in some pieces, you can upgrade in a variety of spots, but this is about building a 53 man roster and the circumstances and situations that go into acquiring talent have so many factors season to season that there are going to be seasons where you feel ahead of progress and seasons you feel behind progress. I also think it is very likely you go through a head coach or two during the process as well. We already have seen both coordinators get shown the door and my assumption is that Adam Peters has a much longer leash than Dan Quinn when all is said and done.

Living out here I witnessed the 49ers team get built over many seasons, which started by taking Alex Smith #1 overall and him being deemed a bust within a few seasons while the organization was also quietly building up that dominant defense and running game. They also were on their third HC (4th if you count Tomsula interning as coach when Singletary was fired) by the time they started the playoff run and championship window.

All this isn't to say that I am settling for waiting THAT long, for one we have an actual difference maker at QB who showed his very first season that he can win if he is surrounded with at least competence on the offense, but this defense has been pretty terrible the last couple of seasons, and the front office put in work to improve that unit, although some key frustrating injuries have some of that impact up in the air for at least the opener and first chunk of the season at this point. A complete rebuild just takes time. This front office didn't take over a .500 team that was on the cusp of something. They took over easily one of the worst modern franchises in the NFL and have been tasked with basically re-inventing their identity to what it was once known to be.

Adam Peters signed a five year contract and I think considering the state of where this franchise was before 2024, it's a reasonable time frame to make this team a consistent winner, so I am willing to ride out that contract with him at the helm and at that point we can re-visit his overall job performance.

 

[CapsCommies]

It honestly cracks me up how Peters, Quinn, and co talk about Allegretti. You're shocked he hasn't been a center his whole career! There's just so much confidence, so much ability, it's so clear and obvious - how could everyone have missed it the last seven years? He has been a starting center in a backup guard's body the whole time!