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Contract negotiations are getting Crabby with Crabtree
By David Zizmor August 26, 2009 |
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SANTA CLARA-No one really knows exactly what is going on the last set of reports have indicated there has been no movement between Michael Crabtree and the 49ers. Nobody knows for sure if he's going to sign, the speculation is that Crabtree will sign maybe in a week or so before the season kicks off on September 13th. When you’re in the pre season nobody is getting their weekly pay checks, maybe some of the veterans are getting bonus checks most of everyone else is getting not the hundreds of thousands of dollars like they're getting in the regular season once their real salary kicks in. This is how the NFL works, in the NFL your salary starts with game number one to start the season. So Crabtree isn't really losing all that much money by sitting out the pre season. Once game number one starts the big bucks will start flying away away him. Most people seem to think that with the threat of losing a game check you can finally come to the table and figure out some kind of deal and get into the 49ers practice facility. Obviously this is bad news for the 49ers what it means is that Michael Crabtree will have missed the entire pre season as the team's number one pick and he will really not be up to speed on the offense. Maybe Crabtree may have a playbook and knows what’s going on a little bit but there is no substitute for Crabtree and while Crabtree is a fantastic talent and he was the number ten pick in the draft. That's why he was considered one of the best wide receivers in college football he still needs to get in there and get familiar with his team. A wide receiver has a lot of responsibility; they have a lot of different routes they have to learn. The 49ers offense right now is not as complicated as it was last year under former offensive coordinator Mike Martz. It really doesn't make a difference if your a rookie wide receiver because there is still so much to learn. If Crabtree comes in late which everybody suspects he will he just make his learning curve that much worse. It's going to take that much longer for him to learn the offense and the 49er playbook. He's going to be a significant part of the 49ers offense and it could take up half the season to see any kind of contribution from Crabtree. Let's not forget generally speaking even the best wide receivers out of college often struggle as rookies. Jerry Rice didn't break 1000 yards his rookie season. If you remember Rice rookie season in 1986 a little over 20 years ago Rice who won rookie of the year for the first ten or 11 games the biggest thing that Rice was noted for was dropping passes which is hard to believe now. We kind of have seen Rice go as a football player but his first season in the NFL Rice has a case of dropppsies. It took him 12 games or so before he finally got confident and comfortable enough on the field to start catching everything thrown his way. The same can be said for Crabtree who will have to enter the regular season and learn from scratch without the experience from any kind of training camp or pre season. Whatever happens we will learn if Crabtree is going to be the real thing once the season kicks off in September. David Zizmor covers 49ers football each week for Sportstalk radio |
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