No news is good news

Niners have enjoyed a rare controversy-free stretch

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The regular season is just 14 days away, and it's quiet here. Almost dangerously quiet for Terry Donahue's taste.

In his first three-plus seasons with San Francisco, Donahue got used to the constant buzz and whirl of activity that always seemed to surround the 49ers, be it the wholesale comings and goings of players, the constant squeeze of the salary cap or the melodramatic team controversies that sprang up internally, as if they were played on a perpetual loop.

But not this year. Not with this team. What's to fret about with these 49ers? They returned 20 of 22 starters from 2001. They re-signed three of their four key free agents. The head coach isn't going anywhere; he and the star receiver have made up; and San Francisco looks poised to build on last year's quantum leap to 12-4 and return to the NFC playoffs.

Nobody every said the status quo has to mean stagnation.

"You're right, it has been too quiet for a couple months now,'' said Donahue, the 49ers' general manager. "And that can't last. We're waiting for something to happen. Just give it a little time. They'll be a crisis to deal with. It'll happen. This is the damndest place I've ever been for that.''

Donahue's tongue-in-cheek pessimism aside, what's not to like about where the 49ers find themselves these days? As well as anyone in the NFL this offseason, the 49ers held things together without losing any ground. No rebuilding or regrouping was required here. All San Francisco wanted to do was reload, and take its next best shot at closing the gap between themselves and the beast to the east: the NFC champion St. Louis Rams.

That keep-moving-forward mindset started formulating from the moment the surprising 49ers were knocked out of last year's playoffs, courtesy of Green Bay in a 25-15 NFC wild-card game.

"As soon as the Packers beat us in Lambeau, and we're on that airplane riding home, the thought that dominated your mind was: 'We've got to keep this thing together,' '' 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci said Thursday morning, just before the start of another preseason practice at the team complex. "And we were able to do that for the most part. And that hasn't happened around here in a long time.

"Over the last four years here, we would lose 30-plus guys on our roster from one year to the next. But that wasn't the case this year. That's why this team's mindset has to be, 'This is the time. We can do this. We're ready. Let's do it right now. We're not waiting another year or two. No more sneaking up on anybody. No more Cinderella story. Let's get it done.' ''

The 49ers lost Pro Bowl guard Ray Brown, but signed two-time former Pro Bowl guard Ron Stone to replace him. They let free safety Lance Schulters go, but filled that vacancy by adding Bears free agent Tony Parrish -- a move that many consider an upgrade. In the draft, San Francisco brought in cornerback Mike Rumph, who'll play the key nickelback role in the never-ending effort to match up with the Rams multi-receiver sets.

Just as important were the re-signing of key free agents like running back Garrison Hearst, center Jeremy Newberry and fullback Fred Beasley. After two years of seeing their cap situation tie their hands and force a mass exodus, the 49ers finally were able to play a little prevent defense in free agency.

"Our No. 1 priority was to keep our team intact, and we did that,'' Donahue said. "I think the team feels it's good. It sees the talent level we have. You can't fool players. Players know players. I think our team feels we're going to be a good team.''

But good enough? In every move they made, the 49ers kept St. Louis at the forefront of their mind. The Rams went 14-2 and won the NFC West last season by two games. Those two games came courtesy of their season sweep of the 49ers. In San Francisco, that makes for a certain clarity of purpose in regards to this year's mantra: To get where the 49ers want to go, they've got to get past St. Louis.

"That's the reality of it,'' defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield said. "If you look at what the front office did this offseason, they kept this team together so we could make another run at the Rams. And St. Louis knows it. They know it's not going to be a cakewalk when they play us. Everybody in the NFC knows if you want to take the crown, [you've] got to go through St. Louis.''

The last time the 49ers went through St. Louis, they came away with a 27-14 loss in early December, a defeat that dropped them to 9-3 and signaled that there would be no changing of the guard atop the NFC West in 2001. This year, there is cautious optimism among many 49ers that they have at least narrowed the chasm.

San Francisco's first opportunity to test that theory will come Oct. 6, when the Rams roll into 3Com Park for a Week 5 showdown. The rematch in St. Louis isn't until the final game of the NFL's 256-game schedule: Monday night, Dec. 30.

"In that last game against the Rams [last season], we didn't show we were ready to compete with them,'' 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia said. "We realize there's a gap that needs to close. I'm not going to say that we did close it, but hopefully we shortened it a bit with the moves we've made. I think we're in a better position than we were last year.''

To pull even with and pass a reigning power like St. Louis comes down to "a mathmetical equation'' in today's NFL, Mariucci said. Eventually, the balance of power tips your way if enough of the right things happen.

"What you've got to hope for when you start closing gaps is that you keep your team together, while the team on top falls apart a little bit,'' he said. "That's the reality of it now. In some ways, the Rams have been able to hang onto that team for three years now, which is really unusual in the salary cap era.

"But they lost a few players this year, an Az-Zahir Hakim, a London Fletcher. So hopefully it's a case of we gain, they lose. Simple as that. And then we play better when we play them.''

It sounds simple, but taking the next step probably won't be for the 49ers. This year, their schedule is tougher, they won't sneak up on anyone, and they won't see their season framed in terms of spectacular overachievement. In San Francisco, once the bastion of high expectations in the NFL, a wild-card playoff loss won't be accepted so gracefully this time around.

"It's a sense of let's not take a step backward, let's take a step forward and build on what we were able to achieve last year,'' Garcia said. "I think this team needs to have somewhat of a swagger to it. We need to go out and believe we can win every single game that we play. We can't be content with where we are now.

"I think we're getting to that point, but we're not there yet.''

Realizing that may be the best step these 49ers can take toward making it a reality.

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

 

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