Don't Be Silly - You Won't See Moss in San Francisco

Straight cash homey!  The man who popularized this brilliant catch phrase, Randy Moss, is reportedly considering his triumphant return to the football field.

Joel Segal, Moss's agent, told the Boston Herald about Randy's revelation.

"Randy and I have discussed [the options]," Segal said. "He still has his fire and he's looking forward to playing football.  He's excited."

Good for him.  Perhaps the 34 year old wide out does indeed have something left in the tank; something he could utilize to help a team bolster their offense.  But is that team the San Francisco 49ers? My answer - indefinitely, hell no.

Moss was certainly a prolific playmaker in his day.  His career stats speak for themselves: 954 catches, 14,858 yards, 153 touchdowns.  But if you take a closer look, Moss's performance on second tier football teams - or more specifically with second tier quarterbacks - leaves much to be desired.  In two years with the Oakland Raiders Moss had 1,558 yards and 11 touchdowns - numbers that were skewed by a more successful first year when his motivation was higher.  His second year in Oakland - 2006 - marked a significant drop in his production, correlating to the fact that the team was going nowhere fast.

More startling perhaps was the drop in production for 2010, the last year of Moss’s career.  He played for three (yes, THREE) teams in the 2010 season - the Patriots, the Vikings and the Titans.  The entire season amounted to 27 catches for 393 yards and 5 touchdowns.  Moss's greatest motivation to produce was probably in New England, but there had to be a reason that they didn't want him or they wouldn’t have handed him the pink slip.

Now the veteran wide receiver, after an entire year away from football, is making noise about wanting to return in true TO'esque fashion.  He has dropped bait in hopes that teams will give him a nibble, but if his fate is anything like Owens’, no one will bite.

Let's dispel the Moss to the 49ers talk now.  San Francisco doesn't like to take chances on problem children.  They took a risk with Braylon Edwards and it didn't end well.  For one reason or another, receivers with checkered pasts and attitude problems simply do not succeed in the Bay Area and Braylon was the most recent evidence of that.  Throw into the mix that Alex Smith would be the man playing catch with Moss and you have a recipe for one extremely disgruntled wide receiver.

Even if Moss did still have something in the tank - which I suspect he doesn't - this is not a move that Trent Baalke will make.  Baalke's formula for signing talent is a low risk one, and Randy Moss comes draped in red flags.  Baalke probably won't even field a phone call from Moss's agent.  Case closed.

What the future holds for Randy Moss is something we can only speculate, but San Francisco is definitely not a fate that Moss will realize, regardless of whether or not he wants to be here.  Most NFL GM's won't be willing to take the risk either. Yet and still, Moss wants to play and I suspect that he'll try.

My guess is that Moss's career future will be similar to Terrell Owens.  That is, the Allen Wranglers are calling:  I hear they're looking for a little more depth at the wide out spot.

Jim and Alex - Mighty Men, Humble Hearts

Photo Credit: Associated Press

There's no I in Harbaugh and he likes it that way.  The 49ers head coach is not a fan of the spotlight.  Aside from his introductory press conference there wasn't a lot of peacocking in his demeanor.  He always stressed the importance of "the team, the team, the team," and the 49ers played to that formula.  There was no man too big for the San Francisco 49ers - they succeeded and failed as a unit.

So it came as no surprise that Jim Harbaugh was a no show for his Coach of the Year award acceptance.  I imagine that the speech would have been brief and marginally awkward had he decided to make one.  Most of his time on stage would have been spent deflecting the praise and giving credit to his coaching staff and his guys - his "mighty men."

 There isn't a person in the world that thought he wouldn't win that award, and yet Harbaugh's absence was planned.  He had just the man for the job, and that man was Alex Smith.

If two things can be equally true, then Alex Smith is just as responsible for Harbaugh's success as Jim was for Alex's.  Colin Kaepernick has some serious natural abilities, but he was still too raw to start at quarterback for the 49ers in 2011.  The market for quarterbacks in free agency was thin, and yet Alex Smith, who already had his bags packed for a new beginning, decided to give it one more spin in San Francisco.  He worked hard with the team during the lockout, giving the 49ers a head start with Jim's playbook while the coaches were incommunicado.

Smith was efficient and smart in the passing game, making plays when he needed to and in the process leading the 49ers to an improbable season.  He never made that back breaking mistake that would make the 49ers - or Jim Harbaugh - look like fools for sticking with him.

And yet one hand washes the other.  Harbaugh never gave Alex more than he could handle.  The first several weeks of the season featured an extremely vanilla offense while Alex got comfortable in his role.  Harbaugh pushed all the right buttons - only asking Alex to be great when the occasion absolutely called for it.  Alex responded to the challenges when they presented themselves, feeling comfort in Harbaugh's allegiance.  It was a far cry from the days when Singletary's only words of encouragement were "good luck."

In many ways, Jim Harbaugh took no risk hitching his wagon to Alex Smith.  Should he fail, the world would acknowledge that Smith was never really a talented player and the 49ers would move on to something better.  But if Alex succeeded, as it turns out that he did, then Harbaugh is everything that he was advertised to be - a quarterback guru, a master motivator, an elite head coach.

I truly believe, however, that Harbaugh's faith in Alex was genuine.  Their careers as NFL quarterbacks were similar.  They had to overcome improbable odds.  Smith is Harbaugh, Harbaugh is Smith.

So it's fitting that the man who accepted Jim's Coach of the Year award was Alex Smith.  Though most fans will tell you that Alex's turn around couldn't have happened without Jim, Jim might tell you that this season wouldn't have been possible without Alex.  As fate would have it, these two men will now forever be connected. Even if the 49ers go on to eventual glory with a different quarterback at the helm, there will always be a place for Alex Smith in Jim Harbaugh's humble heart.