Seven weeks into the Jim Tomsula era, the whispers of potential change for the San Francisco 49ers have begun. Shortly after the Niners looked overwhelmed and overmatched against a similarly struggling Seattle Seahawks team on Thursday, Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area reported that "something big" could be looming for Tomsula's group.
"I've heard whispers behind the scenes that something big could happen," Maiocco said in the hours following the Niners' 20-3 loss. "I don't know what it's going to be. I don't know what they're talking about. But clearly the 49ers can't go on this way. The coaching staff looks overmatched, the players look overmatched. The 49ers were plain and simple overmatched today against a team that came in with four losses. There are a lot of very upset people in the 49ers organization."
As well there should be. After Jim Harbaugh was pushed out due to reported clashes with GM Trent Baalke, the Niners hired from within, elevating Tomsula, the team's defensive line coach, to the top spot. And while Tomsula may prove to be a capable coach at some point, there's simply no denying that his team has looked out of sorts since the start of the season. After the loss to Seattle, they're now 30th in the league in total team defense, allowing an average of 406.0 yards and 25.7 points per game, and they're 32nd in the league in total team offense, managing less than 300 yards per game and just 14.7 points.
Yes, much of that can be blamed on a tumultuous offseason that saw not only Harbaugh leave, but former defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, along with defensive stalwarts Patrick Willis, Justin Smith and Aldon Smith, not to mention the unexpected retirement of promising young linebacker Chris Borland.
But the team simply hasn't looked particularly capable, even during wins against the Vikings and Ravens and a near-miss against the Giants. The defense hasn't been close to the same punishing, relentless unit that it was in the past - there's no way the Niners defense of even one season ago would have allowed Eli Manning and New York to drive down for the winning touchdown in the game's final moments - and worse, the offense and $100 million signal caller Colin Kaepernick have seemingly regressed.
While there's no word on what exactly "something big" could entail, it doesn't take a big leap of the imagination to conclude that it very well may involve Kaepernick finding a seat on the bench (or another team). Or perhaps a trade of a formerly important piece who is no longer in the team's long-term plans. Vernon Davis, anyone?
But in the end, the worst part of all of this is that it's really not surprising that Baalke and Niners owner Jed York are considering serious changes because the team has been just that bad through seven weeks of the 2015 NFL season.
The only question that remains - where do the changes start?
