While few were expecting the 49ers to be a playoff team in 2016, there was a general consensus that they’d at least improve under new head coach Chip Kelly, from how they looked under Jim Tomsula in 2015.
So far, however, that hasn’t been the case, with the Niners opening the season 1-7, currently mired in a seven game losing streak where they’ve barely looked competitive. 49ers play-by-play analyst Ted Robinson joined Murph and Mac on Monday morning after another 41-23 loss to the Saints, and said that despite what should be a slightly improved roster, the 49ers have regressed under Kelly.
“We can talk all we want about what’s happened before but right now, the 2016 49ers have taken a step back from the 2015 49ers,” said Robinson. “The results just say that. We can speak the words all we want, just look at the results and look at the numbers, that’s just what it is. That is hard to fathom quite honestly.”
“This team is the same team if not a little bit better talent-wise on paper than last years team right? Some of the young guys that have been drafted high are a year older, have a year more experience, and my point in all this is simply to say, and none of this is brain surgery, at the end of the year you have to start assessing is it the players, have we missed on a whole lot of players a high draft pick positions, or is there some issue here that we’re not extracting talent out of them.”
Robinson argued that some of the 49ers’ young talent seems to be getting squandered, pointing specifically at last year’s second round pick Jaquiski Tartt, who saw the field on just 29 percent of the defensive snaps against the Saints.
“A guy that really hit me Sunday was Jaquski Tartt,” said Robinson. “This is a player who was a second round draft pick right? I know that last year there was a lot of hope on him. A belief that this guy could be a significant secondary player. He’s not getting on the field very much and it took a bunch of injuries for him to get out there and play on Sunday.”
Listen to the full interview below.