Shaun Hill named starter for MNF @ Arizona Cardinals

that Singletary made when talking about arm power. Montana did not have a very powerful arm but managed the game and won with his arm at the same time. Hill isn’t Montana but the point is he doesn’t have to have a powerful arm like JTO. Glad Hill is going to be the starter. Don’t know if he’ll win games but he should bring the turnover stat down.

…the change to hill might have a couple of positive indirect effects on the niners performance.

(1) he gets the ball out quickly, so fewer sacks and fewer hold-the-ball-so-long-that-a-rusher-can-come-out-of-nowhere-to-knock-it-out-of-your-hand fumbles.

(2) because of hill’s lack of arm strength, martz has to simplify the playbook to focus on short passes and running, which plays right into the strengths of the offensive personnel (running back, run blocking, YAC-prone TEs).

(3) because of (2), the offense will be on the field more, which means the swiss cheese defense will be on the field less.

granted these are all pretty obvious ways to analyze the impact of the change, but i guess the point i’m making is that i won’t be expecting gaudier (is that a word?) passing numbers or higher point totals. on the contrary, i expect to see more 23-17 type niner wins and losses than 34-13 niner losses. like iron mike reduxe says, hill is a better fit for the state of the 49ers’ personnel, strengths, and weaknesses.

been waiting for this for a long time

sorry kids but the only thing about the NFL I can get excited for right now is the prediction game

And I like Shaun Hill. I haven’t been campaigning for him to start this year because I was unsure about how he’d fit into Martz’s system, but I really like him as a QB.

If Martz can set aside the 7-step drops and deep-ins for a couple weeks and run with Hill’s strengths (and that is the big if, we could see a much-improved offense. We’ve had problems closing out games a couple times this year, and that’s one thing that I think Shaun Hill will be able to do tremendously more effectively going forward (that is, assuming our defense allows us to actually SUSTAIN a lead sometime in the next several weeks).

I’m hoping that not having JTO out there means Martz won’t feel obligated to roll the dice so often. While I think Hill is the better QB, it’s clear that JTO had the better tools for the system. But then…perhaps what this offense needs is a guy under center that Martz isn’t so astronomically high on – less confidence means less ball handling, which results in more Frank Gore carries. If you ask me, I’d say that’s a win/win.

My only question: what’s the status of Delanie Walker? Hill had chemistry with him in his games late last year, and DW has developed into one of the more consistent receiving threats this year when allowed to play that role.