49ers QB Nate Davis: The increasingly complicated debate

Davis needs to decide whether or not he loves the NFL or the NFL lifestyle. Hopefully Sing gives him the right motivation to secede in the league.

..and Davis should be smart enough to know that if he has any chance for success in this league, it will be here with the Niners.

In response to the question:
“Does this mean we have to sit and wait until next offseason to see if Singletary has gotten through to Davis? "
Yes.

With less than 3 weeks to the start of season, have we not had enough of this distracting third-string QB debate? Maybe not.

I think that what Coach Sing said about him was totally to motivate him, not just next offseason but also during this season. I would bet that Davis is paying a lot of attention to the protections this week, asking questions and beginning his growth.
No, he isn’t VD, but both need the fire of truth to be lit under the butts and we already know what it did for VD. With what Davis said after the game, I think he got a full realization of what NFL football is all about and made the decision to take it by the horns.

over what people may have thought about him, in that he played against better competition than he normally did and that competition wasn’t too much for him, per se. He beat himself. The two throws in the redzone were enough to show that Nate has a ways to go in learning right now. He has great physical skills, but he would be a roller coaster at best if he were to see significant time right now. Then again, he’s said to be a “visual learner” so maybe he’d gradually start to self-correct and end up better off for it…the thing is I don’t think any of us want to go into our most promising season of the past 5 or 6 years knowing there will be major growing pains at QB…to go along with some growing pains on the O-Line and some unknowns on special teams, the secondary, etc.

To say about our first string QB this week. As long as it’s about the backups I’m not too concerned. Alex is #1 heading into this season

Anybody else think the picture above has “Caption This!” potential?

Davis will be fine, I’d almost take him over Carr, but I think I changed my mind this morning.

Nate Davis should get a lot of playing time in the final two pre season games. First off, why would we give. Carr ( a 10 year vet) playing time in lieu of Nate Davis? We know what we’re going to get from Carr, and at some point this organization needs to see if Davis will be our QB of the future if Smith goes down, leaves via free agency, or regresses during the 2010 season. Davis should play the entire 3rd quarter against Oakland after Smith exits, and at least a half in the finale against San Diego. If not we’re back at square one in 2011.

Secondly, the question of whether or not Davis is our QB of the future requires a larger look into the factors.

A) Is Alex Smith going to progress this season to the point where he is our QB of the future? Some seem to forget he is still only 26 with a lot of football ahead of him. If Smith comes out, leads the 49ers to the playoffs and continues his momentum from 2009 bringing his game to another level then the Davis point is kinda moot.

B) Work Ethic: If these reports are true in regards to Davis’ work ethic during the off-season that is cause for concern. From Montana and Young to Garcia and now Smith, work ethic has NEVER been an issue for the modern 49ers franchise. I suspect that if Davis doesn’t change this mentality, Singletary won’t view him anywhere near the QB of the future.

C) As evidenced by his pass to Ginn on Sunday, Davis has a rediculous upside. Now its time for him to become consistant against strong compition. In order for this to happen we MUST enable him to actually play against that compition!!!

Nate Davis all of a sudden gets super motivated to work hard, there’s no telling if he’ll be a good QB or not. Yeah he’s got a cannon, yeah he’s looked good at times during preseason action, but that really means nothing at this point.

Smith then Davis for the rest of the preseason.

…against the Raiders. The third preseason game is the most important of the four and Carr will get more reps than he got against the Vikes.

the top backup they had left isn’t ready for prime time. I think Sing’s comments were directed as much to the fans as Nate. He hears all the “#2 talk”, so when Nate does something to get fans excited, it’s time to bring everyone down to earth. It was nice seeing a bomb for our side but it was 3rd and 2, the Vikings weren’t expecting it and Ginn (briefly) lost single coverage. It wasn’t like he hit him in stride – that would have been Elway-like.

The learning disability is a valid knock. I’m sure he did study a lot in the offseason but it’s going to take a bunch more hours for him to learn than the other QBs. Smith studied in the offseason too. What’s been keeping Nate in the running is his physical gifts and improvisation skills but that’s not going to be enough to earn him 2nd string.

and levels of learning challenges, and they can really slow down a persons comprehension. There is always a back door type of way to learn things but the best method isn’t always clear and it usually takes alot longer to absorb vast amounts of complicated information. I would like to see the 49ers stick with this man for 4 or 5 years and then see if he can run the offense. Steve Young took about that long to get really good and he wasn’t learning disabled. If Nate was to become a back up he could probably rise to the short term task of filling in behind Alex with a smaller playbook. But if we give him a few years it would be worth it because his arm is bordering on legendary. All of his passes are tight and pack a punch.

From what I’ve taken from Sing’s comments, it seems they feel Davis is still a year or two away.

Yes, we can work in Davis more if he is to be the “future” but it seems that future is still at least year away. Preping for the future is nice and all, but we still do need to know the now. Right now Smith is #1 and Carr is #2. Carr did not play at all last time, so I fully expect him to get snaps against the Raiders.

If it’s true Davis still doesn’t grasp the playbook and protections well, then I really doubt how he can perform against teams when they start game planning for him. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is the kind of thing you can just flip on and correct it in a few days.

in a way where you want to give him the benefit of the doubt. This preseason are just like the last two games of the regular season last year… they were meaningless, yet were to serve as a proving ground to see if Smith was the guy for the job. But as always we never get to see enough to be convinced that either he is good enough or not. I would just hate to find out he isn’t 5 games into next season.

Whitlock knows Davis because he also went to Ball state and was a teammate of Davis’ college coach. -49er16

Whitlock being a former teammate of the coach and Whitlock being an alumni of Ball State doesn’t mean he knows Nate Davis. He knows who Nate Davis is, and has seen what he can do on the football field, but where does Whitlock get off throwing out accusations like, “Nate Davis is embarrassingly immature. He has no clue about the kind of commitment and work necessary to be an elite level quarterback. None…You know what Nate wants most of the time? He wants to tell people he’s in the NFL. He wants to go back to his hometown of Bellaire, Ohio, and be treated like a star. He wants to hang in Indianapolis and pop bottles like he has Peyton Manning’s contract.”

Whitlock knows Nate quite well dude. – chikmagnet_656

Where did you find evidence to support this?

Does Nate Davis remind anyone else of Bucky Richardson?
This is completely reminiscent of the whole Cody Carlson/Bucky Richardson debate. Just sayin’…That didn’t turn out so well!!!

He has a rocket arm! Woopty-Doo! We’re not the Raiders. He is good but he is not as good as the Smith-Haters make him to be. I guarantee that barring injury, Davis will never start a reg. season game for the 9ers.

But it also looked like he was having problems getting the plays off in time. I think that two time outs were called because of that, and that is something that would have to get fixed up.

Showed a ton of potential though.

He is pushing him so he can be an elite qb. I am on the N Davis bandwagon, but to hear that he did not put any effort during the offseason sucks! If he does not put the time in he could be with another team next yr. I’m hoping he is not afraid of work!

Collinsworth is laughing his ass off right now…

This is a Singletary psych job to further motivate Davis. He’s not the first NFL player to flop a half yard short of a first down. I expect him to be giving Smith a run for his money if both are here next year.