Golden Nuggets: AJ McCarron is the new challenger

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone has had an awesome week and is about ready for Christmas. For those of you lucky few who were able to get a look at the new Star Wars movie, I hope you enjoyed it. Yeah, in case you didn't know, it's out now.

But into football news: We have another game this weekend. I know, it's not near as emotional now given how this season has turned out, but the addition of AJ McCarron in his first NFL start means things are at least going to be entertaining. I'm not sure what else we can really diagnose out of this team at this point. The  49ers are really bad, and it's going to take a lot to even upgrade them to mediocre. With the backup for Cincinnati though, things are going to be very interesting since teams don't have any film of the guy, well unless you count his days at Alabama. He could go Colin Kaepernick on everyone or he could be a dud. He didn't look terrible against Pittsburgh last week, but then again, the Cleveland game could have been classified as "interesting" and I decided to file it under "infuriating". Maybe the football gods did this so San Francisco can steal a win and get pushed back in the draft?

Who knows. I know I'll be watching this game. I guess.

Let's get to the links!

Maybe the coaching staff will actually use Hayne next year: Hayne ’10 times more confident’ now, excited for 2016 (Cam Inman)

Navarro Bowman, always the professional: Bowman ‘loves’ Tomsula but neither endorses nor campaigns against coach for 2016 (Cam Inman)

Different message: 49ers’ Tomsula declines to make excuses for offense (Eric Branch)

NFL fines 49ers' Brooks for unnecessary roughness (Matt Maiocco)

The Battle of the Bay is now about who can draw more: The 49ers or the Raiders: 49ers, Raiders go head-to-head on TV (Matt Maiocco)

Sakamoto: 49ers’ DE Tank Carradine Fluctuates Weight To Play Three-Technique (Ryan Sakamoto)

49ers head coach Jim Tomsula and coordinator Geep Chryst take different approaches when evaluating their last-ranked offense (Chris Biderman)

I still laugh when I read this headline: Tomsula says Chryst has done ‘nice job’ as 49ers offensive coordinator (Matt Barrows)

Offseason To-Do List for the San Francisco 49ers (Greg Depalma)

49ers Ward, Bengals McCarron were youth teammates on Mobile’s Municipal Raiders (Cam Inman)

What a horrible night to have a curse...