The San Francisco 49ers have nothing to play for except pride and draft position this Sunday when they host the St. Louis Rams. At some point after the finale, CEO Jed York is expected to meet with Bay Area media to discuss the season that was. Expectations are that Jim Tomsula will get a second chance in 2016, but we won't know for certain until next week.
If Tomsula does get a reprieve, there has been speculation that other members of the coaching staff could be on the chopping block. I wanted to get some approval polls together before the season ends, because we don't know how quickly firings will leak out.
Offensive coordinator Geep Chryst is the most frequently mentioned name, but there are some folks who are not pleased with the job Eric Mangini has done this season. We'll get to Chryst later this week, but I wanted to start with Mangini given the range of opinions on him. While there will be some dissenting opinions on Chryst, I imagine there is a fairly strong consensus about him. Mangini, on the other hand, is not quite as clear cut for some.
I've attached a poll offering a 1-to-10 scale on his performance. 1 is the worst, while 10 is the best. How do you view his job performance over the past year? I figure 1-to-10 provides a little more room for nuance than yes/no.
There is good and bad when considering Mangini. The unit lost a ton of talent, so Mangini was coaching from behind the eight ball to a certain extent. In coaching the new talent, we saw some young players take a step forward. Ian Williams and Quinton Dial have both looked good for extended stretches on the defensive line. Aaron Lynch was among the league leaders in QB pressure before he got hurt. Jimmie Ward took a sizable step forward, and Dontae Johnson showed signs of being a very capable cornerback.
On the other hand, while the defense had success at times, there were stretches where the scheme did not always seem to suit the strengths of the players. There were frustrations with how some of the younger players were used. This applied to both sides of the ball, but the team seemed hesitant to give some of their younger players more playing time. I have no idea what of this falls on Mangini, what falls on Jim Tomsula, and what falls on Trent Baalke. We may never know for certain, which makes this aspect of the debate a little more difficult to figure out.
So what say you? On a scale of 1-to-10, what do you make of the job performance of 49ers defensive coordinator Eric Mangini?