Niners Nation
We finally have a name for this thing: The Golden Fool’s mailbag. I thank all of you for coming up with this play on words and also contributing to this week’s mailbag.
If you’re new to the program, we’ll be putting a post up on the feed asking you to submit your questions. I’ll also keep an eye on comments and other posts that bring up good questions.
Thanks for your participation, and let’s get to your questions:
How does Saleh cope with the (irreplaceable) loss of General Warner? Will we see Nick Martin on the field? Will Saleh use more big nickel? Who will call plays and direct traffic?
-Flydyl
He doesn’t. You can’t cope with that. You do what the rest of us do: cry. As for how they can play without Warner? We’re about to find out. Warner was nothing short of reliable until this unfortunate injury, even playing through a foot injury in 2024. In many ways, this may be nice for the younger players because Warner has been able to pick up the slack. Now it’s on them.
As for Nick Martin, I hope we see him on the field; if we don’t, that might be telling about how his rookie development is. I understand him sitting when Warner is on the roster and with the play of Dee Winters, but now that Warner won’t be around for the foreseeable future, one has to wonder if Martin’s lack of usage indicates something more. Plus, this isn’t a sixth-round pick; Martin was a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft. That doesn’t mean he sees the field on day one, but in this condition, how he’s not providing relief at the very least is a bit head-scratching.
And thank goodness for Winters because we were wondering who would fill in for Dre Greenlaw. I know some thought Martin might have a chance, but Winters has been a battering ram on the field.
Do you expect to see Watkins play during the regular season?
-9ergold
Not only do I expect him to play this season, but I expect him to play this Sunday. With Ricky Pearsall not practicing on Friday and Marquez Valdes-Scantling heading to IR, we might get a glimpse of Watkins. He was getting lots of love at training camp until his first injury, so hopefully we’ll see it translate on the field.
Why is Foerster so rigid and inflexible? If his O Linemen are doing poorly, shouldn’t he make astute assessments and timely adjustments?
-Seb
There’s only so much he can do with what he has, and what he has isn’t much. The 49ers got lucky with Dominick Puni last year. Puni had to play through a strained PCL to start this season. The guard opposite him, Aaron Banks, left for Green Bay, which led to Ben Bartch filling in. Bartch went down with an injury, and rookie Connor Colby filled in. Colby hasn’t been awful, but he...
