One of the things I love about writing for Gear Up For Sports  is the interaction I have had with my readers, I have gotten a number a questions either e-mailed to me directly or posted in the comments of the blogs themselves and love hearing from all of you guys. I have started to get enough questions that I figured I would start doing a mail bag post every week or two to publicly answer these questions as I am sure many of them are questions a lot of Niner fans share. These mail bags are kept going by you readers submitting questions so feel free to e-mail me any questions about the 49ers or NFC West in general at antoniouriarte@rocketmail.com so keep the questions coming.

The first question this week comes from Dan who asks, “With how well Michael Crabtree has played without any training camp if there had been no hold out would the Niners have a winning record right now?”

I have been as impressed with Crabtree as everyone else and already believe he has established himself as one of the best rookie wide receiver in the league despite his holdout, but even with him on the field I don’t see the Niners pulling out an extra win simply because he was on the field. Granted if Crabtree was on the field there is a chance everyone of the first six games would have played out a bit differently but if you look at all the losses the Niners had before the Colts game (Crabtree’s first game with the club) it is hard to find one he alone would have changed. In the Vikings game, for instance, Crabtree wouldn’t even have been on the field to try and stop Favre from throwing that last second touchdown pass that was the difference in the game. In the Atlanta game Crabtree alone would have not made up the 35 points by which the Niners were beat. The one game, however, where he really might have had a chance to make a difference is in the game against the Texans as his presence could have easily been felt in the second half when the Niners let Alex Smith sling the ball around the field.

This brings me to my next point, I don’t think Crabtree would have had the same impact in a Shaun Hill run pro-set offense. One of the reasons Crabtree has been able to be so productive so early is that most of his production comes when Smith is operating out of the spread offense, the same offense that Crabtree ran in college and is very familiar with and suited for. I believe Crabtree is talented enough to have made an impact in the offense the Niners were running earlier in the season but I don’t think it would have been the same impact he is having now.

Our next question comes from Jordan who asks, “With all the blame that writers are throwing around for the Niners lack of a personality on offense it is hard to figure out who is really at fault, what are your thoughts on the flip-flopping we have seen from the Niners offense so far this season?”

Its true, much as been made about the 49ers lack of a personality on offense and the fact that the offense was supposed to be one that pounds the rock and is now one that airs it out. However, I don’t know if “fault” is really the right word because it implys that something bad has happened and I don’t know if that is the case. Maybe a concise version of the story of the 49ers offense this season would help clear things up. Head coach Mike Singletary won a Super Bowl on a team that used a classic football formula seen by many recent super bowl winners including the Steelers and the Giants, good defense, good special teams, and a ball control offense. This formula might actually be the most popular ever amongst Super Bowl winners and clearly still works.

Rewind to when Mike Singletary was named the head coach for the 2009-2010 season. The Niners lacked true game breaking wide receivers, had an offensive line that struggled in pass protection, and a running back that was well on his way to being the franchise’ leading rusher at the age of 26. Throw in the fact that the Niners had a talented defense already and the decision to go with a run oriented ball control offense made plenty of sense.

Fast-forward again to the Texans game. Hill had been taken out of the game because the Niners needed to air the ball out if they had a chance of winning which suited Smith much better and I highly doubt that anyone thought that the Niners offense would be as effective as it was out of the spread but effective they were, and it wasn’t just Smith, the whole offense looked better working out of the spread. At this point Singletary found himself in a pickle. A spread offense was not what this team had spent all pre-season and seven weeks of the regular season working on so could he change the system in one week in the middle of the season? Of course not. Instead he kept Smith in at quarterback and started to increase how much the spread was used a little each week as the team spent more time with it in practice.

Fast-forward one last time to the Jaguars game, Singletary has finally seen enough from the spread offense in practice to let the unit run it full time in a game and Alex Smith carves up the Jaguars defense for over 230 yards and two touchdowns. So in my mind the progression of the offense was fairly natural, Singletary was just reacting to his players performance and he knew he couldn’t react to hastily and have the offense running a system full time they hadn’t spent much time practicing. So was it anyone’s fault? I don’t think so, just an interesting series of events.

The last question this week comes from Sidney who asks, “What do you see the Niners doing in the upcoming draft with their two first round picks? Any chance they use their trading power to move up to grab Eric Berry?”

This is a very interesting question that I have discussed with people a number of times. Eric Berry is clearly one of the top 3-5 players in this years draft and he plays a position of need for the 49ers which makes him very tempting, however, with where the Niners are right now in their development I believe keeping as many picks as possible would be most beneficial. On top of that there are other safeties that scouts have given a first round grade to that the Niners wouldn’t have to trade up to get and there are other first round talents at positions of need such as offensive tackle and defensive end. Personally, I like the idea of drafting a pass rushing defensive end such as Derek Morgan and an offensive tackle such as Trent Williams with the later of the two first round picks. This way the Niners could potentially upgrade our starters at two positions on the field.

Team/Player Photos: San Francisco 49ers Team / Player Photos on Jul 23, 2010

However, I would like to note that it is always so hard to try and predict what player a team is going to draft because every teams’ scouts have different grades for every player, that is why we get “shocking” picks such as the Chiefs taking Tyson Jackson with the third pick last year, or the Titans making Chris Johnson the first running back taken two years ago. When those type of picks happen whole mock drafts come tumbling down because what player a team picks is entirely dependant on who is on the board.

That’s all for the mail bag this week, make sure to e-mail me your Niners or NFC West questions and I will try to get to them next week.