FanHouse RoderickGreen

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

After the uneventful tenure of head coach Mike Nolan, the San Francisco 49ers decided to promote Mike Singletary to interim head coach during the 2008 season.

After a bizarre debut that saw Singletary address his team without pants, the 49ers finished the season on a 5-4 run under their new coach, ending the year with a 7-9 record. Had it not been for a confusing ending to a Monday night game against Arizona, the 49ers would have finished with a .500 record for the first time since 2002. So close, yet so far.

Give the Lions credit, they didn't fall down by 21 points this week. Baby steps, gentlemen. Baby steps. Though, in the end, it didn't matter as Matt Millen's hapless bunch of misfits fell, 31-13, to Frank Gore and the 49ers.

Mike Martz was looking for some revenge this week against some of his former players, and he got it as J.T. O'Sullivan finished the game 16 of 23 passing for 186 yards and a pair of touchdowns. O'Sullivan continues to be an early season surprise, and is doing quite a bit to make Martz look like a genius for having faith in him, and proclaiming that he might be the best quarterback he's ever coached. I still think that's a bit much, but, hey, so far so good.

Meanwhile, Frank Gore ran all over the Lions' defense with 130 yards on 27 carries, while also hauling in four passes for 32 yards.

As we noted in our Training Camp Battles series, right tackle Joe Staley is locked into maybe the least compelling position battle since Peyton v. Sorgi. It's all but guaranteed that Staley will start from Week One -- the 49ers coaches were so uninspired by Kwame Harris' play that they traded back into the first round to get Staley. And if they're at all torn about how to order their depth chart, they can turn to their faithful.

When rookie tackle Joe Staley stonewalled linebacker Roderick Green during a pass-rushing drill, a chant of "Staley! Staley! Staley!" erupted from the westernmost bleachers.

Conversely, there were more than a few catcalls -- what coach Mike Nolan later termed "ribbing" -- when tackle Kwame Harris was beaten by linebacker Parys Haralson during the same drill.

Yes, Staley already looks like the better player (though he appears to be getting pwned in that picture). But in all fairness, this is THE Parys Haralson we're talking about. He's made many an offensive tackle look foolish. OK, that's just not true.