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Gannon says Raye, Manusky have Niners on right track

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Updated Nov 7, 2009 5:30 AM ET
     
 
As someone who played for Jimmy Raye and was a teammate of Greg Manusky's, Rich Gannon is well qualified to comment on the 49ers vis-a-vis the team's offensive and defensive coordinators. The former NFL quarterback was at practice Friday in preparation for his work on Sunday calling the 49ers -Titans game on CBS at Candlestick Park. Gannon was in Kansas City from 1995-98 when Raye was an assistant coach and then offensive coordinator while Manusky was a linebacker and special teams player. "I like what I see. I think they have a chance to be a good team," Gannon said. "Changing quarterbacks is not easy on a coordinator, either. When you make that change, you have to see the game through the eyes of the quarterback. It's the first time Alex Smith has played in a while. Are we going to overload him or scale back? You're constantly tweaking as you go." Gannon said one of Raye's attributes as a coach is being able to build an offense suitable to the players he has. For Raye, that has been complicated by the change in quarterbacks, the late arrival of Michael Crabtree, Frank Gore's ankle injury and changing personnel on the offensive line. "That's one of Jimmy's strengths. He understands what guys are capable of," Gannon said. "I think it takes two years to get comfortable, or two offseasons. They'll have a lot of progress next year. The next eight weeks are critical for Alex to find out who he is and what he's capable of. Alex has a chance to be a good player. Everybody underestimates what he's been through. "Take Peyton Manning in his first five years in the league with five different offensive coordinators and a couple different head coaches, and see how he'd do. I'm pulling for him Smith. I hope he does well." Gannon saved his best Kansas City material for talking about Manusky and how the two car-pooled to work every day. It didn't take Gannon long to detect his teammate's idiosyncrasies. "He's a beauty, an absolute beauty," the former quarterback said of the former linebacker. "When the weather changed in October and got cooler, he wore the same outfit every day. It was a camouflage one-piece hunting outfit. When we got to work he'd unzip it, get out of it totally naked and hang it up." Gannon also said on the ride to work Manusky would take out his used smokeless tobacco plug and spread it on the floorboard carpet in the quarterback's leased car. "Typical linebacker," Gannon said. Gannon did have high praise for the job Manusky did crafting a game plan for Manning and the Colts last week, in particular in holding Manning without a touchdown pass in an 18-14 loss for the 49ers . "To hold that team to field goals except for the halfback option pass for a touchdown was impressive," Gannon said. "They played winning Football on the road. They had unusual looks and confused Manning. It's not easy to confuse a guy like Manning. What's really impressive is the way they played the run, probably as good as anyone in Football." All the 49ers have to do now is give Gannon a game on Sunday to equal his appraisal of them.
Tagged: Peyton Manning, Colts, Eagles, Alex Smith, Alex Smith, 49ers

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