San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner is keeping himself busy this offseason. As he revealed through his Twitter this week, he has decided to attend San Jose State University for the Spring semester to finish his degree in Consumer Affairs. He had attended Ohio State University prior to entering the NFL Draft six seasons ago.
When the team was cleaning out their lockers on Monday, Whitner indicated that he didn't want to head back home, but instead, stick around the Bay Area.
"I’m not going anywhere," Whitner told me on Monday. "I’m going to stay here for a while. I don’t stay in Ohio [his home state] that much, I actually stay in Miami, Florida. I’m not going to go there until the end of February. But I’m going to stay here for a while and wait until I feel better about this loss."
With Whitner now attending classes at SJSU, a return to Miami at the end of February now might not happen. The safety has been reaching out to his followers on Twitter for advice on the campus and local eateries he should try out.
But while he's balancing the textbooks for his studies, Whitner will likely dive more into his defensive playbook as he prepares for his first full offseason with the 49ers.
"There were a lot of things we left out of our playbook because it was just too complicated to have in," Whitner said. "I know Coach Vic [Fangio], he has more in store for us if we can get those OTAs and those minicamps, and get together in training camp, with almost a full playbook installed. We can work on the small things to make this defense that much better. I think we’ll do that… That's scary knowing that we can get a lot better on defense."
The 49ers defense exceeded numerous expectations during the regular season. With the lockout, the players were forced to learn from a limited playbook and still established itself as one of the best defenses in the league.
San Francisco was tied for the lead league with 38 forced turnovers and was a league best plus-28 in turnover differential. The run defense also was a league best.
“It’s a stepping stone," Whitner said of the team's growth. "Next year we’ll come back and prove this year wasn’t a fluke. We’ll duplicate it or even get better in the regular season and go ahead and make it to the Super Bowl next year. We have to have those goals."
One important step in returning to that kind of defensive dominance is retaining key free agents. A few starters are scheduled to hit the free agent market and Whitner stated that he wants to see them all return. Cornerback Carlos Rogers, safety Dashon Goldson and linebacker Ahmad Brooks are three defensive starters that will become free agents on March 13.
When asked which player he would want most to return, Whitner said that Goldson, his fellow starting safety, was a priority.
"We have real good chemistry back there," Whitner explained. "Teams know when they play us, they’re going to get hit. We’re going to be physical and we’re going to get everybody lined up. Me personally, I would like to see him stay."
If the 49ers can retain these key free agents, the defense will be able to return to their dominating form. Whitner cited the Steelers as one team that has kept their core players and has been a strong defense consistently for years. The safety believes the 49ers can achieve that as well if the 49ers make all the right moves in the offseason.
"We can look forward to this offseason and seeing where we can get better, then coming back and doing it," he said.
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Getting over Sunday's loss
After working so hard for months, accepting Sunday's loss to the New York Giants was tough for Whitner. Especially through all the challenges the team endured, it was still a tough pill to swallow for him.
"Going into a team that I didn’t really know what was going to happen and putting it all together," Whitner said. "And not having a lot of time to become a team with high goals and high expectations and to make it into the final four of the National Football League -- we didn’t really want to go home. You can tell by the football game. It’s really shocking to be going home right now. We had every opportunity to win that football game and we come up short."
Several players on Monday said that they had received words of encouragement from friends and family following the loss. Whitner said he received the same thing, but it didn't heal any of the wounds he was feeling.
"I had encouragement from family, friends, other players in the league," said Whitner. "That stuff doesn’t really make you feel better. It’s good that people are thinking about you, but it doesn’t make you feel better. Nothing’s going to make you feel better but time and the next time we get together and put those pad’s on. Until then, nothing’s going to make us feel better."
It looks like the pain won't leave for some time. Some players have indicated that they won't even watch the Super Bowl because it will just hurt even more, knowing that the 49ers could have been the team playing in that game.
Whitner said that he will likely avoid watching the game.
"Ill fillings come up if the Giants win, knowing you were that close to possibly being Super Bowl champions," he said. "I don’t really care for it too much.”
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