For what it's worth, the sentiment towards Dawson among Cleveland fans, as gauged from their reactions to this signing on various boards, is similar to what SF fans used to feel toward David Akers after the 2011 season. They are very sorry to see him go.

Much as I liked Akers, and clung desperately to any excuse I could find for his poor performance in 2012 - and I still believe it was ultimately all an unfortunate result of his kicking an NFL-record-tying 63-yard field goal in the first game - he became more of a liability than an asset as the season wore on. If Dawson is no more than "solid" for the team in 2013, it will be a vast improvement.

It's always interesting, though, to revisit the ultimate outcome of a previous season with the benefit of further information, and thus begin to see where some of the real causes and effects lay.

The injury to Akers, and all the uncertainty it created late in the year, was one of the top four or five factors in the 49ers failing to advance sufficiently on their 2011 performance in order to win a Super Bowl.

The loss of Blake Costanzo, and to a lesser extent Colin Jones, might arguably have been the number one factor, because it meant the difference between a great special teams unit and a below average one. Akers' implosion only compounded this problem.

Aldon Smith's torn labrum and Justin Smith's torn triceps, which happened right around the same time, should also be ranked in the top five. These injuries exposed weaknesses both on the line and in the secondary.

And while I'm as solicitous of the peace of the forum as anyone, I'll add Alex Smith's concussion, which had an undeniable effect on the team's momentum, regardless of how well it responded against Chicago in the first game without him.

The point is that the starting quarterback on this team, arguably its two best defenders (that's three Smiths for those keeping count) and its main point scorer from the previous season (Akers) were all injured as the team entered the playoff stretch.

One of the great wonders of the 2011 season was how incredibly healthy the 49ers remained, up until its wide receivers started going missing in the playoffs. 2012 saw the team rather quietly hit by a more typical wave of injuries and unable to overcome them. Unable to overcome those injuries and just one or two small changes in personnel such as the departure of a Blake Costanzo.

Here's hoping that signing a Dan Skuta or a Phil Dawson will have as big a positive impact on the team as the signings of Costanzo and Akers had a couple of years earlier.

And here's hoping a heretofore unnoticed or unheard of hero or two emerges out of the next few months of roster shaping, because we're going to need them in order to win a Super Bowl.