Bowman gives honest evaluation of Tomsula, 49ers roster

San Francisco 49ers leading tackler NaVorro Bowman is usually one that tends to stray away from making controversial comments to the media. In fact, he's mainly a ho-hum interview — usually focusing on the X's and O's of the game.

So, it comes as a bit of a surprise that the former All-Pro linebacker went out of his comfort zone in the lead up to his team's important game against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday.

Speaking to the media about San Francisco's 2-4 start to the season and his opinion of Jim Tomsula's job performance in his first season as the team's head coach, Bowman offered up an unfiltered take:

“I see him (Tomsula) just being patient and trying to give a little more than just put his stamp on everything," Bowman said, via Scout.com. "I think him being dealt this hand of players, with the young guys being asked to play such a high-valued play, I think he’s doing a great job."

Dealing with "this hand of players" is a reference to a disastrous offseason that saw the 49ers lose multiple players that made up the core of their championship-contending squads from 2011-2013.

In addition to the retirements of Anthony Davis, Justin Smith, Chris Borland and Patrick Willis, San Francisco lost Michael Crabtree, Frank Gore, Mike Iupati and both of its starting cornerbacks in free agency. Add in the release of Aldon Smith, and that's 10 starters with a combined 21 Pro Bowl appearances under their belt.

General manager Trent Baalke did a decent job preparing for these eventual departures with a long-term strategy during the draft. Even then, he's been pretty much hit-and-miss when it comes to early-round picks.

All this has made Tomsula's efforts to successfully replace an all-time great head coach in Jim Harbaugh much more difficult than some would have envisioned when the latter coached his final game for the team against the Arizona Cardinals last December.

The one saving grace for players currently on the team is the fact that Tomsula's coaching philosophy is the antithesis of Harbaugh's — something Bowman focused on in his comments:

"We all love him as a player’s coach, I think he does a great job with balancing how he’s coaching and how he’s treating us off the field also.”

There were rumors of discontent as it relates to the players and how Harbaugh handled them down the stretch last season. While not necessarily speaking for the rest of the roster, guard Alex Boone even went as far to indicate that Harbaugh "wore out his welcome" in San Francisco.

Being a player's coach and actually being a good coach are two different things. Through six games, we can't possibly have a gauge on whether Tomsula is the long-term solution. Though, some of the local media already want to throw him under the bus: