San Francisco 49ers

Michael Crabtree talks all sorts of topics with Dave Dameshek on NFL Network.

This is an edition of instant Nuggets. Just add water and BLAM! Besides, there's not really much news today. Three stories for you to peruse, and one of them is old. The first one is from our good friend East Bay Sports Guy and it takes a realistic look at Lawrence Okoye and his NFL prospects. I mentioned in a #Channel49 mailbag posts that the chances are slim. He needs to put in years of work and we really have no idea if he's got that level of commitment to being bad at a sport he's never played before. Everyone thinks he looks good, though, so he has that going for him. | Lawrence Okoye: Beuautiful man, unlikely NFL player (BASG) The next piece comes from Mike Sando and details recent comments from the NFC South blogger saying Cam Newton was going to have a better year than both Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson. We all knew Sando wasn't going to let Wilson get slandered like that. Here's his response. | Newton to upstage Kaepernick, Wilson? (Sando) Super Bowl 50: Inside Tuesday's owners vote (Mercury News) If you find any links, post them in the comments. Sorry for the tardiness. Until tomorrow. Follow @GafflezMalone Being a Sheep Be sure to follow @NinersNation on Twitter as well as on Facebook. You can follow SB Nation Bay Area on Twitter @sbnbayarea and also on Facebook. If you're new here, you can register for a free account to participate in the discussion and create your own fanposts here at Niners Nation and across our entire network of 300+ sports blogs.

David Butler II – USA Today Sports Images The San Francisco 49ers fell just short of capturing a win in the Super Bowl last season, but fell to the Baltimore Ravens by a final score of 34-31. However, the 49ers aren’t looking to be one-year wonders in terms of their success and seem poised to be one of the best teams in the league once again for the 2013 NFL season. They kept the majority of their core players, have a full off-season to build and scheme around Colin Kaepernick as their quarterback, and still have their elite defense in place, even adding some key players on that side of the ball. One key player they added to bolster their offense, though is wide receiver Anquan Boldin, formerly of the Ravens team that beat San Francisco in last year’s Super Bowl. Boldin will give the young Kaepernick another reliable option to throw to this coming season, which will improve the offense’s and the quarterback’s performance. Three months prior to the season right now, though, there is talk that Bolding and Michael Crabtree are currently competing for the job as the team’s number one receiver. With the Ravens last season, Boldin caught 65 balls on 112 targets, with only four drops, though. His receptions went for a total of 921 yards and four touchdowns on the year. Crabtree was much more productive, catching 85 passes on 126 targets for 1,105 yards and nine touchdowns. Moreover, he was targeted over 10 times in four of the seven regular season games with Kaepernick under center. Though Boldin is a fantastic addition to this team and will serve as a reliable security blanket this season, Crabtree should remain the team’s number one option at receiver. Crabtree and Kaepernick have a stronger rapport with one another, first of all. Also, Crabtree is just entering his prime at 25 years old while the 32-year-old Boldin is on the downside of his career. In all likelihood, Crabtree will have a bigger year than Boldin this season because he has developed into and is at a point in his career where he can make more plays than Boldin. Crabtree’s youth also makes him more valuable and important to the team’s future. Though both players will contribute to the 49ers offense, Crabtree should be the number one option. Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20 and like his Facebook page.

Here at Niners Nation, we're presenting a series called "90-in-90". We'll be looking at every player on the 49ers offseason roster, one player per post, from now until the start of training camp. More: Quinton Patton LaMichael James Patrick Willis Parys Haralson NaVorro Bowman A year ago April, the San Francisco 49ers used a fourth-round pick to select Wake Forest guard Joe Looney in the 2012 NFL Draft. Looney was a talented offensive lineman, but he slipped in the draft because of a Lisfranc injury suffered in the Senior Bowl. He was unable to take part in some Combine drills, and this kind of nagging injury meant teams were left wondering what he would be worth. Looney started training camp on the PUP list, but within a week he was removed after passing his physical. Although he passed the physical, Looney spent the entire season inactive on game days. That didn't stop him from getting in whatever work he could, as he and practice squad linemen Al Netter and Kenny Wiggins were put through game simulations during pregame warmups. According to the 49ers, Looney spent his rookie season working at both guard spots and center with the scout team. Obviously that is not the same as in-game action, but it's a learning experience, and one that could prove valuable sooner rather than later. What to expect in 2013 This is where it gets interesting. I do think Jonathan Goodwin is on the hot seat sufficiently enough that the center position is up for grabs. That being said, Daniel Kilgore would seem to be the favorite to unseat Goodwin, if anybody was going to do so. Last year I read reports that Looney might have been a second round pick without the Lisfranc injury, so it is entirely possible the 49ers could see him leapfrog Kilgore on the depth chart. That being said, my guess is he ends up in that Leonard Davis, extra lineman role. Daniel Kilgore will be the primary backup interior lineman, but Looney will be right behind him, and getting some opportunities when the 49ers go with their particularly heavy formations. Odds of making the roster While Looney might not be a lock, he is about as close as one could get. The 49ers do face some interesting decisions with the offensive tackles they have added, but I don't see them squeezing out Looney at this point. He faces a tough battle for playing time, but I think the plan is to develop Looney and Kilgore to basically each move up a spot when the team is ready to replace Jonathan Goodwin. KEEP READING: Joe Looney college scouting report 2012 article on Joe Looney as a sleeper pick Marcus Lattimore loves the 49ers humility NFC West linebacker rankings Who goes on the 49ers Mt. Rushmore?

The NFLPA Rookie Premiere weekend is currently going on down in Southern California, and some of today's events took place at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The weekend is a chance for rookies to meet the media, get pictures taken for football cards, and generally have a good time. 49ers wide receiver Quinton Patton, tight end Vance McDonald and running back Marcus Lattimore are all down for the event. They will return to Santa Clara for OTAs this coming weekend, but for now they get a little fun time. SB Nation is helping the NFLPA promote this event, and so some of our people have gotten some great access. SB Nation's Ryan Van Bibber (who also runs Turf Show Times) is interviewing a variety of players. Additionally, Dan Rubenstein, who does a lot of video content for SB Nation, is down there helping on the video end. Ryan shot a few videos using the Vine app. For those who have never used it, you can take up to six seconds worth of video. You obviously can't get much content from six seconds of video, but it is great for Twitter. Ryan shot some videos and I thought they would be fun to share. Scroll your mouse over the videos and you'll see an option to unmute them. This first video features Quinton Patton shouting out a quick line from one of the funniest movies of all time. I'm not quite sure what Quinton Patton is doing in this second video. I'm trying to find out, but it seems funny anyway. This third video is apparently Marcus Lattimore providing a Jim Harbaugh impersonation. Dan took several pictures of the players. This first one is Marcus Lattimore coming out in his 49ers uniform with pads. This second picture is Quinton Patton in his uniform. I'm still not sure why he goes with the vertical eye black instead of horizontal. Any ideas? This final picture features Quinton Patton and Landry Jones "just cuddlin' in a cabana and stuff". This is another picture in the cabana! You can follow all of SB Nation's coverage of the rookie premiere at this link.

Fullback Jason Schepler signed a contract with the San Francisco 49ers after taking advantage of his weekend tryout with the NFC champions. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – NFL – San Francisco 49ers News 49ers Blog

We've now covered tight end, running back, offensive line, cornerbacks and linebackers in our NFC West position rankings. Of those positions, the 49ers were on top of four of them. I had them at the bottom of the cornerback rankings. Today, we're going to take a look at the safeties and, wouldn't you know it, the 49ers aren't on top here. However, they might be a little higher than you might have guessed. Let's jump right into those safety rankings. 1. Seattle Seahawks with Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Winston Guy, Jeron Johnson, Chris Maragos This one isn't very close. Earl Thomas is absolutely one of the top safeties in the league, even if he struggled last season. Last season may have been Thomas' worst year in the league, as he struggled in coverage, earned a few penalties and even seemed to regress against the run. However, he's still the best safety in the division, relatively young, and there's no reason to suspect he won't bounce back next year. Chancellor is a tackling machine. He actually replaced Dashon Goldson in the 2011 Pro Bowl, and had one of his best seasons to date last year. He was better than Thomas was, though I don't expect that will be true this coming season. He's a very solid strong safety and the pairing with Thomas is just top notch. They're not as close to Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner's 1-2 punch at cornerback as Seahawks fans like to claim, but they're definitely the top safeties in the NFC West. 2. San Francisco 49ers with Eric Reid, Donte Whitner, Craig Dahl, Darcel McBath, C.J. Spillman, Trenton Robinson When I went into these rankings, I assumed the 49ers would be lower than No. 2. That's before I did a lot of reading up on the rest of the safeties in the NFC West. It's weird putting the 49ers here with a rookie like Eric Reid, but he is clearly going to be the starter, so it's less of a stretch. He's not going to be buried on the depth chart or anything. Donte Whitner has been a great signing for the 49ers. That is to say, Whitner came in for relatively cheap and put up some great numbers. Of course, he's been here more than one year, and last season was his worst in San Francisco by far. He struggled in coverage, especially as the season went on. Replacing Whitner will need to come sooner rather than later, but he's probably got another good season in him. Craig Dahl is a terrible, awful player. He does nothing well and his addition to the 49ers should be viewed as a subtraction. Darcel McBath will probably remain with the team, and C.J. Spillman is great on special teams. I have no opinion on Trenton Robinson. 3. St. Louis Rams with T.J. McDonald, Darian Stewart, like 100 different undrafted safeties I'm a firm believer in the belief that you can't draft "your guy" too high. We can speculate on whether guys like A.J. Jenkins were taken too high or not, but in the end, I believe if you're an NFL general manager and you have a guy you know you want, there's no such thing as too high a pick. In other words, you can believe someone went earlier than he needed to, but that's not the same thing. Another NFL team probably wouldn't have taken T.J. McDonald in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft. But he was the guy the Rams wanted, so they took him. McDonald will likely compete for, and win the starting free safety job. But he won't play it like a traditional free safety, instead, he'll come up and do his best to hit everything as hard as he possibly can. Because that's how he plays. That said, his ceiling is all over the place. I'm not sure how good he'll be. He's a total wildcard at this point. At the very least, he should step right into Quintin Mikell's role and play in the box and do some blitzing. At strong safety the Rams have ... Darian Stewart, who played behind Craig Dahl last season. It's not all that bad, though, considering when he did play, he was much better than Dahl. I'm not quite sure why the Rams felt like Stewart should be the second string but I do think he

The 49ers will start up their "Offseason Team Activities" (OTAs) on Tuesday, which moves us that much closer to training camp. We will not see padded practices yet, but we get more team offense vs. defense drills, which means more implementation of the playbook in advance of training camp. The rookies spent last weekend in rookie-only minicamp, and then got their introduction to "football school" over the last week. "Football school" got the rookies working with the veterans, but OTAs will take this to a whole new level. In doing so, the position battles we will see over the next three months will start to take shape. We'll be going into position battles in plenty of detail over the next three months, but with OTAs getting started in a few days, I thought we'd put together a rundown of position battles to watch, and consider which might end up most intriguing in the coming months. Here is a rundown of the positions I see significant battles for playing time, and I think there would be limited disagreement. This is not about the bubble watch, so much as just where we'll see particular competition: Second and third quarterback: Colt McCoy, Scott Tolzien, B.J. Daniels Backup running back: LaMichael James, Kendall Hunter, Anthony Dixon, Jewel Hampton Third and fourth wide receiver: Mario Manningham, Kyle Williams, A.J. Jenkins, Quinton Patton, Ricardo Lockette, others Second and third tight end: Vance McDonald, Garrett Celek, Cameron Morrah, Demarcus Dobbs? Cornerback: Everybody Backup outside linebacker: Parys Haralson, Corey Lemonier, Darius Fleming, Cam Johnson Nose tackle: Glenn Dorsey, Ian Williams Defensive line: Cornellius Carradine, Quinton Dial, Glenn Dorsey, Will Tukuafu, Demarcus Dobbs, Tony Jerod-Eddie I suppose "Everybody" is a bit of a cop-out at cornerback, but is any one particular position locked down? There's a reasonable argument that Tarell Brown is going to be starting, but beyond that, I think anything is possible. Matt Maiocco believes Glenn Dorsey is likely set at nose tackle, with Williams as his backup. I did not include the safety position because I think there is some debate to be had about how likely it is that Reid slots right in at free safety. The 49ers obviously liked him, and they don't just give jobs to anybody. He will have to prove he belongs, but would it be an upset if he wasn't the starting free safety come September? I think this is one position where we might have a decent amount of disagreement, but I'm honestly not sure. I also did not include any offensive line position battles on here, because I am curious where people fall with the interior options. Jonathan Goodwin is currently the starting center, but given his cap figure, and the work the 49ers have done at center with Daniel Kilgore and Joe Looney, could we see one of them snatch the job from Goodwin by the end of August? Daniel Kilgore would appear to be the favorite for that, but are we underestimating Jonathan Goodwin's contributions? Any other position battles we should be considering? KEEP READING: 49ers salary cap news Frank Gore remains a boss Kyle Williams got good news from his doctor Marcus Lattimore loves the 49ers humility 90-in-90, 49ers roster: Parys Haralson

Yesterday, howtheyscored had an excellent post up that calculated some projections for potential QBs this coming season. If you haven't already read it, head on over right now and give it a meticulous look. It's the exact type of analysis I wish I could do with advanced statistics. Unfortunately I lack the skill, so howtheyscored can have the limelight for now. But if you ever need jokes that aren't funny or so many Magic: The Gathering references that even Francis would tell me to tone it down, then I'm your man! Anyway, I digress. The post is good and you should go check it out. But, it does raise a lot of interesting points, one of which I wish to highlight here for discussion. Howtheyscored mixed in quite a few different stats, from the traditional passing yards to the sublime, and personal favorite of mine, ANY/A. This is great. These are smart choices, especially when comparing different types of QBs across the league. We need common ways of discussing every QB. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to have really important conversations about where in the list of QBs we place Alex Smith relative to Joe Flacco. But, I find it interesting that certain QBs might be pushing the statistics barrier. Guys like Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson can do a lot of damage with their feet. Some guys even do more damage with their feet than we realize. And shouldn't that factor into the evaluation of a QB? I think Kaepernick is one of the best pure passers in the game - or at the very least he has shown the capability and the potential to be. But, his game against Green Bay was so amazing precisely because he combined great passing with transcendent rushing. Eventually, we are going to have to start talking about that when we look at QB stats. KEEP READING: Frank Gore remains a boss Kyle Williams got good news from his doctor Marcus Lattimore loves the 49ers humility 49ers salary cap news 90-in-90, 49ers roster: Parys Haralson Who goes on the 49ers Mt. Rushmore?

Good morning ladies and gents. Sorry for the confusion in the headline of yesterday's Nuggets. I've always used the term to mean "good luck," which of course, a lot of other people do. Still, I could have picked a better choice of words on that one. Kyle Williams isn't going anywhere, though I do think 2013 is probably his last chance to make an impact before the team cuts ties with him. The big news from yesterday was the suspension of Seattle Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin. I'm not in the camp of "oh well the Seahawks are a bunch of cheaters," I just happen to think that they're not very good at disguising it. If you want to call them anything, do something with that. For those who aren't aware, the Nuggets are supposed to just be quick links, especially at this point in the offseason where there's so little to talk about. I'd love to spend an hour or more each night writing them up like I used to, but right now it's either quick links or no links and I'd rather get you good folks you're links. We'll see what we can do to flesh things out once the preseason nears. Onto the links. Seatte DE Irvin suspended; 49ers' Dahl unsympathetic (Branch) Let's start the bidding: 49ers, Bay Area to learn Super Bowl fate Tuesday (Barrows) Eric Mangini -- Three thoughts on his possible hiring in San Francisco (Lynch) Michael Crabtree and stakes for 'No. 1' WR (Sando) Quinton Patton vs. D.J. Hayden highlights (Cohn) Quinton Patton got the Tavon Austin treatment (FOX Sports) His Shadow: Lattimore inspired after first meeting with Gore (Branch) Lockette: 49ers Jenkins will 'surprise a lot of people' (49ers) MT: Lattimore inspired by Gore (49ers) Dilfer: Kaepernick Changing the Environment (49ers)