Blogs

MT: 49ers Depth Chart Preview

The 49ers won’t reveal an official depth chart until preseason games begin in August, but Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee gave a preview of what San Francisco’s depth could look like when training camp begins.

Barrows placed fourth-year wideout Kyle Williams ahead of last year’s first-round pick A.J. Jenkins to start opposite of Anquan Boldin.

The wide receiver positions will certainly be evaluated closely all through camp. But for now, the speculation game will continue.

More 49ers headlines can be found in today’s Morning Tailgate.

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MT: Minicamp Day 3 Recap

An aerial display concluded the final day of 49ers minicamp. Colin Kaepernick completed his final five passes of camp and A.J. Jenkins turned in another standout reception.

The 49ers will return in late July for training camp. The minicamp previewed the upcoming competitions for 53 coveted spots on San Francisco’s roster.

Today’s Morning Tailgate recaps the final camp session and the standout performances.

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MT: 49ers Minicamp Preview

Starting Tuesday, the San Francisco 49ers 90-man roster will get together for three days this week for a mandatory minicamp. The three practice sessions will conclude the 2013 offseason program.

The mandatory minicamp will be open all three days for the media to learn more about the progress being made by the defending NFC Champs.

Numerous storylines will be examined.

In the passing game, the 49ers will look to identify emerging performers to showcase in 2013.

Which wide receiver is stepping up to start opposite of Anquan Boldin? Will Vernon Davis and Vance McDonald be utilized more in the passing game to account for the loss of Michael Crabtree?

How is Colin Kaepernick developing as the team’s full-time starting quarterback? Will Colt McCoy continue to solidify himself as the No. 2 signal-caller? How will Scott Tolzien and B.J. Daniels perform with their opportunities?

Then there are questions to be resolved with the team’s newcomers.

Which rookie has made the biggest leap in a short time this offseason? Will Eric Reid insert himself into the conversation to start Week 1? How is undrafted defensive lineman Lawrence Okoye performing in his first offseason playing football in his entire life?

Defensively, the 49ers appear to have less unresolved situations. But those questions will mostly be decided in training camp where physicality stands out. When the players put pads on, we’ll learn which member of the team deserves to start at nose tackle. We’ll also learn the pecking order for the team’s cornerback roles.

In the short term, the 49ers will hold three days of practice to get ready for training camp and showcase the improvements they’ve made through “Football School” workouts and Organized Team Activities.

We’ll watch it unfold and report back on 49ers.com.  Jim Harbaugh, plus coordinators Greg Roman and Vic Fangio, will all speak to the media this week. Several players will talk as well.

But until then, more 49ers headlines can be found in today’s Morning Tailgate.

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MT: Lattimore Inspired By Gore

They’ve just started working together on the 49ers practice fields, but it seems like a perfect mentoring relationship between Frank Gore and Marcus Lattimore.

San Francisco’s four-time Pro Bowl running back and fourth-round pick are hitting it off just fine at 49ers offseason workouts. Although Lattimore is taking a calculated approach in rehabbing his well-documented knee injury, the South Carolina running back has been picking up constant information from Gore, San Francisco’s all-time leading rusher.

“He’s a very detailed guy,” Lattimore said via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. “You can see why he’s so successful.”

Lattimore and the 49ers are off on Friday. The rookie running back is with a few teammates at the NFL’s Rookie Premiere event in Los Angeles.

Gore and the veterans return to work on Monday. The veteran running back did make glowing statements about the incoming rookie to 49ers.com, too.

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MT: 49ers Top NFL Team Sales

The San Francisco 49ers sold the most team gear in the National Football League last season.

That’s according to a report from NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal, who also shared the top 15 jersey sales from the 2012 season. According to Rosenthal, the NFL’s tracking of team sales showed the 49ers last finished atop the NFL’s rankings in 1979 and also finished No. 2 back in 1994 and 1995.

Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis made the top-selling jersey list at the No. 4 and No. 10 spots, respectively.

ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell also weighed in on the team’s booming merchandise sales.

“49ers sell more gear than any other NFL team this year,” Rovell wrote on Twitter. “Congrats @JedYork.”

The 49ers have made an effort to make team merchandise more accessible to fans with the creation of the 49ers Team Store in Palo Alto, Calif., plus an official Facebook account for the store that keeps fans up to date with the latest arrivals.

The team is also offering jerseys of recently acquired wide receiver Anquan Boldin.

More 49ers headlines can be found in today’s Morning Tailgate.

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Morning Tailgate: Greg Roman Profile

There’s a lot to like about San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman. I repeat, a lot.

He’s energetic, he’s thoughtful and perhaps most important of all, he knows how to put his players in position to win.

Twenty-seven victories in two seasons later, those impressive traits were recently documented by esteemed Yahoo! Sports writer Michael Silver, who wrote a solid profile on the 49ers play-caller. Silver and Roman spoke for so long over lunch recently, the 49ers coordinator’s car was impounded. Not to worry, Roman picked his car up and got back to doing what he loves.

Silver went into detail on how Roman is moving on from Super Bowl XLVII and how the game’s final sequence overshadowed a stellar season in 2012.

“The upshot is especially cruel,” Silver wrote. “Roman, the man who probably dialed up more brilliant calls than anyone in the business last season, the audacious innovator who overhauled the Niners’ offense on the fly in midseason and literally and figuratively unveiled formations that turned the football world upside down, is the guy getting blasted by half the folks who’ve ever held a Madden joystick.”

But don’t only take Silver’s words. Consider the comments from two-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Staley.

“I’ve never been around a coordinator who understands everything,” Staley told Silver. “Not just X’s and O’s and how you draw it up, but the bigger picture, too. Watching games [on tape], I find myself saying, ‘This is a perfect call here.’ It seems seamless to him. There are a lot of guys who are really smart with plays and who run creative schemes, but it’s the way you call those plays that makes all the difference. He’s great at both. He’s very innovative.”

Roman continues to find ways to make the 49ers better in 2013 and is surely eager to work with recently acquired quarterback Colt McCoy, in addition to installing more wrinkles to the hybrid offense the 49ers ran last season.

Roman can analyze the Super Bowl outcome all he wants, but in the back of his mind he knows there’s more to come from his offensive unit.

“The reality is, if you’ve got a guy who can throw the ball like [Colin Kaepernick] can and run it like he can, it eventually becomes a numbers game,” Roman told Silver. “What do you want to stop? Then we turn to something we call play-action, and it’s a huge advantage.

“So yeah, (defenses are) gonna be spending a lot of time on this. They should. This is real. And we’re just getting started.”

More 49ers headlines can be found in the Morning Tailgate.

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Morning Tailgate: Crabtree & Kap

Once Colin Kaepernick took over as the 49ers starting quarterback in Week 11, Michael Crabtree soon emerged as young signal-caller’s favorite target. By the end of the 2012 season, the duo combined for 62 connections for 891 yards and eight touchdowns in 10-plus games. Crabtree was live on the set of NFL Network on Tuesday and said he developed a quick chemistry with Kaepernick that improved throughout the year.

Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group shared comments from Crabtree on his relationship with Kaepernick. “49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree’s chemistry with Colin Kaepernick was evident well before their thrice-failed attempts at combining on a Super Bowl-winning score,” Inman wrote. “Appearing Tuesday on the NFL Network, Crabtree credited his and Kaepernick’s earlier success to practice time, their common age (25), a shared desire to make plays, and, perhaps most of all, a trust factor.”

The rest of today’s Morning Tailgate looks at the NFL Draft and the latest offseason news for the 49ers.

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Morning Tailgate: Kaepernick Hosts Camp

Ever since Colin Kaepernick took over as the 49ers starting quarterback, the NFL has had a hard time keeping up with him. But on Saturday, Kaepernick had a hard time keeping up with the 300 kids who attended his free youth football camp in Pacifica. Deke Farrow of the Modesto Bee was on hand to watch Kaepernick’s camp, which proved to be an entertaining event for all.

“Participants got autographed photographs of Kaepernick, took part in skill contests and games, and posed for pictures with the quarterback,” Farrow wrote. “But the highlight, of course, was the chance to play ball with the former Pitman High School standout who took over the starting quarterback job in the fall and led his team to the Super Bowl.”

Kaepernick has been very involved with youth in Northern California since he has joined the NFL, most notably with Camp Taylor, a central valley organization which benefits children with heart defects.

The rest of today’s Morning Tailgate looks ahead to the NFL Draft and more.

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Morning Tailgate: Nov. 28

Who’s got better linebackers than the 49ers? All-Pro NaVorro Bowman inked a five-year contract extension on Tuesday that will keep him with the 49ers until the 2018 season. Combined with the contract status of the team’s other linebackers, Aldon Smith (Signed through 2015), Patrick Willis (2016) and Ahmad Brooks (2017), it will be interesting to watch the new group during the final stages of Candlestick Park’s great history and entering the new home of the 49ers in 2014.

Kevin Kurz of CSNBayArea.com described the scene at 49ers headquarters as Bowman talked to the media after signing his extension. “The move ensures that Bowman and fellow linebacker and good friend Patrick Willis will be together through at least the 2016 season,” Kurz wrote. “In fact, Willis was among the first people Bowman gave his good news. He just couldn’t keep the secret any longer.”

Tuesday was also a noteworthy day for bad reasons, as Kendall Hunter and Kyle Williams were placed on the season-ending Injured Reserved list. Read up on all the latest 49ers new after the jump.

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49ers Place Hunter, Williams on IR

The San Francisco 49ers announced they have placed WR Kyle Williams and RB Kendall Hunter on the Injured Reserve List. The team also announced that RB Jewel Hampton has been added to the active roster from the Non-Football Injury List. The team also added WR Chad Hall to the practice squad, and waived S Eddie Whitley from that unit.

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