49ersNews.com

Tito, hand me a tissue…

Here is the video of Super Bowl XVI. 49ers vs Bengals. It is a seven part series. Follow the read more link for the remainder parts…

Update: 06.30.06 – It’s official the Niners have signed Rouen and waived Tom Malone.
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Andy Lee is not going to take this well. Profootballtalk.com is reporting that a league source is telling them that the Niners have agreed to terms with veteran punter Tom Rouen. The announcement is supposed to come later today.

According to a person who attended that charity basketball game between the 49ers and Raiders on June 17, injured 49ers receiver Derrick Hamilton wasn’t exactly running the floor and playing with the intensity of Michael Jordan. “It wasn’t ‘Hoop Dreams’ out there,” a witness said.

Still, coach Mike Nolan said he knew nothing about Hamilton playing basketball just one day after the 49ers’ off-season practice program had concluded. Hamilton was not cleared to take part in 11-on-11 drills.

“Usually if a guy is not cleared, they have a policy to keep them from doing things like a basketball game,” a 49ers spokesman said. Nolan said in the future he will make sure the club’s policy is communicated properly.

[Full Story] – Matt Maiocco
[Hamilton Healthy for Hoops, but not OTA’s] – 49ersNews

Brooks’ stock rising: Ahmad Brooks, the Virginia linebacker eligible for the July 13 supplemental draft, needs to make a good visit with the 49ers. The 49ers were the first team to schedule a visit after last Thursday’s workout. Brooks improved his stock by running in the 4.6 range and getting his weight to 260 pounds, 32 fewer than his weight 10 weeks ago. The 49ers need an impact linebacker on the other side of Manny Lawson, but Brooks has more experience in the system, coming from Al Groh’s 3-4 scheme at Virginia. The debate is whether the 49ers can steal him with a fifth-round pick or if they have to use a second-round pick.

Source: [John Clayton]

ESPN is doing what they call the ‘Ultimate NFL Depth Chart’ where they rank all NFL teams. The overall rankings will be aired on Friday’s Sportscenter. We’ll save you some time and list some of the rankings they gave the 49ers.

Quarterbacks: 31 out of 32. Only ahead of the Browns. Of course if the trade of Dorsey for Dilfer didn’t go through, I’m sure they’d have the Niners at 32.

Runningbacks: 32 out of 32. The Niners were ranked 17th in rushing offense in the league last season, this with the likes of Anthony Clement on the line. No way the Niners are worse than the Jets, Lions, Raiders, Browns just to name a few.
 
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: 32 out of 32.

Defense: Rushing D – 20 out of 32. Passing D – 22 out of 32.

[Rankings Courtesy of Matt Maiocco]

The first odds of the season have been released. The opening game line between the 49ers and the Cardinals, have the Cardinals favored by 7 1/2. The over/under is set at 40.

A short clip of a KNBR interview with Manny Lawson, and a quick tour of the Niners lockerroom.

Matthew Barrows, of the Sacramento Bee, reports that WR Derrick Hamilton (knee) recently participated in the team’s charity basketball game against the Oakland Raiders.

He sat out all three weeks of the 49ers’ recent organized team activities because of a lingering knee injury, but he seemed to have no problem staggering opponents with crossover dribbles.

He even had an impressive dunk late in the second half. Before tearing an anterior cruciate knee ligament 13 months ago, Hamilton was the No. 3 receiver on the depth chart. During training camp this year, he’ll be fighting for a roster spot.

Okay well it may not be “Five” reasons, it may be more. I’m sure most Niner fans have read the article from Real Football 365 recently titled: Five reasons the 49ers will not be .500 in ‘06. The article didn’t seem to sit to well with Niner fans, not because we have Super Bowl aspirations, but because the reasons the writer gave were pure crap. A couple of our staff writers decided to counter Mr. Krupka’s article. Here is what Vini Chopra and Matt Gagnon had to say:

Vini Chopra
I don’t claim to be a homer fan of the 49ers by any means. If any of the readers have seen some of my posts and previous articles I tend to point out the negatives and ride the wave of caution when speaking about this developing team. However, every once in a while a so-called sports writer comes along that is so amateurish in his/her allegations that one must wonder if this said person watches the game of football at all. Eric Krupka, I hate to do this to you, but I read your recent article about five reasons why the 49ers will not finish over .500, and I had a laugh.

First, let me be clear. I do not, even for a moment, believe that the San Francisco 49ers will finish over .500 (better than 8-8) in the 2006 season. At least not in any confident sense. I believe that a 6-10 finish is more likely. But there are reasons for making claims to these kinds of predictions that follow streams of logic and demonstrate that one pays attention to the NFL. Krupka’s reasoning constantly falls somewhere between lofty and absurd. Here are a few examples:

However, the team remains a couple of years away from jumping from the pits of damnation to the upper stretches of the NFL stratosphere. But enough with the talk.

Let’s start here. The team is a COUPLE YEARS away from “jumping from the pits of damnation” ? I do not know what kind of patience Mr. Krupka displays, but a couple years is a long period of time. It typically takes a team 3 years to rebuild, and cycles in the NFL come in a 3 year dose unless you are the Patriots. Nolan began to rebuild this team in 2005 with the selection of Alex Smith. In 2006 we have made further strides by acquiring the likes of Vernon Davis, Manny Lawson, and Antonio Bryant. The fact is that the 49ers do not have a “couple years” to crawl out of the depths of mediocrity. They have, at most, another two years and a lot of free salary cap to ensure that by 2007 they are competing for something greater than just .500. So a couple years? I don’t think so. Not unless a new regime takes over.

Update: 2:27 pm—Seems the reports from Georgatos may be a smoke screen. Here is a tidbit from NFL.com on Brooks workout:

Mike Nolan from the 49ers was the only head coach there. He was joined by San Francisco VP of player personnel Scot McCloughan. Brooks will work out for the 49ers at their place for two days next week.

Brooks lost 32 pounds in 10 weeks (he was measured at 6-foot-3, 260 pounds) and passed five drug tests in the last 10 weeks. He ran three times, timed at 4.68, 4.75 and 4.74 in the 40, with 10-yard splits of 1.53, 1.58 and 1.58 and 20-yard splits of 2.73, 2.75 and 2.75. His arm span measured 33½ inches and his hands measured 9½. He had a 32-inch vertical jump, a 9-foot-8 long jump, a 4.43 short shuttle, an 11.84 long shuttle, a 7.43 three-cone drill and 19 benches. The conditions were not really good, just average.

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On Saturday the Sacramento Bee reported that Ahmed Brooks was set to visit the 49ers after June 28th, and take a physical. Which at the time seemed to say the Niners were showing strong interest in possibly drafting Brooks in the Supplemental Draft. Now it appears that the interest in Brooks may be starting to fade.

Dennis Georgatos of the Mercury News is now reporting that the 49ers’ interest has dampened in using a pick in the supplementary draft on Brooks or any other player. Dennis mentions that Scot McCloughan, says the 49ers want to hang onto their picks for next April’s draft. And that the 49ers have decided the risk versus reward is too high for them in the supplementary draft.

Q: How long do you think it will take to get the offense to click? Will this be a season focused on development, learning and studying, cementing the gains and building for the future, or do you expect to achieve all your goals on offense in a single year? – Cris Watkins

A: I would expect us to be good early. I think one of the keys obviously is finding out what our guys do best and let them do it, and then obviously you want to build on that. This group is very, very young and they have a lot of room to grow in many different areas.

Q: What is the transition like, going from being the Oakland Raiders head coach to the Niners offensive coordinator? What do you for see and the easiest and the hardest part of your transition? – Jimmy Reese (and his mom and dad)

A: The transition is not a problem. I don’t see anything being hard about it. Wherever I’ve been, I’ve been very involved in the offense so that part is not a lot different. Really it is easier not having to be involved with all the issues you are involved in when you are the head coach, so you are able to have a little more fun. For my family, it was also easier because they didn’t have to relocate!

[Full Q & A] – 49ers.com

The San Francisco 49ers announced Monday that they have signed fifth-round draft pick Parys Haralson.

Haralson (6-0, 250) played defensive end at Tennessee, but has moved to outside linebacker in San Francisco’s 3-4 defense.

“Mrs. Smith, I would just like to apologize right now because when your son calls and tells you that someone is just harassing him and chasing him down at practice, that’s going to be me. Because I’ll be lining up and I’ll be running off the ball and coming after him.”

Matt Maiocco, of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, reports free agent CB Ahmed Plummer (49ers) has retired from the NFL.

Good call on this one Donahue….(shakes head)