49ers Blog and Q&A

When Jim Harbaugh said on KNBR yesterday that Michael Crabtree has the "best hands I've ever seen," I was reminded of last offseason when Harbaugh said Alex Smith was a "very accurate passer." Or when he said Smith was an "elite" quarterback. Or when he insisted Smith deserved a spot in the Pro Bowl.

Not only does Harbaugh always back his players publicly, he pumps up the players that are in need of a little inflating. Last year that was Smith, who had been kicked around like no other 49er in the last quarter century but who responded with the best season of his career.

This year Crabtree may be getting the same kind of treatment. Crabtree hasn't been a bust in San Francisco. But he certainly hasn't lived up to his draft status - no. 10 overall - nor has he come close to being someone deserving of being paid as a Top 5 pick, which was Crabtree's stance during his loooooonnnnng contract impasse in 2009.

To this point, Crabtree has not shown elite hands. He ended the 2009 season as one of the league leaders in dropped passes, according to STATS LLC, despite playing an abbreviated season. He and Smith were notoriously out of sync in the beginning of the 2010 season, which led to a rash of interceptions. Some were Smith's fault. Others glanced off of Crabtree's hands into the arms of defenders.

Part of Aldon Smith's offseason routine has involved locking himself in a room and going over his rookie game film. He's not searching for the highlights -- the 14 sacks and two forced fumbles he had in the regular season. Instead he's looking for the ones that got away.

"Some games I didn't think I did as well in. There were some games that, in my mind, I could have been more productive in," he said this week. "I'm watching all the times I didn't get there and trying to better myself. I'm watching moves I could have done, things I need to improve on."

Fourteen is an impressive sack total. It's the highest for an NFL rookie since 1999 and the most ever for a 49ers rookie. But it becomes more remarkable when you consider that Smith didn't get a single sack until Week 4 when he had 1 ½ against perhaps the most slippery quarterback in the league, Philadelphia's Michael Vick.

Smith said he simply became more comfortable with the 49ers defense -- which he only began learning in August - and the coaches, in turn, became more comfortable with him. As a result his playing time increased in Philadelphia.

Aldon Smith says the 49ers were not targeting Ben Roethlisberger's sore left ankle in the Dec. 19 game against the Steelers as the Pittsburgh quarterback suggested last week.

While discussing the Saints bounty scandal, Roethlisberger was asked by radio host Dan Patrick whether he ever felt targeted. "Um wow -- that's tough," Roethlisberger said. "I don't really complain about that stuff, either. But I think when we played San Fran, I felt like there were some things going on, some extra . . . Now, obviously, I did have the ankle (injury) and I was playing, so there was kind of a bull's-eye on there anyway. But for the most part, guys play tough and you go into a game expecting it. I expect to be tougher than them."

Smith was Roethlisberger's main tormentor in that game. He had 2 ½ sacks - his highest total of the season - against the Steelers quarterback, whose mobility was severely restricted by a high-ankle sprain. Another Smith sack was wiped away because of an illegal contact penalty down the field.

"Our goal was to win the game," Smith said. "We don't go out and talk about hurting other players, their ankles or injuries or any of that. We were going out to win the game. The quarterback, he controls the game. So if he got hit, it happens."

For the record, the 49ers defense was penalized three times in that game. Ray McDonald was flagged for encroachment, there was the five-yard illegal contact penalty and NaVorro Bowman was penalized for a false start.

ESPN's Mike Sando reviewed every Steelers offensive snap in that game and concluded there was nothing suspicious about any of the 49ers' hits on Roethlisberger.

-- Matt Barrows

When Trent Baalke said last month that he hoped seventh-round pick Cam Johnson would arrive with a chip on his shoulder, the message likely was aimed not at the reporters in the room but at Johnson. The outside linebacker is known to be a bit detached and dispassionate, and Baalke already may have been trying to light the proverbial fire beneath him.

That's not an issue for Trenton Robinson, who is at a full boil as soon as he wakes. I recently asked Robinson whether he arrives in the NFL with a chip on his shoulder. Before I could get the question out, a smile formed on his face. "I don't want to go into it too deep as far as how I feel," he said. "But I do have a chip on my shoulder, and I'll be ready to go."

There are a lot of things contributing to Robinson's chip. For one, he fell to the sixth round despite being a team captain and a first-team All-Big 10 selection in 2011. He's also small - 5-9, 193 pounds - and his stature always has been questioned.

Robinson says he plays as if he's 6-10: "It's in me," he said. "Off the field I'm fun and all that stuff. But on the field, you've got to have another guy. You can't be out on the field being nice. It's a rough, physical game. And I know that and I love that. ... Just nasty. You've got to be out there, you've got to hit and do all the stuff you can't do when you're walking around."

Dashon Goldson has no plans to sign his franchise tag tender any time soon, and that's not necessarily a bad thing for the 49ers. Sure, there's something to be said for having all 11 defensive starters on hand for offseason workouts, the camaraderie, the cohesion, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But Goldson wasn't around last year, either. In fact, he didn't join the team until a week and half into training camp. The result: he finished tied for the team lead in interceptions (including a big one against the Saints in the playoffs), went to his first Pro Bowl and had the best season of his career. That is, he's shown a full offseason is not a prerequisite for a good year.

Furthermore, Goldson's absence gives the younger players more exposure. As of now, C.J. Spillman is filling in at free safety when the first-team defense takes the field. The 49ers signed Spillman to a three-year extension this offseason. Spillman may be the most physically gifted of all of the team's safeties - he's certainly one of the more aggressive - but he lacks experience.

Newcomers Mark LeGree and Trenton Robinson, a sixth-round draft pick, also get a bit more action with Goldson's absence.

Fellow safety Donte Whitner wasn't wrong last week when he said Goldson would be in the Bay Area this week. Goldson, according to a source, was here over the weekend visiting his family, who live in the Bay Area. Goldson is currently in South Florida.

If he signs his franchise tender, he will make $6.2 million in 2012, which is more than he's made his first five years in the league. The 49ers, however, also would have the option of franchising him next year.

-- Matt Barrows

Too big and too stiff to play outside linebacker. That was the rap on Cam Johnson entering the draft. Everyone thought the Virginia defensive end had talent. One of the critiques was that at 6-4, 268 pounds, he wasn't the prototypical outside linebackers 3-4 teams were seeking.

The 49ers, however, don't look for prototypical outside linebackers. If you think back to last year, you might recall that there were a lot of positive reviews about Aldon Smith, but that most observers thought he was too linear and too stiff to be an effective linebacker in the NFL.

Indeed, general manager Trent Baalke has intimated that, given the option to take Von Miller, who is a prototypical 3-4 outside linebacker, who won defensive rookie of the year and who was taken No. 3 overall in 2011, he still would have gone with Smith, who was taken seventh overall. That is, Smith and Johnson fit the 49ers' unique mold for outside linebackers.

Johnson wasn't selected until the end of the seventh round. But he's bound to receive a lot more attention this offseason than a typical seventh-round pick given the flashes of ability he showed at Virginia and the recent ACL injury that is likely to end the season for fellow rookie outside linebacker Darius Fleming.

The question is why Johnson, who led the Cavaliers in sacks and tackles for loss the last two years and who had a strong Senior Bowl and combine, fell so far in the draft. Last year, his college coach, Mike London, told reporters that Johnson had shown a trait for sickle cell anemia and suggested that that was sapping his stamina.

The 49ers took two outside linebackers in last month's draft, and today they're thanking their lucky stars they did just that. One of those linebackers, Notre Dame's Darius Fleming, tore his ACL on Friday, his agent and the team confirmed today. That news was first reported by NFL.com's Ian Rapoport.

Fleming was injured early in Friday's rookie minicamp practice, an injury that originally appeared to be to his hamstring. That was the only day of the three-day camp that was open to the media. Immediately after that session, Fleming told reporters the injury wasn't severe and that he planned to get back on the field that weekend.

He was on his feet -- albeit moving slowly -- during both the morning and afternoon practices Friday. "He tried to shake it off and practice, but there was a stability issue," agent Andy Simms said. A subsequent MRI revealed the tear.

The 49ers have not commented on what they plan to do with Fleming, although an ACL injury likely would prompt them to eventually place the rookie on injured reserve or perhaps the physically unable to perform list. Simms said no other ligaments were damaged, which is good news as far as the recovery.

"There's some hope that if he works hard it could be November (when Fleming returns)," Simms said. "That's obviously optimistic, so we'll see. But they're keeping all possibilities open right now."

The 49ers used two picks at outside linebacker because they only had three players at that position on the roster last year - starters Ahmad Brooks and Parys Haralson as well as then-rookie Aldon Smith, who spent most of the season as a defensive end. The presumed starters this year are Brooks and Smith.

The team took Fleming in the fifth round and then Cam Johnson of Virginia in the seventh round. Johnson played through a knee injury last year and was not as consistent as NFL teams would have liked. That inconsistency - and not because he has a trait for sickle-cell anemia - is why he fell in the draft.

However, he also has flashed ability that prompted the 49ers to take him with their final pick. He has the size - 267 pounds - and the run-stopping ability the 49ers prefer at that position. In addition, the team on Monday signed tryout player Eric Bakhtiari, who also is an outside linebacker. Undrafted rookie Kourtnei Brown, who played defensive end exclusively at Clemson, also is on the roster.

Fleming signed a four-year deal the day before the injury occurred.

-- Matt Barrows

I've just returned from a very cool brainstorming session regarding the 49ers hall of fame, which will be part of the new stadium. The groups heading up the operation, Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. and Cortina Productions, have the skeleton of the structure mapped out. What they're trying to do now is put the meat on those bones.

That's where we came in. The group invited several reporters to sit down and talk about everything from great moments in 49ers history to very broad ideas of what the team symbolizes to components we think should be part of the hall of fame. A reoccurring theme with us was that while The Catch is undisputedly the iconic moment for the team, there are 35 years of history prior to that that should not be forgotten.

The plans are ambitious, both from a content and a timeline standpoint. (The stadium is set to open two years from now). One of the tenets of the new stadium is cutting-edge technology. The hall-of-fame groups want to marry that techno-savvy with the franchise's past, which may seem like opposing ideas but which also promises to make it a very cool project.

For example, how would you like a virtual reality experience of exiting the locker room, walking through the narrow, moldy tunnels beneath Candlestick and then emerging onto the field in front of 68,000 screaming fans? (Think: "Avatar" meets "Any Given Sunday.")

As reported earlier today, the 49ers signed outside linebacker Eric Bakhtiari, who played under Jim Harbaugh at the University of San Diego. The team also signed another former Torero, defensive back Ben Hannula. Both attended the team's recent rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.

Hannula entered the league in 2010 as an undrafted free agent with the Giants. He spent time on New York's practice squad that year. He also played with the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League (2010-11).

To make room, the 49ers released another former San Diego player, receiver John Matthews and Harvard tackle Kevin Murphy, who was one of the undrafted free agents the team added following the draft. Matthews spent most of the 2011 season on the 49ers' practice squad.

-- Matt Barrows

Linebacker Eric Bakhtiari, who took part in the 49ers rookie minicamp on a tryout basis, will be offered a contract by the team, his agent said Monday. Bakhtiari played under Jim Harbaugh at the University of San Diego, and he also spent time on the 49ers' practice squad in 2009.

Bakhtiari, who is 6-3, 250 pounds and who is from Burlingame/San Mateo, has bounced among several NFL teams over the last few years, and he played three games for the Titans in 2009. That experience appeared to give him an advantage among the rookies in Friday's practices, and he looked comfortable and assignment-sound on the field. He also took advantage of hamstring injuries suffered by rookie outside linebackers Darius Fleming and Kourtnei Brown.

The 49ers were at the 90-man allotment for the offseason, meaning that any tryout players they sign will have to be offset by cutting other players.

-- Matt Barrows