SANTA CLARA – Speaking the other day about former Rams teammate Dre' Bly, 49ers wide receiver Isaac Bruce used a word seldom heard around team headquarters in recent years.
"He's a gambler on the corner," Bruce said. " … The guy will definitely take chances, and the chances that he takes – he makes plays. He always made plays."
Under former 49ers coach Mike Nolan, gambling was prohibited. Every NFL head coach wants his players to be extensions of the coaching staff. But it seemed Nolan wanted his players attached to strings that he controlled.
It's a big reason he drafted Alex Smith in 2005. Before that draft, Nolan flew to Salt Lake City to give Smith one last workout. The quarterback not only threw passes that day. Nolan also made him skip rope, play four-square, hop on one foot and roll a ball through his legs.
Why the oddball exercises? They were designed to test Smith's obedience.
"It's kind of like asking a kid to take out the garbage or make his bed," Nolan said at the time. "I don't want to hear him complaining along the way. I just want him to go do it."
On defense, Nolan stuck with Mark Roman at free safety (the quarterback of the defense) for three seasons even though Roman had only one interception during that span. Roman is not a playmaker, but he also is rarely out of position. To Nolan, that was paramount.
The new regime appears far more willing to take chances and snip the strings.
The 49ers' quarterbacks rave about their freedom in coordinator Jimmy Raye's system. This season, Shaun Hill and Smith not only will be allowed – but encouraged – to audible, another word that simply didn't exist last year under coordinator Mike Martz.
In short, players will be trusted to make plays.
Roman, for instance, has been replaced at free safety by Dashon Goldson. At age 24 and with only two career starts, Goldson is green. But he's tall (6-foot-2), instinctive and aggressive, and he's been an interception machine in 49ers practices in recent seasons.
Bly, too, is known for getting his hands on the ball, something he did impressively in Wednesday's practice when he made a fingertip catch of a wobbly 40-yard pass while getting tangled up with wide receiver Dominique Zeigler. Bly has intercepted 40 passes and forced 18 fumbles in 10 NFL seasons.
What's also nice about Bly is that he's candid. He already has admitted that he triple-underlined the 49ers' first exhibition game, Aug. 14, against his most recent team, the Broncos, and is using his February dismissal from Denver as motivation this season.
"When you bring in new coordinators, they evaluate you," Bly said of his ouster. "At the end of the day, most new coordinators are going to bring their guys in."
The new defensive coordinator in Denver? Mike Nolan.
Read Matthew Barrows' 49ers blog at www.sacbee.com/ninersblog.
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