that's too bad about his back, but leaving with 2 super bowl rings isn't something to sneeze at. wish him the best of luck with his life outside football.

Man ... what a bummer .... I was hoping that Smith would stick around in at least a back up role, but that seems pretty unlikely now.

This sure makes the whole Crabtree debacle sting that much more. I've been hoping that Crabtree comes to his senses and accepts the Niners offer (that's completely fair for his draft status), but I have to admit, part of me hopes that he sits out the season purely for the entertainment value of seeing how far he drops in next years draft, how much less money he gets, and to see his reaction when he finally realizes what an idiotic decision he made. With economic times being so hard right now and so many good people struggling just to make ends meat, it's pretty offensive to see such greed. Personally, I'm going to find it hard to root for this guy just as I did TO. Crabtree should to look at Marvel Smith's situation .... Pro Bowl caliber player in his prime ... get's injured ... career is done. Dude should appreciate what he has while he has it.

It opens the door for Alex Boone. He has been pretty stable so far. I hope Sing really has his foot on him. Boone should get tons of PT so we can figure out if he is the real deal. I am not comfortable with Simms

Too bad! He looked good when he got into the games and was reportedly doing well at practice(when he did practice). Perhaps he will reconsider but it doesn't look good.

And Crabs will be in camp sooner or later and we will all be just as glad to have him as we were when the miracle happened and Al Davis picked hands of stone instead of the possible future yearly pro bowler.
Why fans are taking this holdout so hard is beyond me. This is strictly business and it is just between Crabs and his agent and the team.
If he plays nearly as well as he did in college,nobody,I repeat,NOBODY, will care that he held out back in 2009.

Ughhh, Sing just announced that Sims will be starting. Dallas is going to stack the right side up all night with D-Ware and Co., so we all better pray for Shaun Hill's health (cause that's Shaun's blind-side).

Hopefully Sing throws Boone in to prove himself once it becomes clear enough that Vernon Davis will be stuck blocking the entire night for Sims, limiting our passing options.

In fact, Boone needs to really step up and separate himself tomorrow, cause we REALLY need depth at RT. Snyder looks very promising (and exciting), but he still struggles to stay healthy during an entire 16-game-stretch.

Oh Oher, where art thou?

The worst thing right now is that Sims is starting while Snyder is out. Maybe Hill should have not healed so fast from his back strain?lol.
We simply must pick up someone in the next 2 weeks from other teams cuts,to replace Sims. Or maybe Alex smith can play RT,lol.He sure had a great block last week !
-----------------------------
And lets remember that many players hold out,its not THAT big a deal. Even sing held out 2 different times and he is as old school as it gets. Crabs will be signed,sooner or later(oops,it's already later).

Bummer! Michael Oher is starting as a rookie RT for the Ravens. I still agree with taking Crabtree. Sign him Jed

I predict a Levi Jones signing by Monday.

Oh,just to remind you all why we were so overjoyed to get Crabtree(and didn't go for Oher,who was only second half of the 1st round talent) in the draft.
Crabs was I believe the only WR to ever win the award for being the BEST WR in college football two times. Think about it,out of thousands of college WR's all over the Nation,Crabs was THE best WR in the entire Country,not once but twice. And As I said ,I think he was the ONLY WR in college football HISTORY to EVER do that.
If that is the case,no wonder he and his agent believe he was the best talent in the entire draft,because he clearly was. Too bad about his bad luck that his foot was injured and he couldn't run at the combine etc.,and he isn't going to get paid like the best college player in the draft.
Correct me if I am wrong,but I believe I have heard that stated several times about him being the only WR to ever win the award twice.
We clearly got the best player in the draft,and he will sign.It would have been foolish to pick Oher over Crabs .

Short Memories, Boone was considered a first rounder last year at this time...I love this kids up side. He could be the steal of the draft. He is a beast!! Turn him loose tomorrow and let see what happens..

I'd like Smith to play just for depth reasons, but I understand his decision. If his contract is based on incentives and he is not going to start; He most likely won't get those incentive anyway. No need for him to risk further injury for not that much money.

So much for my Captain Marvel avatar.

Boone was considered a 1st rounder at this time last year ! So was Nate Davis ! Maybe Scotty knows what he is doing !
Hopefully they both live up to their standing of last year !

For a team who had improving our offensive line as a top priority AND we know we want to dominate via the run, we sure did a crappy job improving the o-line. Even if Smith was not retiring, the chance he would have played more than half of the games this season looks very slim. And acquiring him was our only o-line move this off season. Grade for the goal of improving the o-line: D+

I'd just like to ask you guys what you think of that ass Jerry Jones having his score board over the center of his stadium built too low for punts?
Now the NFL has to make a special rule for punts that hit this guy's score board!
I hate this guy and his team! But I love seeing him looking like an ass in front of the whole NFL! Just like his team last year!
This guy loves to come down to the sideline late in the games to get his ugly puss on TV! I wonder if they'll fine him for being an ass? Or would the NFL have to make a new rule for that?

Oh I get ya, Terry. -If non-Cowboy fans didn't have a reason to hate the Cowgirls enough, that stadium and its scoreboard is enough to make you wanna puke, yet alone punch a Cowboys fan in the face!

It's a 2 billion dollar crypt!

Terry, I think Jerry Jones belongs in prison for building shoddy, dangerous structures that injure players, interfere with the play on the field, and destroy the integrity of the game.

His giant television is a horrible eyesore. How dare he be angry at the punter for hitting his precious television screen? He should be fined one million dollars every single time a ball hits that atrocity, and the Cowboys should get the ball at their own 2 yard line as punishment.

If I was Andy Reid or another rival, I'd have my punters try to hit that thing every single time, four or five times in a row, just to waste time and show how stupid and ridiculous Jerry Jones' EgoDome is.

Fifteen minutes straight of do-over punts would infuriate the TV networks. Then the NFL would force the Cowturds to waste money raising their stupid TV out of the way or get rid of it altogether. And Jerry Jones would cry hideous tears on his twisted old face.

God I hate the $#%*% Cowboys.

Amen.

hey matt,

will you be on the field before the game, i am a diehard niner fan who will be at the game on sat in lower bowl and would like to meet you.

Aaron Rogers with like 3 or 4 big passes and 31 points in the FIRST HALF against the Cards starting defense.

Tells me two things: 1) the Cards D doesn't appear to be where it was last year or at least their starters are not showing the same play as they have, and 2) Man did we get ripped off in that garbage 05 draft. We get Alex "The Bust" Smith(who shouldve never been drafted that high at all), and Green Bay sits and waits and gets the real QB in that draft in Rogers. What a joke. I can't wait till Smith is cut from this team so I can stop looking at his pathetic ass on the sideline and reminding myself how bad we got cornholed on that loser.

Also worth noting....the Green Bay defense, which JUST switched to a 3-4 this year under Capers, looks aggressive, nasty, and ball-hawkish with tons of pressure, light years ahead of anything I've seen from the niner 3-4 which has been in effect for 4 years now. Guess we'll see how that plays out, but it makes a difference when you draft well and hire very good coaches like Capers, you can actually look like a real defense in short time, not like our 5 year fiasco project that still is nowhere near complete.

Oh, add another TD for Rogers against the Cards starting D. Good job, Nolan....you're gone now and still ruining our team.

Hi Matt, Marvel Smith was too much of a reach with his injury history. The brain trust made a poor decesion on this one. You sign a nine year vet with a bad back who has been injured for two years. The word coming out of Cleveland was that Crabtree would be a problem. At this point in time two bad business decesions. Will Snyder produce at right tackle, his past history says no but we hope yes. We know what Sims brings to the table. I'm really tired of splitting the first two games then going on a long losing streak. The Cowboy game will give us a good indication of what to expect.

Hey TOP_CAT, It does NOT matter how good a WR is or was or could be. You get drafted number 10 you can't expect to be paid in the top 5. Tim Tebow is doing more for his team than Bradford, yet Tebow will probably not be picked in the top 15, he cannot expect to be paid more than the top 1 or 2 QB's in the draft who may go in the top 5! His agent cannot come out and say Tebow won so many Heismans and so many National Championships.
That's like Alex Boone saying "well last year I should've been a first rounder so pay me like a first rounder." It's ridiculous!

And let's stop wasting time with the whole "we should've could've would've" talk. We DID NOT draft Aaron Rogers so forget about him.

Yes we should've drafted Oher (we would have been safe at both Tackle positions for 10 years! Hopefully next year Scotty will realize that. If you have a solid line your QB's can do so much more, your receivers can do so much more. If Crabs takes 4 steps before our QB gets sacked then even Crabs, with 2 big awards or whatever, won't be able to save this year.

Not good but not the end of the world either. It will be interesting to see what we do. I echo the uncomfortable sentiment regarding Simms. When will Boone make his appearance Saturday? I hope it is against their ones.

"Jerry Jones' EgoDome" - classic!

Bummer about M. Smith. At 31, it's a friggin drag having a bad back, so I certainly can't hold it against him for retiring. He's got his whole life ahead of him, I'm sure he wants to be able to chase his kids around, etc. Get well man! As for the remaining O-line, it will be a bummer against Dallas w/out out starting RT, but maybe this Boone kid will step up and kick a$$. Hopefully Singletary will let him have some time against the Cowgirls' first team. I gotta say, I'm fired up about this game. I HATE the freakin' Cowgirls. C'mon Manny, put that feeb Romo on his backside!!!

It's completely unrealistic to expect Boone to fill Marvel's shoes this year.We must snag a seasoned vet as capable as Smith at both RT and LT.It doesn't make sense to speak of smashmouth football without having quality o-line depth .

I've got a NFL Ticket!

Hey Matt, when and if you get time could you do a list of potential or likely RT cuts from around the league? Thanks.

Watching the replay of the GB/Arizona game right now, Rogers looks really good. Sigh.

I started to doubt McCloughan after he didn't draft a tackle in last year's tackle-rich draft class. After he passed again this year - when our need was even greater - it left no doubt that McCloughan really belongs with the Yorks. They can be happy in their glossy ineptitude.

I'm just a random schmuck, but my mock drafts for the past couple years have actually surpassed McCloughan's drafts by a mile. That's sad.

I completely agree, especially since I don't believe that Boone is very NFL ready when it comes to, gasp, pass protection. Of course, I am none too impressed with Simms in that regard either.

The 49ers need to sign a OL for depth. ASAP.

Also for the upteenth time, Crabtree WILL sign -- just before the end of preseason. It won't be the first time a draftee waited that long to sign, and it won't be the last.

I am hoping for Alex Boone, but his probable pass protection abilities in the NFL against strength and quickness is why he was undrafted. His off field problems played a part, but if he excelled at pass blocking he would have been a high choice anyway.

Maybe he will prove everyone wrong. He does have athletic skills.

Gothwolfe: Yep,McGloughan belongs with Jed York and with Singletary,they all belong with the 49ers and we are lucky to have all 3 !!!

And anyone who thinks we should have passed on what was perhaps the best player in college football the last 2 years (Crabs)and drafted a late 1st or early 2nd round O lineman like Oher,just because we need another O lineman ,doesn't know much about how successful teams do their drafts.Good teams don't draft only for need,they draft the best player available. on a scale of 1-10 Crabtree is a 12 and Oher (the best lineman available to us instead of Crabs) was about a 7. McGloughan would have been laughed at around the League (like al Davis was ) if he passed on Crabtree when he was lucky enough to have him fall into his lap.
And it is sad that you actually think you can draft better than a life long NFL veteran like Scotty,LOL. Get real. McGloughan is thought of around the League by people like Ron Wolfe and Mike Holmgren and Bill Parcells as an up and coming star executive in the League. Send in your resume and see if you get hired by any of those guys ,lol.

LOL great tag name-I bloody hate em' too! EGODOME(House of Mammon) somehow takes on a life of its own. Truthpeddler you can bet the waiver line is being scrutinized- but decent RT tackles aren't easy to come by. We will be running the ball tonight so Boone should fair well. PS F49er I owe you an apology for snapping at you (as I mentioned later my dog was diagnosed with Lymphoma that day and I was mad at the world I guess!).Here's hoping we slap some Barbary Coast Voodoo on the Girls today.GO Niners!

alexito | August 28, 2009 9:32 PM | Reply
Hey TOP_CAT, It does NOT matter how good a WR is or was or could be. You get drafted number 10 you can't expect to be paid in the top 5.
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Of course,we all know that. Crabtree's agent knows that and the Niners know that. That is why he will be paid with top 10 money and not even top 9 money. As I have alwways said,Crabs will sign and the Niners will not give in and pay him top 5 money,not even top 7 money,like Bey . Who around here were you thinking was advocating paying him anything but # 10 money? Not me.
But he is a great player and we should all be glad he fell to us at #10. We were very lucky ! In the next 10 years you will be glad too !
And we have a fine O line this year.But we do need to pick up someone for depth when a good backup is cut by someone in the next 2 weeks.
Sims won't be good enough,not if we want to have any qB's still on their feet ,if one of the starting tackles can't go.

And just to finish up,if we had drafted an O lineman like Oher with the 1st pick,then just as many people or maybe more,would have been crying that we should have drafted a pass rusher,something we may have needed more than an O lineman. But when Crabs was there all that went out the window and the decision was made for us . There was never even any question about who was going to be or who should be drafted. It was like deciding between 3 offers on your house,one guy offers you $300,000 and another person offers you $ 300,500 and the 3rd person offers you $800,000. And some of you guys seem to be saying,we should have taken the $300,000 or the $300,500,LOL !
I have read that Crabs is the only player in college football history to win the award twice,for being the best WR in the Nation.TWICE !!! Out of how many thousand WR's that play college football every year ? Come on man,get real,that is something special.

Hightop: I would have bet that with hill starting against Dallas that we would have come out passing more than running. We have shown other teams(Arizona) that we can run,now we need to show that our first unit can also pass at will. But without Snyder or Smith at RT,I fear for the life of Hill if Sims is there,so we may go to mostly runs again . But I bet if Snyder or Smith were playing,it would have been more passing than most people thought.Hill need to get his timing down with his receivers and Raye needs to show Arizona that they need to defend both run and pass. Oh well,we might just need to spring it on them in week one,while they are thinking they can just put 8 or 9 in the box and stop us ,lol !

My response to that TOP_CAT is that in your original post and the reason for my first post is that you mention that his agent undoubtedly thinks Crabs deserves to be paid better than number 10 because he was the best player in the draft (and that in itself is open to interpretation). What I was saying is that it does NOT matter if he was the best player in the draft, it does NOT matter if he won whatever award 10 times. It does NOT matter what his agent thinks in regards to getting paid. None of those things matter if you get picked 10 and not 3 or 4 or 5. You get paid like a 10.

TOP_CAT I think we're on the same wavelenght, I was just pointing to a different aspect of your comment.

And I was always for getting Crabs, I was on a plane from San Diego to Tucson when the 10th pick came around, when I landed first thing I did was to check my phone for my buddy who was gonna text me and I kept praying Crabs was still on the board for us.

I'll definitely take the $800K home as well.

Top Cat-I agree ,the injuries will affect the balance of pass to run ratios in this(preseason) game. Although power running game will be affected at right tackle ,I'm confidant Boone will show well there,the pass protection aspect of his game is what has been called to question.I like the Big Lug and hope to see him consistently improve in that aspect of his game.I'm curious to see how Nate Davis(the whole squad for that matter) fairs against Dallas in the EGODOME!

Alexito: I agree and have always agreed and stated several times,that Crabs should and will only get #10 money. We fully agree on that!

I just read that it is official, Smith has retired.(no not alex,lol). Sing had a statement this morning.

Sing said this morning...

"I would like to thank Marvel for his service to the 49ers organization over the last several months. Marvel and I have spoken, and I know that this was not a decision he took lightly. We appreciate that he came to us when he did with this decision, and wish him well in the next chapter of his life."

Hightop: I am a great Nate"the great"Davis fan. But even I think he will probably struggle against the Dallas pass rush and defense. But it's all good,he needs to be exposed to the best,so he can learn. The sooner the better!

... I am just afraid that davis might be the only QB left on our roster by the time that open gate Sims is through.

Maybe we should put in Robinson at QB? How great would that be,have Robinson play QB and have a direct snap to Gore,and have robinson run over and knock out the Cowpies defensive end,instead of the other way around. Hey,I think I solved tonights problem,somebody call Jimmy Raye and tell him !!! After Robinson knocks out all the Dallas pass rushers,then put Hill in !!! LOL

Let's hope the Niners don't repeat the pattern of the past several seasons:

[i] a few plucky wins early (within the first 4 or 5 games)
followed by
[ii] pancaking/flatlining/collapsing in October, November
followed by
[iii] "false hope" garbage time wins in December.

Seriously, that has been the pattern.

Also, why did we draft a WR again? The problem last year was with the defense not getting the opposing offense off of the field. I recall two games where the opposing offense had the ball for long drives that consumed nearly entire quarters.

Ender: We have a hard schedule right away but it gets easier after the first part of the year.
And we drafted a WR because he was the best player in the draft and he fell,like a gift from Heaven,right into our laps. They were ready to draft one out of of a few good players they had on their board,but when the miracle happened and Crabs was still there at #10,they all just looked at each other and laughed with joy and sent in the card to the Commish !!! McGloughan is very good,but he was even more lucky than good on draft day (with crabs and then even a Franchise QB dropping to him in the 5th round !!!).

TopCat, the scrap heap is littered with players who looked like worl beaters in college, and did nothing at all in the NFL. Who was that running back in the 1970s who won 2 Heisman trophies and went on to have a completely unnoteworthy NFL career? Exactly...."who". And that is 2 HEISMANS. I am saying that Crabtree will bust, but let's not fall all over ourselves proclaiming him as the second coming just yet. We need to see how he can compete on the football field at the NFL level...and for starters he has shown himself to be a bit of a headcase and prima dona. Threats of sitting out the entire season if his ridiculous demands aren't met show a tremendous lack of insight.

That should read "I am not saying Crabtree will bust"....but ifhe ends up sitting out the entire year and being drafted by another team, it is a lock that he will...