Anthony Davis walking away from the 49ers once again?

Saturday afternoon, the San Francisco 49ers released their Week 1 practice report which listed starting right guard Anthony Davis as “questionable” due to non-injury-related reasons.

A few minutes later, the San Jose Mercury News reported Davis is considering retiring once again. Davis retired last June and returned to the team this August.

Just now, Pro Football Talk reported that Davis is not considering retirement, but also suggested Davis may be trying to get the 49ers to release him. Because if they release him, Davis would get to keep his signing bonus. But if he retires, he would have to pay a portion back to the team.

What do you make of all this? Do you think Davis will play for the 49ers this season? Do you think he’ll play at all?

This article has 128 Comments

  1. This is managements problem. They don’t know how to move on from players that cause constant lingering distractions. First Kaep & now AD. This will linger and be a distraction all year like Kaep. “Will you stand for the anthem?” Or “will you retire?” Either way it’s all the same and is just a distraction. We need more Bowmans that are professionals dedicated to “the game”.

  2. Whether he plays for the 49ers or whether he retires, what difference at this point does it make?

  3. Jed is a moron, so the 49ers will keep him. Any other owner would put his foot down and say enough of this BS. We don’t even need him. Tiller is probably better, and we’ve got Garnett too. Bring Fahn Cooper in and just dump Davis now.

    Stand for something Jed, and stopped getting pushed around. You are the most feeble minded mockery of a man I have ever heard of. Show that you’ve got some cajones.

    1. Alan
      Remember the Brandon Jacobs scenario? Harbs and the FO were pissed, so they put him in the freezer and released him after a December deadline wherein it was too late to sign with another team that season; precluding any desperate playoff hopeful team might sign him to fill an injury need. FY2!
      In that case AD would have been out of the game for 2 years if they cut him. If Brown or Staley goes down, they’d keep AD for the season. FY2.

    2. “Dump Davis now” would be Jed being pushed around. Davis just wants to get his signing bonus. Can’t you see that?

  4. A) Anthony Davis is a highly conflicted person that honestly intended to play with the 49ers with season
    B) Anthony Davis is a complete kooky pants
    C) Anthony Davis is very crafty, getting revenge vs his management enemies and off the hook for some roster bonus cash, hoping to be released to he can play with any team he likes

    Seriously, I think Jennifer Lee Chan had the most detail of the recent reports. AD sounds extremely conflicted about his demotion to RG+Swing Tackle, had long talk with Baalke today about the issue, is still undecided while 49er management and coaching staff try to talk him into playing.

  5. This issue needs to be addressed right away. Get rid of him now. If he isn’t all in this year Gabbert and Hyde could get hurt.

  6. There are a bunch of contradictory ‘reports’ on this. Seems like nobody really knows wth is going on.
    He can be mad at his employer, lots of folks storm off the job, but they don’t expect a bonus, LOL! He can quit, with or without invoking retirement, he has that freedom, but his employer holds his contract rights.
    But this coaching staff gave him a fair shot even though he came in (Prima Donna) late. This would #+** that staff. Would any coaches call Chip direct (GMs would presumably interact with Trent) for Chip’s take on ADs head?
    Most important to me, AD would be *#+* his teammates with his brinksmanship impacting their season and therefore their careers. I’d imagine the fellas will keep quiet about it, but they can’t like it much. Somebody should contact Boone for his opinion about it!

  7. Will somebody PLEASE boot Paarag Marathe or whoever is responsible for these stupid contract negotiations that we’ve been experiencing and allow our players, their agents, and the news media access to the ‘tricky’ parts so we can all know who’s playing for us and who isn’t . Remember Kaepernick’s ‘friendly’ contract that ended up in someone’s derriere, and now he gets 14Million dollars….how bloody ‘friendly’ is that ? Who pays for that giant faux Pas ?

    Jed…you had better get it together and get your financial house in order….we can only love you soooo long on broken promises…

    1. As we get older, it’s hard to keep track of details. Colin Kaepernick’s guaranteed contract for 2016 is $11.9M and has always been $11.9M.

      If Colin is on the “active” roster for all 16 games then his total pay for 2016 will be about $14M.

      “Teams will be permitted an Active List of 45 players and an Inactive List of eight players for each regular-season and postseason game. Provided, that if a club has two quarterbacks on its 45-player Active List, a third quarterback from its Inactive List is permitted to dress for the game, but if he enters the game during the first three quarters, the other two quarterbacks are thereafter prohibited from playing.”

      Do you think he will be activated for sixteen games this year?

      If Colin is injured practicing or playing football and can’t pass a physical by April 1, 2017 then he will be guaranteed about $14M for 2017 plus he will have a comparable roster bonus for being on the active roster each game of that season.

      This provision in Colin’s contract was something the front office was very proud of at the time Colin signed the contract. Colin was heavily criticized for being patsy at the same time.

      The above is all repetitious. Sorry about that.

    1. Russ,
      If the Giants can bring Nathan out of retirement can the 9ers be far behind with a Bubba Paris signing?

  8. If Davis retires it won’t hurt the starters, Garnett will step right in but it might kill us in the long run. We don’t have a swing tackle. Stay healthy T. Brown and J. Staley.I can hear the wailing already, if Davis retires I see Baalke resigning Pears as a BU tackle.

    1. Coach, Cooper filled in for Tunsil, I think, so he may be a swing tackle candidate.

      No matter what, I blame Baalke. Need to start thinking about those ‘good’ conversations.

  9. AD was unhappy with his meeting with Trent. Kap was unhappy with his meeting with Trent. Gore was unhappy with his last meeting with Trent. Hayne fired on team bus. Trying to trade an injured McCray. No player wants to work for Trent, no GM wants to deal with him.

          1. Whine Country

            I AM down with that…I just don’t care for the “Look at me; see what I have done for the 49ers, ‘Chip’ must be reading my blogs…that’s just how I designed it…”…or “Baalke did everything wrong…he’s even suspected of shooting Cock Robin ..Etc., etc…”

            Have you ever heard of the little bird in the ‘cow-pie ?’ Same story of opening your mouth and erasing all doubt…SEB….CATCH YOUR BREATH!

            1. Ore, when I say something ahead of time, and it comes true, I get to crow.

              The problem is, you cannot think of anything, so you never make any salient comments.

              Maybe you do not understand that I do say a lot, but I do not point out all my misses, I let posters like you tell me about them.

              Before the GB preseason game, I said that they would stack the box and blitz Kaep. Did you have the temerity to say those things? No, they never entered your tiny little mind.

              When I propose they put a man in motion, then see Patton go in motion and score a TD, I am not going to ignore that fact. Of course, you will just say it is another amazing coincidence, but I will crow about it.

              Get over it. They do read these blogs. At least, if they want to win they should have somebody monitoring them to glean the nuggets of cogent thought. Of course, 99% of these posts are from posters like you, and they are not worth wiping your behind with.

              I do know they read these blogs, Jed himself told the world that he reads them, and gets the message loud and clear.

              1. “When I propose they put a man in motion, then see Patton go in motion and score a TD, I am not going to ignore that fact.”
                Because teams don’t put people in motion on 80% of NFL plays… What’s next “When it’s third and 15+ the niners should use a nickle or dime sub package not their base defense?” “At some point the 49ers should use the shotgun formation?”or maybe “Chip Kelly, should invite the blitz and throw the the vacated area?” because it’s not like there wasn’t article written stating that’s he previously handled a team blitzing off the edge.
                I agree you get to crow if you make a prediction correctly, but only that is not obvious to everyone. Oh, and just so you know predicting the sun will come up tomorrow or that it will set in the west, doesn’t mean God is reading your posts.

              2. Shoup, I advocated for over 2 and a half years that the Niners run the hurry up offense with quick snaps. Obviously, if you have watched the games, you will know that they have ignored that advice. However, Now, I am confident that they will run an up tempo offense, and the reason why is Chip was my inspiration to suggest that strategy.

                I have advocated the Niners roll out Kaep. Why? Because TM said that their strategy was to contain Kaep in the pocket because he (and Gabbert) is a mobile QB who is much more dangerous out of the pocket.

                So you predict the sun will rise in the east? Good for you. I will also predict that posters on this site will get upset that I predict things and advocate strategies, and they will get in a tizzy over it.

                When Chip says he does not debate posts with his coaches, he fell in a trap. He never should have denied something he does not do, because that is just shouting to the world (and me) that he thinks about it, but just does not want to admit it.

                Chip should have stuck with the tired old line that he is too busy to read posts on blogs. That I would believe. However, Chip is a smart guy, and when Joan in Payroll clips out some nuggets of wisdom, I bet he reads them, because he should use everything possible to help him win.

                I do not claim that I alone have all the answers. Every strategy and play has been thought of before me. Bill Walsh even said that, but he put together a total package that revolutionized the sport. The trick is to winnow out the chaff, and get the kernels of wisdom.

                I hope you will agree with me that they, and every team, should consider time outs to be precious, and saved for legitimate challenges and the last 2 minutes of each half. The best scenario is not to need them at all, but when the game is on the line, and the score is close, saving time outs is smart.

              3. BT, this is a blog post about the Niners. I know you like to twitter like the others about mundane things like avatars, but I do not like to waste my time.

                I hope the Niners come out and play more efficiently and effectively. I hope Chip will fix the offensive malaise. I hope they start playing smart, disciplined, and stop shooting themselves in the foot. I hope Rathman drills into his RBs heads to stay in bounds to keep the clock running, so he does not have to cuss out his RBs when they do brain dead things.

                God is kind busy dealing with war and pestilence. There is some crack pot despot playing with the Nuclear fire, that should occupy his thoughts. I do not think he should be too worried about the outcome of a football game.

  10. I think Grant needs to do some fact checking. Davis paid back the remaining part of his signing bonus last year. There is none for him to either keep or lose based on him being released.

    The signing bonus wasn’t given back to him this year when he returned to the team. This is his biggest beef with Baalke. I suspect this latest issue is him asking if he’s the starting guard, where the heck is it?

    Sounds like he came to an agreement with Baalke. Maybe he gets it back if he plays x% snaps or something like that.

    Anyhoo, my ten cents says it’s about the money and not CTE, not motivation, or any of the other crap that’s being floated around.

    1. Too fragile to be better than anyone they previously had. I warned you guys this dude was a head case….

  11. Speakin’ of Davis – Davis Webb the QB of the Cal Bears is looking very impressive. I know it’s only SDSU, but I think he might “bear” watching. I’m looking forward to seeing him against some tougher defenses.

    1. Speaking of QBs. My Canes won despite two picks and no TDs from Kaaya. This will probably be the only time I quote Flava Flav but, “Don’t believe the hype.”

      1. It’s always that way 80. As soon as you say something good about a player, esp. a QB, they invariably throw a pick. Turns out that San Diego State is on an 11 game winning streak and is actually ranked just outside the top 25 – so better than I thought.

        1. Cubus. I hope you didn’t think I was dismissing your analysis of Webb. I really don’t know much about him. You know your stuff so Webb is now on my radar. My problem with Kaaya is that he doesn’t play well in big games and seems to throw picks at the worst possible time.

  12. Davis hurt the team when he decided to retire after the draft and now he’s supposed to start and he’s having second thoughts days before the season starts?

    I wish the niners would suspend him for conduct detrimental to the team…. Not sure if they have to pay him under this reason…and let him stay suspended till the season is over.

    No money, another year of not playing, then let him go if he doesn’t retire.

  13. As this story unfolds (devolves?)’it’s legit for fans to get our feathers ruffled. I’ll need to get a few more details before we really know. OK, with that disclaimer, IF things turn out as they now appear, a big IF, then I’m reminded of a line we had in Uncle Sam’s Mischievous Children:
    “Distribute his ammo amongst the other men!”

    1. Before The American Sniper, there was The White Feather Sniper, Carlos Hathcock. Brotha, did you ever get to meet him?

      1. I met that man stateside Razor. A legend. He was still feeling the effects from getting wounded when I met him.

        1. I’d just shot an 87/100 on the B Range. With a grin he asked me if I’d been blindfolded at the time.

  14. I am unsure how factual these rumors are but if Davis is threatening to retire again let him go. He strikes me as a mentally fragile person, one who is great when everything goes their way but the minute the road gets tough, he breaks. He couldn’t even handle a simple description Grant used for a sound he made.
    If the drop-off isn’t big between him and Tiller let him walk. These type of guys sow discord in the locker room as the other players know they can’t be relied upon.

  15. I’m not certain how it works on regards to his contract. But does it pick up where it left off? For example if he had a 5 year contract and retired at the beginning of year 3. When he comes back a year later does it pick up again at year 3 or does it start at year 4?

  16. I believe Davis came back in order to show he was in shape and ready to play. He showed enough to have some trade value. He didn’t look all that good at RG, especially the third preseason game in which Kaep came in the second quarter. AD was beat at times that Kaep had to run out the pocket. I always believed he came back in order to be traded and believe he wants to be back in East coast.

  17. Unless Davis or his agent make a statement we can’t assume or conclude anything.
    I’m fine whether he stays or retires.

    I agree with Prime, if he’s not ‘all in’ and is having seconds thoughts regarding retiring again then I’d prefer he moves on. My issue with Davis is that now he is unstable and even if he decides to play, he could retire at anything time.

    Davis tweeted before the draft that the 49ers should draft an O-lineman (high pick) – and the they did.
    Now, J.Garnett will need to develop at a faster pace just in case Davis walks and I for one believe that the team will be better for it going forward.

    1. AES

      I like your perspective…whether it is Kaep or AD, there isn’t anything that we can do about it but bitch and moan or watch just what happens. I, for one am not pleased with the distractions that both of them have provided, and still be allowed on the roster. This is not going to be a championship year for us, but with the draft, and the addition of ‘Chip’ and his coaching staff, we have set the foundation for a long series of runs at the Lombardi….GO NINERS !

      1. Oregon,
        Howz it going bud!
        I never liked Kap’ form of protest when the NA is playing, but respect his right to do so. I especially did not like his demeaning action with the socks, because it was an insult to the good police officers that serve their communities with integrity and honor. Grouping them together with those that abuse their authority is unfair and hurtful in gaining support for his cause, imo.

        Kap has already made his point and now it’s time for the media to stop sensationalizing and milking the story. If I were CBS, FOX, NBC or any sports media covering the game I would completely ignore Kaepernick during the game.
        It’s time to play football!

        And speaking of playing football, I hope that is what AD wants to do.

  18. Confliction seems to be a common affliction for this organization. Is there something Baalke is ignoring in the players’ psychological evaluations?

    1. Jack Hammer – Finally, football! Actual football to talk about. Something 49ers fans (that have been through some nightmare off seasons) naturally welcome.

          1. So what because Dilfer is an idiot means CK didn’t alienate his teammates and not play the role of what a back up should do?

              1. You’ve been trying to pin locker room dissension on Kaepernick since he was named the starter in 2012. And now Dilfer has given you someone to point to even though you just agreed that he’s an idiot. Think about that for a second.

                Enjoy the day Prime. It’s a beautiful one here in the Bay Area. See ya.

              2. Well I guess now that Dilfer has said it and former teammates (Crabtree) and others that it must all be a misunderstanding.
                Yeah Hammer, enjoy your day!
                It’s also very nice here in Western Canada today!

              3. No just that he never studied and wanted to be alone. So yes, bad teammate. That’s what Dilfer was referring to. But don’t worry about it, have a nice day! Enjoy the weather

              4. Dilfer was saying the backup should just be quiet.

                Anyone who remembers his short time in SF knows he is an idiot and a hypocrite with his statements today.

      1. Jack,
        Lol. You’re not wrong. I had player parking lot passes after a preseason game when Dilfer was on the team. It was Vernon Davis’s rookie year. My son wanted to meet Alex Smith really badly. All of the players were very calm but I remember four things very clearly:
        -Jeff Ulbrich taking his food to his car and leaving.
        -The size of Larry Allen.
        -Antonio Bryant wearing air brushed jeans, looking angry and confused.
        -Trent Dilfer was the only player drinking alcohol. He was double fisting glass beer bottles and living it up as the backup QB. He was obnoxiously loud and annoying. Most of the players kind of kept their distance. I was dying.

          1. It was pretty funny. The whole leg of the jeans har airbrushed graffiti in bright colors. He accidentally bumped into my son, but was very nice. He turned to my son and said, “My bad little man” and kept looking around for whatever he was looking for. His voice reminded me of when Eddie Murphy imitated his dad.

  19. RayDuhs not looking as sharp as I expected. Brees is good, and they’re better in the dome, but Oak D and running game aren’t living up to expectations.

      1. That was a great pass by Smith into a tight window. Let’s see if he can finish it out with a TD to tie the game.

      1. Ribico

        I believe that it was C4C (or Rocket ) who improved my vocabulary by one word….’prevenge’…by JH and that he had his revenge far in advance of his firing….every time I think of his benching of Alex Smith for Kaepernick, I just shake my head….As you so duly noted…”Guy just wins” Bill Polian thinks so too….

        1. Oregon, It aint pretty, as BigP snarkily noted. But with the right coaching and supporting casts, even “busts” can bust out. That can give us hope for the 2016 Niners too.

          1. You guys are hilarious. They were getting their asses handed to them until SD lost Allen. I was rooting for Smith and the Chiefs so I don’t care what you think. He played horribly in the first half and they would have lost if SD wasn’t neutered on offense in the second half. Smith is an average QB at best, get over it.

            1. I find it a little difficult getting over a .700 winning percentage the last 6 years. You are more than welcome to, Big. OBTW, send us more snarky videos of his off target passes if it makes you feel a little more superior though.

    1. Big P like always, a little too premature in your analysis. Smith threw for over 300 yards and wait for it, won the game!

  20. Menelik Watson hurt. Showcase Anthony Davis for a game or two, trade with RayDuz for conditional draft pick?

    My hopes: AD has a long 49er career. But if the main reason is friction with the FO, might as well get what you can.

  21. “Source told Jennifer Lee Chan Anthony Davis is moving solely to backup tackle. No more guard” – David Fucillio

    1. We could be looking at opening with Staley, Bealdes, Kilgore, Tiller, Brown

      Maybe later in the season an ubber physical Staley, Garnett, Kilgore, Tiller, Brown

    2. I don’t pretend to have a clear idea of his thinking, but I would rather be a starter. Given what we know it seems so diva-ish.

      1. From what I hear on the radio, the Ray-Duz lost two RTs. Not sure how severe the injuries.

        Any AD trade would have to be conditional. I don’t see teams going for a straight trade.

    3. So according to Davis he volunteered to move to RG because it was best for the team, boasted about how he could play any position on the OL, but when it got real he punked out, was selfish and decided he preferred to sit on the bench rather than play. Can’t trade him soon enough.

      1. In New Oleans French Toast is probably fried.
        As to the RayDuhs, they survived. They found a way to win. It’s a great learning experience for a young team especially on the road.
        It was like Arena League.
        : >)

  22. I was just watching the 5th quarter. Man Crabtree looks so happy. I used to think he was such a jerk. But now its got me thinking It has to be the 49ers management is toxic. It is clear these young men hate playing for them.

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