Let the nutcracking begin!

Just as advertised, Mike Singletary inaugurated Training Camp 2010 with a rousing nutcracker drill. The linemen, linebackers, fullbacks and tight ends were divided into three adjacent stations, with battles rotating quickly among the three.
It was a violent and fast-moving spectacle, and Singletary had to stop the action a couple times early to warn players not to hit after the three-second whistle. The second time he threatened to make the whole team run if the whistle wasn’t obeyed. He also commanded his assistants to blow the whistle if the grapplers turned sideways.

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Notes and observations from today’s practice

Notes and observations from the first practice of the 49ers’ 2010 training camp…
• Despite his usual bluster, TE Vernon Davis is taking the high road on talk of a contract extension. When I asked him if he had seen the numbers on the five-year extension the San Diego Chargers recently gave Antonio Gates – a maximum of $36 million, with $20.4 million guaranteed – he said he had, but that he’s more worried about training camp than being the league’s highest-paid tight end.
“It’s not something on my mind at the moment,” said Davis, who is in the final year of his contract. “I just don’t want to deal with it.”

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Davis and Iupati open camp as backups

Between them, tackle Anthony Davis and guard Mike Iupati were guaranteed $26.8 million when they signed their first NFL contracts Friday. But no one guaranteed them starting jobs.
That fact was reinforced this afternoon when the 49ers lined up for their first practice of Training Camp 2010. The two high-end rookies got hardly any time with San Francisco’s first-team offensive line during team period, working with the second unit while David Baas and Adam Snyder got the call at left guard and right tackle, respectively.

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Jean Francois bonds with Phil Collins

He can feel it cooomming in the air too-nighhht. Oh, loorrd.
Ricky Jean Francois is a slang-spitting young African-American athlete of Haitian descent who grew up in the Miami area, so you might not expect Phil Collins to be his inspirational music of choice. But that’s what the LSU training staff blared during his college days, so that’s what Jean Francois plays on his headphones when he wants to get pumped up for a workout.
Jean Francois heard a lot of Phil Collins this summer. A lot.

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World loves the 49ers now, and 49ers agree

The 49ers are trying on a new costume this summer, and they sort of like the way it fits. After years of chasing the rest of the NFC West, the Niners go into the 2010 season as consensus favorites to win the division. The Rams, Seahawks and Cardinals have all had their days, and now, the prognosticators say, it’s time for San Francisco to ascend.
The reaction inside the locker room in Santa Clara seems to be: Bring it on.

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Gore: I should’ve checked my guest list

According to Frank Gore, it was simply a young man throwing a party to celebrate his 27th birthday. But when the NCAA found out that numerous college athletes attended the shindig at Gore’s Miami home on May 15, it launched an investigation into whether sports agents and financial advisors had funded the evening.
This morning, Gore seemed taken aback at the ensuing controversy.

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No sign of Aubrayo Franklin yet

The 49ers’ veterans were supposed to check in between 8 and 9:30 this morning. The period came and went with no sign of NT Aubrayo Franklin, the Niners’ unhappy franchise player.
The team was not yet marking Franklin as officially absent, with meetings set to begin at 10:30. But as training camp gets set for kickoff with an afternoon practice tomorrow, it is looking less and less likely that the eighth-year veteran will begin the summer campaign with the 49ers. He would net about $7 million by signing his franchise tender, but presumably wants a long-term deal instead.

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How Taylor Mays became a film buff

With a sizable chip on his shoulder (at least if you judge by the barbs aimed at Pete Carroll on draft day), a new style to learn and a lot to prove in the NFL, it made sense that Taylor Mays would be an early signing. He was neither early nor late, putting pen to paper this morning, a couple hours before he was scheduled to sit in his first meeting of training camp.
Now we know why Mays didn’t sign earlier: He had to wait for the player slotted directly in front of him, former Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen.

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49ers’ rookies ready for some contact

We’ve seen plenty of the 49ers’ rookies by now, after two minicamps and numerous voluntary practices. But when the Niners put on the pads and do some hitting Monday – the team will line up in shells on Sunday afternoon – it will be a whole new viewing experience.
Watching a football team in non-contact practices is like watching a professional boxer hit the speed bag. It may be impressive in some ways, but it isn’t highly instructive.
Now the gloves comes off, so to speak.

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49ers sign all their draft choices

The 49ers had a busy and encouraging Friday morning, signing all four of their top draft choices to contracts by 10:30 a.m.
Tackle Anthony Davis, the No. 13 overall pick, signed a five-year deal worth as much as $26.5 million, with nearly $16 million of it guaranteed (as first reported by ESPN). Guard Mike Iupati, taken four picks later, bagged a five-year deal of his own that will bring a maximum of $18.25 million, with $10.8 million guaranteed (first reported by NFL Network).
Safety Taylor Mays (second round) and linebacker NaVorro Bowman (third) each signed a four-year contract. Money figures were not immediately available.

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Predicting Navorro Bowman’s contract

Forty-Niners rookies are supposed to report to Santa Clara tomorrow, and still no word on the top four – T Anthony Davis, G Mike Iupati, S Taylor Mays and LB Navorro Bowman – signing contracts.
Very few first-round selections have signed yet, but second- and third-rounders have been using up a lot of ink in the past 48 hours. And because of those deals, I’m predicting that Bowman, a third-round pick out of Penn State, will secure a four-year contract worth a maximum of $3.3 million, with a signing bonus of $700,000.

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Two coaches, two approaches

I went out to the field behind the Napa Valley Marriott on Wednesday to see what Tom Cable had to say about the Raiders and the start of training camp.
There was one awkwardly funny moment worth repeating. A writer for one of the big national web sites asked a couple questions regarding Jason Campbell, Oakland’s new starting quarterback, then followed up with this query: How strange was it to deal with a QB who had no love for the game?

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Just don’t call them PSLs

Forty-Niners fans know they will be ponying up some cash for seats should the proposed 68,500-seat stadium in Santa Clara become a reality. They just aren’t sure how much.
Team president Jed York didn’t shed any light on that subject when he addressed season-ticket holders at the State of the Franchise event Tuesday night at the Santa Clara Convention Center, though he attempted to draw a distinction. The 49ers will not sell personal seat licenses (PSLs) for seats at the stadium; they’ll sell stadium builder licenses (SBLs).

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York on McCloughan: I wish Scot the best

The 49ers-Seahawks rivalry got a lot of press this offseason, what with Taylor Mays publicly miffed over Pete Carroll’s decision to draft Texas safety Earl Thomas in the first round, and assistant coaches like Mike Solari and Jeff Ulbrich switching their allegiances.
But according to 49ers president Jed York, one aspect of the “feud” has been overplayed. York said at the State of the Franchise event last night that he bears no hard feelings toward Scot McCloughan, the former GM who mysteriously parted ways with the 49ers on March 18 and resurfaced in Seattle as senior personnel executive on June 22.
“I wish Scot the best, and I’ve said that,” York noted.

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State of the Franchise: giddy

We have seen the State of the Franchise, and it is positively giddy.
“Tonight is not a pep rally,” coach Mike Singletary told more than 1,000 49ers season-ticket holders at the Santa Clara Convention Center this evening, but he could’ve fooled me. The coach, president Jed York and personnel chief Trent Baalke took turns bubbling with optimism, and the fans lapped it up. All that was missing was a bonfire, some pom-poms and parade floats making fun of the Cardinals, Rams and Seahawks.

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Plenty of 49ers to see Rice’s induction

When Jerry Rice looks out upon what promises to be a reverent crowd at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio, on August 7, he will not be the lone 49er in the wilderness. According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, at least nine former Niners will be there to see Rice inducted – the most of any NFL team. Attendance by existing Hall of Famers has become one of the…

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Lombardi thinks 49ers have talent to win West

Judging by one man’s independent measure, the 49ers are poised to run away with the NFC West.
NFL scout turned blogger and network commentator Michael Lombardi wrote a piece for NFL.com in which he categorizes the league’s top players as blue chippers (the best at their positions) and red chippers (one notch below). It’s a system that most, if not all, NFL teams employ, including the 49ers.

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Dusting off the summer hot seats

Unless you are Patrick Willis or Frank Gore or a similarly tenured NFL veteran, training camp is one giant hot seat. Every practice is significant, every rep an opportunity to stand out (for better or worse). But training camp 2010 will not treat every Niner equally. Here are the players with the most to prove when practices begin next week.

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Rip Van Winkle is back on the 49ers beat

During the latter stages of my admittedly epic vacation, I started to feel remiss, even lazy. How could I abandon my readers for a full month, leave them bereft of 49ers minutiae during the heart of summer? In the past week, the whisper inside my ear became a full-throated roar: GET BACK TO WORK!!
But playing hooky didn’t teach me any valuable life lessons. Catching up on Niners news, it appears that the only significant occurrences during my month away were (1) the signing of sixth-round draft choice Nate Byham and (2) Frank Gore’s unexpected entry into the event-planning profession.

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See you in late July

Nine weeks and 1,054 tweets after taking over the 49ers beat for the Press Democrat, I’m planning my (temporary) escape route. I’ll be using up my vacation time until, say, a week before rookies report to Santa Clara on July 30.

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