Golden Nuggets: Alex Smith, Shaun Hill create controversy

by Fooch on Oct 26, 2009 3:00 AM PDT in Golden Nuggets Comment 1 comment

I'll give you three guesses what a sizable chunk of today's links are about. You get your Alex Smith/Shaun Hill, you get your furious second half comeback attempt, and of course you get a little Michael Crabtree on the side. Obviously there are reasons to run with those stories. However, lost amidst all that (and maybe it's a good thing), is the continued emergence of Vernon Davis as a top-notch tight end.

Pro Bowls are not the most accurate measure of greatness, but we'll use them for the time being for a very general assessment. Among NFC tight ends, Vernon Davis is fourth in receptions, second in receiving yards, first in touchdowns, and tied with Brent Celek for most 20+ yard receptions. Furthermore, he's surpassed, or is on pace to surpass, career highs in the big three categories (Rec/Yds/TD). People may complain about Mike Singletary's game management yesterday (certainly worth addressing in the Approval Rating post later this week), but if nothing else, I'm willing to give a whole ton of credit to Singletary for turning Vernon Davis into a man. Vernon Davis is the one making the plays, but he finally seems to have his head on straight. He's never come across as a "bad guy." However, he had a certain reputation. And now he's left that far behind. There isn't much mention outside the recaps, but I thought it deserved a little mention.

Smith's rally falls short; Singletary undecided on QB (Maiocco)

Niners players talk about loss to Texans (Maiocco)

Good start for Crabtree (Maiocco)

49ers' grades mostly bad (Maiocco)

49ers fail to overcome first half deficit (Maiocco)

49ers-Texans live in-game blog/chat (Maiocco)

Plenty more links after the jump...