DE/OLB Travis LaBoy reportedly visits with 49ers

Tip of the cap to MM for tweeting about this.  According to the Nashville Tennessean, free agent linebacker Travis LaBoy recently visited with the 49ers.  Laboy was out of football this past season due to a pretty rough ankle injury that required surgery last offseason.  Last April, the Arizona Cardinals cut LaBoy just before this ankle surgery and we ended up having a brief discussion as to whether the 49ers should attempt to sign him.

LaBoy is incredibly talented, but also incredibly injury prone.  I'd imagine he'd be a fairly low risk, high reward type of signing that would make a lot of sense.  He played defensive end for the Cardinals, but at 6-3, 250lbs, his size would seem to dictate a move to outside linebacker in the 3-4.  The team has some great talent at the outside linebacker position in Ahmad Brooks, Manny Lawson and Parys Haralson.  However, the 49ers aren't exactly in a position to say they don't want to go into camp with too much pass rushing talent.  If the 49ers actually went out and signed LaBoy (no guarantees obviously), I'd imagine he'd initially be battling Diyral Briggs for a roster spot.  If he could stay healthy throughout camp, he could conceivably battle the platoon trio for significant playing time, but that's obviously fairly far down the road.

A couple of wrinkles in all of this.  First, he's represented by Octagon Football and his brother, based out here in Walnut Creek, so maybe that could help get him out here.  Second, and probably more interesting at this point, is that LaBoy was suspended for four games last season for undisclosed reasons.  I'm guessing that is something that will factor into how quickly he is signed by any team.