Given the unique nature of tonight's game, I'm guessing we've got some West Coast folks wrapping up their work day, waiting to get home to watch tonight's game. East coast fans are wrapping up their day and heading home for the weekend at this point. Whatever the case, it's Friday and the 49ers are kicking off their preseason tonight.

We've got a game thread opening up at 4:30pm, but I figured for now we'll get you to the game with a bit of a preseason thread. There are five games tonight, three at 4:30 and then the 49ers-Saints and Chiefs-Bucs at 5pm. Let's use this thread for pre-game discussion and also as an open thread for the rest of the games tonight if you want to discuss them.

More importantly, while we're waiting for game time, let us know what kind of analysis you'd like following this game. We'll be posting all about the game and hitting a lot of the obvious performances (Kaepernick, Aldon Smith) and position battles (Hunter vs. Dixon at backup RB), but if there are some more nuanced analysis you'd like to see, post a comment in here. The front page staff will have access to DVR'd versions of the game so we'll be able to review the game well into next week.

In the meantime, MM has a solid write-up looking at what players we can expect to see in a given quarter. I'd imagine we'll see an interesting mix of substitutions, particularly for some of the more novice starters. It will be interesting to see what kind of playing time Harbaugh spreads around.