ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that Aldon Smith will meet with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday, August 8. The San Francisco 49ers play the Baltimore Ravens Thursday, August 7, and will stay in town for four days of practice to follow. It sounds like Smith will travel up to New York City for the meeting, thus missing the joint 49ers-Ravens practice at M&T Bank Stadium that day. I imagine he would be back later in the day, and thus return for the remaining three practices at the Ravens facility.
Once this meeting is wrapped up, I would like to think Commissioner Goodell would rule on Smith's potential suspension within a week or two. Jim Harbaugh has referred to all this as a process, and has not put a number on anything. However, Trent Baalke has indicated he expected to hear something sooner rather than later.
Smith was absent from Wednesday's practice while wrapping up his LAX incident with a final administrative hearing. His absence led to the beat writers focusing in on his potential replacements. Cam Inman mentioned that Corey Lemonier has added 10 pounds of muscle, and looks to be in excellent condition following an offseason of workouts with Justin Smith, Ray McDonald, and Glenn Dorsey. Dan Skuta was getting first team reps at outside linebacker, but Lemonier will have a prominent role.
I would not be surprised to see Skuta/Lemonier rotation that resembles the Parys Haralson/Aldon Smith rotation of 2011. Lemonier focuses on nickel situations, Skuta on base down situations. The 49ers are in nickel often enough that Lemonier would likely end up on the field with an event split, if not more downs that Skuta. Lemonier could very well take even more work as the 49ers prepare for the future. Dan Skuta is a free agent after this season, and Ahmad Brooks will not be around forever. At some point, Lemonier could work his way into the starting lineup opposite Aldon Smith. In the meantime, we'll likely see some packages that mix in Lemonier this season once Smith returns.