As soon as LaMichael James was drafted a host of people threw their collective arms up in the air and asked, "Why did we just draft a guy that's just like Kendall Hunter?!?"

I get it, you see a short running back with explosive potential and well that's close enough...But it's not.

Eric Branch posted a few items on the similarities between the two aforementioned backs yesterday and today. The primary comparisons were college rushing statistics, combine performances, and the fact that both grew up in East Texas.

Again, on paper, sure. But what's not being mentioned is how these two are not built at all like one another. You can point out that both are short and both are just under 200lbs. but that doesn't explain their body make-up: weight distribution, girth, etc.

Hunter has huge, powerful thighs and carries his weight low. He's also at least a full inch shorter than James and outweighs him by at least five pounds as of last season's depth-chart (which could be an even greater gap if Hunter's put on good weight in the off-season program).

James is more of a "V-Cut" type of guy with thin legs, getting larger as he goes up, although he proved he wasn't overly strong in the upper-body in his combine bench-press performance.

Of the two I'd say that Hunter is already built to run inside over and over, something he was actually called-upon to do in 2012. Don't forget that Hunter, not Anthony Dixon, started in place of Frank Gore when injured. He also relieved Gore in more than one game when the old-man got nicked-up.

Right now I think James is the X-Factor type of RB with more elusive speed near the edges and less power inside. I'm sure the 49ers, always preaching versatility and duplicity, want him to expand his repertoire...but right now he's more of a complimentary player with big-play potential.

None of this is a sleight to James, but beyond statistics (in two different conferences against different opponents) and being "short"...these guys just aren't the same.

The 49ers special teams unit rolled through the 2011 regular season thoroughly dominating their opponents. The team was among the leaders in kicking, punting, and both punt and kick returns. Ted Ginn, David Akers and Andy Lee were the most high profile when it came to unit recognition, but the coverage units were equally spectacular throughout the season.

Blake Costanzo was the most high profile 49ers player on special teams, but based on a fairly small sample size, C.J. Spillman had the better numbers in 2011. Football Outsiders is releasing a variety of stats they have come across in preparing their 2012 prospectus, and today they released a breakdown of special teams tackles, including total tackles and stop rate for players with at least 15 return tackles.

Blake Costanzo finished the season with 12 return tackles and nine for stops. C.J. Spillman finished with 15 tackles and 13 for stops. These are not sufficiently in depth to make a lot of conclusions, but the 49ers will be looking for Rock Cartwright to replicate or improve upon Costanzo's special teams prowess. There is a good chance Anthony Dixon will depart as well, with Trenton Robinson likely getting some significant special teams time his rookie season.

This is something I touched up on late last season, before all of us were swept off into playoff madness/glory: the down year for 49ers tight ends Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker. Now, to immediately get a couple things clear to disarm two very facile arguments: Davis was not double-covered for a large portion of the time beyond Week 4 of the season, and Walker was doing very poorly before he got injured.

Walker in particular had an odd year. His skills as a blocker increased by a large margin, particularly when he was able to pick up speed as a lead blocker - he hit with as much force as any fullback in the league, which is surprising, given how substandard he is at blocking from the second tight end position on the left side of the line.

And it wasn't just something that was a result of being used to block more. At one point during the season, Walker did not catch nine-straight passes thrown his way, many of which were complete-able balls. Walker has occasionally had those issues where he drops open passes (while excelling in catching footballs in traffic, hilariously enough), but it was more of a regularity than an irregularity last season.

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The 49ers made a couple of roster moves official today as they announced signings of LB Eric Bakhtiari and DB Ben Hannula. In order to make room on the 90-man roster, the 49ers announced the release of WR John Matthews and OT Kevin Murphy. I've posted the official press release after the jump.

The first roster cuts are not until August 28, but there will likely be more roster moves between now and then. Bakhtiari may have earned a roster spot thanks to Darius Fleming's hamstring injury this weekend. Fleming is not going anywhere, but the team could be looking for more bodies at the position in the short term.

The 49ers had twelve players trying out this past weekend and one player who did not land a contract was defensive tackle Andrew Iupati. He received a bit of buzz thanks in part to a strong endorsement from his brother Mike Iupati. This lack of a contract does not guarantee he is out luck for a deal, but it might take some injuries to get him another shot.

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It looks like we might have our first tryout player benefiting from a strong minicamp workout. Matt Barrows is reporting linebacker Eric Bakhtiari is expected to get a contract offer from the 49ers in the coming days. Bakhtiari has bounced around the league for the last four seasons, first signing with the Chargers as a UDFA in 2008. He spent time on their practice squad before being released and signing with the 49ers in October of 2008. He returned to the Chargers, then got three games on the active roster with the Tennessee Titans and wrapped things up more recently with the Kansas City Chiefs.

For those looking for a connection, Bakhtiari spent his college years at the University of San Diego, where he played for Jim Harbaugh. He was brought in for the rookie minicamp and according to Barrows, he was able to take advantage of hamstring injuries suffered by draft pick Darius Fleming and UDFA Kourtnei Brown. For those looking for a scouting report on Bakhtiari, I think Scouts Inc summed it up best:

Bakhtiari needs more playing time and exposure to be evaluated.

The 49ers already had 90 players on their roster, which means they will have to release somebody in order to make room for Bakhtiari. Odds are high that Bakhtiari ends up getting cut by the end of August, but if he can continue to show some things, maybe he surprises some people. He's a long-shot to make the roster, but crazier things have happened.

Looking at the roster this time of year is pretty much where we are at in terms of "making it thorugh the off-season without going crazy due to the lack of football".

In doing so, I noticed some trends that are not all that alarming...but interesting nonetheless. The main thing I noticed is the youth on this team. Granted this time of year teams have signed a considerable number of rookies via the draft and also those free-agents who weren't drafted.

I did the math and the average age is a whopping 25 years old at this point. The mean age is 24 and 81 of the 90 players currently on the roster are under the age of 30.

Now, doing some rudimentary roster projections, mostly assuming that the guys from last year will make the team again (minus one or two here and there)...I come up with an average age on the 53-man roster of 26 years old, with the top 45 players under the age of 30.

Of the eight guys over the age of 30, three of them are special teams players, one is Randy Moss, and only four are starters on offense or defense.

Bottom-line? The team's future looks bright and the strategy of building through the draft while resisting big-name free-agents has seemingly paid-off in terms of having youthful players who should be able to play at high-levels for a while.

Kudos Mr. Baalke.

Alex Boone lined up at right guard with first team today in #49ers "footbal school."

— Eric Branch (@Eric_Branch) May 10, 2012

This is only an offseason workout, and I don't know if Joe Looney or Daniel Kilgore are in town right now. Nonetheless, this is still intriguing to consider over the coming months. The right guard position battle will probably be the most interesting to follow between now and September. The 49ers added Joe Looney in the draft, but are looking at their current roster options as well.

One of the interesting random tidbits to come out of last week's player workouts was the appearance of 49ers running back Frank Gore. Over the course of his career, Gore has generally stayed in Miami for his offseason workouts before getting back in time for training camp (or shortly into training camp as with last year).

This year, Frank Gore's new contract includes a $400,000 workout bonus. While he might be wanting to show leadership and be a stand-up guy, there is a decent chance that $400,000 bonus played a role in his decision (this being said without knowing the full details of the bonus).

Although Frank Gore is the number one back in San Francisco, he'll see himself losing more carries no matter how the spots behind him fill out. The 49ers added Brandon Jacobs in free agency and LaMichael James in the draft. Jewel Hampton comes in as an undrafted free agent, only adding competition for time.

For now, James will likely battle Hunter for carries, but the combination of the two will result in fewer carries for Gore. If Jacobs makes the 53-man roster, he'll likely grab some carries away from Gore as well. Gore had 282 carries last season, which was his second highest total, trailing only his record-breaking season when he had 312 carries. Depending on how many backs are on the roster behind Gore, I suspect he'll finish the season in the 200-220 range. It could end up even lower than that depending on how the passing game develops, but I suspect we'll see the second lowest carries total of Gore's career (he had 127 carries his rookie season).