EDITOR'S UPDATE 9:55AM - Thanks to sfgfan and the San Francisco Examiner I found out that Jason Hill agreed to a contract and will be in camp. I'm going Sunday so I'm psyched to check things out...more to come later today.
I haven't gone into many specifics as the 49ers have signed draft picks over the last month or so. There is plenty of mainstream coverage and I didn't want to regurgitate the same thing. However, now that we are getting so close to training camp, it seemed like a good time to recap the signing situation.
The 49ers announced yesterday that they had come to terms with Thomas Clayton, which brings their total haul to 6 players signed from the draft. Clayton joins 1st round pick Joe Staley, 4th rounders Dashon Goldson, Joe Cohen and Jay Moore and 5th rounder Tarell Brown.
Those signings leave the team without Patrick Willis, Jason Hill and Ray McDonald. Considering McDonald is potentially looking at surgery this year I'd say he's the guy to be least worried about getting into camp (although that's certainly no excuse for not signing him). Hill and Willis are both guys who are expected to make an impact and it'd be nice to have them in from the beginning so they aren't playing catchup. While the worst case is having a QB sitting out, any potential impact player would be hurt by a hold out of any length.
Although this isn't the best option for tracking signings, USA Today has a page tracking the signing status of 1st-3rd round picks. I can't find this kind of information at ESPN.com which seems stupid to me. There has to be some site with a straight list of each first round pick and whether they're signed (and even contract details if they have them). It looks like most of the players around Willis have yet to sign. Right now, the only players ahead of Willis to sign are Gaines Adams and Jamaal Anderson.
It seems like other teams are getting close, so I'd expect the 49ers to be joining that pack. There was a report that the Browns and Brady Quinn were far apart in their own negotiations. That's a situation where I could totally see that being the case considering Quinn was expected to go higher and thus wants higher 1st round money. Willis may have dropped a spot or two, but the 49ers were a team he had been projected to fall to in some instances.
I don't want to see Willis miss camp, but I don't think that is something we need to worry about. Hopefully the same holds true for Jason Hill and the team is able to get them into camp and moving towards making a contribution as soon as possible.