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49ers sign free agent running back Brian Westbrook

Barrows is reporting that the team signed Brian Westbrook to a one-year deal. While financial terms are not yet available, I'm happy with the signing for right now. The signing comes after Glen Coffee announced his sudden retirement on Friday. It's important to remember that, while Anthony Dixon had himself a very good game against the Colts on Sunday, it's still preseason, and the Niners always seem to have a plethora of good runners in the preseason.

I've seen on here, some of you folks saying that Westbrook has "no upside." At thirty years old, I say he doesn't need one. He's reliable in every sense except for the fact that him and Michael Lewis may accidentally collide and simultaneously end each others' careers. He's been a productive runner in this league and I see the 49ers being able to use him and take some snaps from Frank Gore, especially as a reliable target out of the backfield in the passing game.

Anthony Dixon slots into the number three role and will continue to get long looks this preseason. Michael Robinson, as intended, is no longer on the running back depth chart except as an emergency fourth runner. Let's hope we don't have some Denver Broncos-esque injuries.

As I type this, Adam Schefter tweets that it's a done deal. "Signing now," he says. I just refreshed to see that we have a fanshot on this, but since this is typed up, I'll say thanks to pwarren85 for getting the fanshot up, but I'll be locking the comments on it.

UPDATE: The Brian Westbrook press conference will be streaming on CSN Bay Area at 5 p.m. pacific and the link is here.