The San Francisco 49ers begin player-only workouts today in the South Bay featuring many of their offensive players. We don't have a complete list of participants, but it sounds like a sizable chunk of the offense will be on hand. Alex Smith is organizing the workouts, Vernon Davis has tweeted he'll be in attendance, and I believe I read somewhere that Frank Gore would be coming in from Miami.
Beyond that, Matt Barrows indicated Colin Kaepernick, Kendall Hunter, Ronald Person Johnson, Daniel Kilgore and Michael Person were likely to attend. Michael Crabtree is in the Bay Area and hopefully be on hand. I'd imagine we'll know for sure who attended by the end of today so we'll make sure and provide an update on that.
It will be interesting to see what kind of value the 49ers can get out of the workouts this week (and any additional workouts as long as the lockout continues). There's only so much they can do when it comes to implementation of the playbook. However, I'd have to think there is still some value to be gained by these minicamps. Among other things, the team can start working on snap counts and lining up for the plays.
When we've heard the complaints about Alex Smith learning a new offense every year, one of the comments has been how they spend the start of OTAs just learning how to line up in the huddle for the new playbook. They've got a lot to learn in this offense, but it seems like this is at least a step in the right direction. Furthermore, you've got players learning a whole new language as they try to figure out Jim Harbaugh's playbook.
The 49ers will be already be a step behind a lot of team's when the lockout finally ends. They've got a brand new offense and coaching staff. They've got as much to learn as anybody in the league. This week's minicamp could prove incredibly important just in terms of getting their minds around the changes. I'm not holding my breath for them to master the offense in a few days of practice but I do think this can be a confidence-builder for when organized team activities can finally begin in earnest.
We'll be providing updates on the practice where possible. In the meantime, you can check out the players list and 49ers media list I've set up at the NN twitter feed. I'd imagine players will be tweeting about the practices at some point.