49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh chatted with the media after practice yesterday, and I have to say, offseason Jim Harbaugh strikes me as quite a bit different than regular season Jim Harbaugh. During the regular season (and training camp to a lesser extent), when Coach Harbaugh is asked about an injury situation, the best anybody is going to get is, "Player X is working through something." A guy could end up missing a month of football, but throughout it all, he's "working through something."
During the offseason?
Jim, I have an injury question that I know you enjoy, but C Chase Beeler has a cast on his forearm. Can you say what happened?
"Yeah, he broke a bone in his hand, actually did it in the weight room. He's already had surgery on that. He'll be out for at least a couple weeks. In about two weeks I think he'll be able to get back and play with a cast."
In training camp he'll be fine?
"Yeah, yeah, I think that will be fully healed in four weeks, but he'll be playing with a cast on it for a couple weeks. And we're not in contact right now, so those things he'll be able to do and get work out here in the offseason."
Given how little Coach Harbaugh would reveal about injuries last August during training camp, this is an interesting twist. I don't think it marks some kind of philosophical shift in injury reporting, but it is still interesting. I suspect come late July we'll be back to "working through something", but for now we get a slightly different dynamic.