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The San Francisco 49ers welcomed their rookies to town last night, and per Matt Maiocco, they actually held the first team meetings at 6:00 p.m. The NFL listed the start date for the 49ers as May 10, but it appears to have started a little bit earlier. On to the details!
The schedule
The 49ers PR department released a schedule of events for Friday and Saturday. For Friday, Jim Harbaugh will be available to the media at noon PT, players will be available to the media starting at 12:10 p.m. and the team will hit the practice field at 3:00 p.m. PT. On Saturday, player availability is once again at 12:10 p.m., and then the players practice again at 3:00 p.m.
Who is going this weekend?
11 draft picks: S Eric Reid, DE Cornellius Carradine, TE Vance McDonald, WR Quinton Patton, RB Marcus Lattimore, DL Quinton Dial, LB Nick Moody, QB B.J. Daniels, OT Carter Bykowski, CB Marcus Cooper
12 undrafted free agents: C Sherman Carter, FB Alex Debniak, HB MarQueis Gray, RB D.J. Harper, WR Chuck Jacobs, OT Luke Marquardt, LS Kevin McDermott, CB Darryl Morris, DL Lawrence Okoye, G Patrick Omameh, NT Mike Purcell, CB Lowell Rose
3 tryouts: QB Nate Montana, TE Jason Schepler, WR Greg Wilson
There are probably going to be other tryout candidates, but these are the confirmed players for now. The rookie minicamp is also open to second-year players who did not accrue a season toward their pension last year. This list includes: OL Al Netter, OL Wayne Tribue, OL Kenny Wiggins, S Michael Thomas, LB Nate Stupar, and P Anthony Santella.
Can we learn anything from this?
In two words, highly doubtful. The odds are good that we'll hear a story about some of the draft picks struggling with conditioning. Whether we hear this or not really doesn't matter. We'll hear about a player struggling with this or that in the camp. Again, it doesn't matter.
That being said, there are things worth paying attention to over the weekend. For example, Lawrence Okoye remains a huge question mark until he actually steps foot on the field, so it will be interesting to hear how his first weekend with the 49ers goes. This is a guy who tried on pads for the first time while meeting with the Saints earlier this year. It's going to be a process.
Guys like B.J. Daniels and Marqueis Gray are interesting to follow because we don't really know exactly what role they will fill in the preseason. Both played quarterback, but both will likely be getting time all over the field: Daniels on special teams, and Gray in an H-back kind of role.