49ers work out Trindon Holliday, David Fluellen

The San Francisco 49ers had a couple players in for workouts this week, as they look to shore up their roster heading down the stretch run. ESPN's Adam Caplan is reporting the team brought in veteran return man Trindon Holliday and rookie running back David Fluellen for workouts.

The 49ers punt and kick return game has been fairly mediocre this season, and the Holliday workout is an opportunity to see if that is possible. The 49ers released a solid return man in LaMichael James, and turned the job over to Bruce Ellington to start the season. Ellington struggled with decision making on his punt returns, particularly with whether or not to make a fair catch.

Ellington injured his ankle a few weeks back and was replaced by Perrish Cox as the punt returner, and Carlos Hyde as the kicker returner. And the units have not improved, and at times look worse. Cox has been fairly sure-handed, but he has struggled to do much of anything once he gets the ball. Hyde has brought a few kicks out to the 25, but there really has been nothing there. Additionally, the coverage units are struggling in their blocking, committing numerous penalties. This is a group that needs to improve ASAP given the 49ers existing offensive struggles in just moving the ball upfield.

The David Fluellen workout seems to be primarily about boosting running back, and maybe generally special teams depth. He had a little return experience at Toledo, but that was mostly in his sophomore season. Rather, the 49ers are rolling with only two running backs, and might just want to add some insurance. They do have Alfonso Smith, but his upside is fairly limited at this point.

You can check out scouting reports on Fluellen from the following sites:

Hustle Belt
Bleeding Green Nation
NFL.com
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