Aldon Smith court date is upon us as other 2011 rookie fifth year options are exercised

The 2014 NFL Draft is nine days away, but the rest of this week is about 2011 draft class. Teams have until Saturday, May 3 to exercise the 5th year option on their 2011 first round picks. For the San Francisco 49ers, this means figuring out what they're going to do about Aldon Smith's option. For purely football performance, it's a no-brainer. Unfortunately, there is more to the situation than that.

Today, April 29, is a potentially big day as Smith's attorney is scheduled to head back to court. There was supposed to be a discovery hearing on April 11, but that resulted in the case being put over to today. I believe this is simply the discovery hearing that was originally carried over on April 11, but we don't know for certain. The DA might have put it over because of plea bargain negotiations.

Of course, those plea bargain negotiations likely were impacted by Smith's LAX situation. He is likely looking at no more than a misdemeanor, but we don't know how the Santa Clara DA is feeling about Aldon getting in a little bit of trouble a couple days after the last hearing. Ideally we'll get a better idea of the kind of punishment Aldon faces in his gun possession and DUI case. We'll see what comes out of it later today.

In the meantime, other teams have been making their decisions with regard to the fifth year option. NFL.com has a tracker to break down the details, but here are the players on whom we have heard news:

Exercised

1. Cam Newton, Panthers
2. Von Miller, Broncos
3. Marcell Dareus, Bills
4. A.J. Green, Bengals
5. Patrick Peterson, Cardinals
6. Julio Jones, Falcons
9. Tyron Smith, Cowboys
11. J.J. Watt, Texans
14. Robert Quinn, Rams
15. Mike Pouncey, Dolphins
16. Ryan Kerrigan, Washington
17. Nate Solder, Patriots
18. Corey Liuget, Chargers
21. Phillip Taylor, Browns
22. Anthony Castonzo, Colts
24. Cameron Jordan, Saints
27. Jimmy Smith, Ravens
30. Muhammad Wilkerson, Jets
31. Cameron Heyward, Steelers

Not expected to be exercised

10. Blaine Gabbert, 49ers (nothing stated, but no reason it will be)
13. Nick Fairley, Detroit Lions
19. Prince Amukamara, Giants
20. Adrian Clayborn, Buccaneers
28. Mark Ingram, Saints

Cut or restructured contract, not eligible for option

23. Danny Watkins, Eagles
26. Jonathan Baldwin, 49ers (restructured deal)
29. Gabe Carimi, Buccaneers

Don't know if it will be exercised

7. Aldon Smith, 49ers (who knows)
12. Christian Ponder, Vikings (doubtful)
25. James Carpenter, Seahawks
32. Derek Sherrod, Packers